I guess if I wanted to start my own religion I�d first have to start off with creating some form of book that had stories about a religious hero or some sort of godhead, whether singular or plural or none at all would be up to discresion of course. But I�ve never heard of a religion without a book of some kind that tells there doctrines and has stories of there religious hero�s or Gods doing things to show the people what to believe. Through this I would have in there demands for them to bow and worship and pray to their god(s) to help them to feel the presence of being in tune with that thing. Once again I�ve never seen a religion without some form of praying or worshiping or bowing. In this book would be the moral standards of this new religion, things that one in this religion could not do and things one could do. Different tenets would be put in place. Of course I�d have things in there such as not stealing, lying, murder, adultery, etc. As these are standards to live by in all societies in the world not just in a certain religious group. Then of course would be what would the laymen and religious priests teach about this religion, what doctrine would they put into practice. I imagine it would be telling stories of how great our heroes where and how great our god(s) are and that we should try to be like them in all things and in all ways. And in speaking of priests there must be a form of leadership or chain of command say you going from follower, to priest, to a religious elder, to the godhead itself. And finally we must have different signs or symbols of the religion like an X mark and the religious book we have and possibly historical findings of our religious heroes. During all these things one would hope the followers would feel the presence of their heroes or god(s) during their rituals or readings and become connected with their hero or god(s).
One way to keep the religion going is in the use of memes or getting people to repeat their faith to others and help there religion to continue to grow. In getting people to be willing to share or repeat their faith to others we must appeal to either their innate desires or to their fear. I can think of several religions that tell people that if they don�t believe in this they will die and go to hell. Others that claim that the person will never find inner freedom and will never have knowledge of truth without this. Others claim that if you do good works you will receive good things in your life. And if you aren�t receiving good things then you must not be doing good works.
There is also thought that in order to keep religion going we must appeal to a psychological need. To get people to follow we must fill the void in their life and give them what they don�t already have. Give them a place to vent their anger, to find love, to deal with all the problems of life. Offer them a place when they are hungry a safety mechanism. This in a way will help us because we will be seen as a cult when we first start which basically is just a new religion. Every major religion started off as a cult because it was new and people were afraid of it, but look at them now. As long as we don�t tell our members to commit suicide or do rash things then we won�t be seen as an evil thing for very long. People might even get interested in us and want to learn more. One major group to target would be the baby-boomers as they are leading the way in religion. They are the most open to adapting new things and are wanting to learn more. They seem lost and confused and we can offer them truth and knowledge. Yes this can work.
Question 2:
Will religion die? personally I don't think so and the text says the same thing for the most part. Why? As has been seen through the centuries religion has adapted to new meanings and to new truths. Some Christians for instance as given in the text believed the Bible somewhere said the earth was flat, (personally I don't know
how someone would get that from the Bible since it's never mentioned what the earth is like and where we are in the planet system) and they wanted and killed people for thinking otherwise until it was
changed that the earth was really round. I think some religions have adapted better then others and those religions are non- existent. But for the most part 6 major world religions have survived thousands of years. Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism. Each has some minor to major
changes since it's inception into culture. Many of these groups have different forms or denominations of it. I do however, feel that it is possible for some religions to stay with the basics, I do feel that personally in being a Christian some people who claim their faith in our religion have a misunderstanding of the Bible and
make it say what they want it to say and think others should pay for their error. I fully disagree and think it ridiculous. I feel that their are simple teachings in the Bible that if followed correctly
can be just like it was followed by Paul the apostle. You can disagree and I won't pretend like I know I'm 100% right. I'm human and I'm fully aware I can make intelligent mistakes. Memes are things that are passed on and imitated, this is required for them to continue on. They are things that are thought provoking
and cause you to remember them even when your thoughts are on other things. For instance the famous WWJD that some Christians used. And I feel Lane's claims are extremely interesting and I
agree with him. How do you really know that what you are feeling is meaning that your deity is real when someone else can feel the same thing and believe that means the same thing. I often hear
Christians claim even I myself once claimed, it's because I would feel a tingly sensation during worship or etc, and that was God breathing on you or surrounding you or etc. I don't doubt that God can surround you however, I can't tell someone else that might have felt that experience but thought it was their God that they are
wrong. As I'm not in their shoes and they are not in mine.