Starting a new religion ?

[mikey4444]

I am thinking of strting a new religion, in order to make some money. The difficulty is that I am not an American, nor do I live in America.

As all the recent made-up religions have been invented in the States, like Scientology, Christian Scientists, Mormonism, etc, what are the chances of making a success of a new religion here in the UK ? Do you think there are enough gullible people living here ?

I am sure that it could be achieved with the assistance of sites such as facebook.

[venator]

Mikey4444, you are welcome to join us here - Ab Editor

In my initial call to worship, I postulated the use of PayPal to support the work, and you obviously have the motivation to set this in motion.

Scientology was started by a Science Fiction writer - why should our Church not grow in the same way?

[Graham-W]

Learn the art of "Cold Reading". Then create "The Church of Future Prophesy". There are plenty of gullible people out there who want to believe you can read the future and speak with the dead. You'll have no problem getting a congregation together.

[vivandorron]

em...I do sometimes (perhaps that should read often) but I don't try to make money from it.

Ron.

[vulcan]

I think em has hit on the problem of all religions when she says she hasn't found any that are particularly funny. If you start a new religion which has a sense of humour, I think you're on to a winner.

[vivandorron]

Humorous,I think.

Little girl in school when asked by teacher, "Do you know any of the ten commandments" replied..."Thou shalt not admit adultery"

[boxtops]

Mikey - interesting that in your OP you talk about the new religion - for the gullible - but then a bit later on you talk about making some money out of it. That's now what it's supposed to be for! :-)

[mikey4444]

Some of comments have been very interesting, and yes, I am not serious.
( Thank God, whoever he is for that ! )

But I am always amazed about people, who appear to be educated and intelligent, but can fall for such base nonsense like Scientology. Perhaps Scientology is not the best of examples, as its obviously a money making excercise. But surely, even a precursory glance at the basics involved would cause most people to stop and think....invented by a science fiction writer, Hollywood involvement, space ships, Tom Cruise, etc.

I am a retired Telecoms Engineer. During the 80's I worked with an Indian chap, who was a Jainist, a branch of the Hindu religion. He was highly intelligent, miles better than I was at understanding the complex new electronic Telephone Exchanges that were coming on line at that time. He had an ONC in Electronics and was an all-round Brainy Chap ! I never saw anybody do the Times crossword quicker than him !

But he believed that the island of Sri Lanka was created by a giant bird, flying over the sea in ancient times, and doing a huge poo, which fell into the ocean, forming the island formally known as Ceylon.

I asked him, how as an educated Westernised man, he could possibly believe in anything so ridiculous. His answer was that as it was his religion, he had no choice.

If this chap had been like millions of his race, still living in primitive societies in the regiion, not being able to read or write, and therefore unable to question what he had been told, I could understand his ignorance. But he was highly educated, in a scientific field, not an arts subject like Mediaeval Poetry. All his adult life he had followed the principles of modern science.

I like this chap, and indeed he invited me to his sons wedding a few years ago, which being a Hindu affair, beat your average C of E service by miles, in the colour and spectacle involved ( the food was better as well ! )

I just don't understand how he can have put his interllect aside like he has.

[naomi24]

//I just don't understand how he can have put his interllect aside like he has. //

That's precisely what bamboozles me too. Where religion is concerned, rationality is willingly abandoned. It makes no sense whatsoever.

[jomifl]

Mikey, I think your new religion should do well, you obviously have a good grasp of what religion is about. I was going to suggest that if you could devise one that doesn't have a humanistic deity then you wouldn't have to fabricate 'miracles' but christianity has done quite well by choosing that path, after all for gullible people anything they don't understand is a miracle. (it would also be a miracle if they did understand it).
You need to aim it at younger people for several reasons
1. They are often impressionable and haven't developed their sceptical faculties
2. They are often looking for some kind of direction in life and some kind of ideal to follow.
3. They have not yet learnt to distinguish between fantasy and reality, particularly with the advent of computer gaming.
4. They are suckers for gimmicks and fashion.

You could say that some intelligent charismatic person who has recently died had his persona downloaded into a quantum supercomputer of which his company had just built the first prototype so can contact his disciples by the internet..Hmmmm. I think I'll just erase this.. oops.