• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Will we ever see the the rise of a new major religion again?

Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald

Member
Feb 23, 2018
367
I'm watching Vikings at the moment and one of the most interesting aspects of the show (in my opinion) is the decline and disappearance of pagan beliefs, although these had existed thousands of years before the rise of Christianity. That got me thinking... Do you think there is a chance a new religion as big as the current major religions rises up to have millions of followers (Christianity/Islam/Judaism/Hinduism/Buddhism)? Or is this it and is atheism bound to replace the majority of current belief systems?
 
Combichristoffersen

Combichristoffersen

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,756
Unless some god(s) come bringing proof of their existence, no, I don't think we'll see a new major world religion appear again.
 

onadesertedisland

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,660
People in dark times coagulate towards preachers of hope. It will absolutely happen again, and it will be darker and deadlier.
 
DiipuSurotu

DiipuSurotu

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
53,148
Rise up to have millions of followers? No.

But "is atheism bound to replace the majority of current belief systems"? No either. You're naïve if you think Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. are disappearing anytime soon.
 
Garp TXB

Garp TXB

Member
Apr 1, 2020
6,301
Trump is pretty much on equal footing with Jesus in Evangelical circles at this point, and may even overtake him.
 
tATu

tATu

Alt Account
Member
Mar 18, 2020
255
Probably depends on what timeframe you're looking at. In the next few centuries? Probably not. beyond the next few millenia? Probably yes then. Eventually something will probably happen somewhere, somehow, that kickstarts a religion.
 
Septimus Prime

Septimus Prime

EA
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
8,500
Sure we will. In all likelihood, though, we probably won't recognize it as being a huge deal in our lifetime, and it'll likely look more like Protestantism breaking away from Catholicism.
 
mbpm

mbpm

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,629
Ever? Sure we will

Not sure when, but it'll happen.

In the meantime? This is the age of the cult, baby. Misinformation and social bubbles are easy to spread through the internet. You'll get tons of people falling for new self-help gurus, self-styled political movements, and MLMs
 
Z-Beat

Z-Beat

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,853
I think intellectualism is gonna become like really ancient religions where you feel the overwhelming desire to crush your opponents before a live audience as a show of power and anti-intellectualism is gonna become like the era of religion where you blame everything on a witch because you hate your neighbors
 
Ryuelli

Ryuelli

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,209
Sure, why not. I don't know all that much about religions, but there's plenty of different sects of existing religions that are different enough in beliefs that they don't really fit under the same umbrella, and many of them are only a few hundred years old.

Example A:

image.png

Source: https://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Suydam/Reln220/MormonUnitarian.htm
 
Tyaren

Tyaren

Character Artist
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
24,796
Sure, plenty. As civilizations come and go so do their beliefs.
 
LProtagonist

LProtagonist

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
7,591
It's possible for different sects, or small cults, to appear. Something major? I think even something like Mormonism is pretty impossible to come about in today's world. Too much information, not enough mystery.
 
SteveWinwood

SteveWinwood

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,682
USA USA USA
well it depends on what you consider major

Scientology claims to have something like 12 million followers

for a 70 year old "religion" that sounds pretty good numbers wise
 
Grug

Grug

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,645
As end stage capitalism continues to do its thing, plenty of people seem willing to sacrifice blood to the market god. The denial of evidence in deference to dogma is religion in a nutshell.

Death cult.
 
OP
OP
Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald

Member
Feb 23, 2018
367
onadesertedisland said:
People in dark times coagulate towards preachers of hope. It will absolutely happen again, and it will be darker and deadlier.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Wouldn't it be more probable that people then flock towards existing religions?
It almost feels like mysticism as a whole doesn't exist anymore in the Information Age and for a good reason. I find it hard to believe that anyone would believe a prophet-like magical figure in the vein of Christ these days.
 
Necromanti

Necromanti

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,550
Not likely as things are, but not impossible. The current environment seems to favor smaller, cult-like bubbles. I feel like it would take a major, world-changing event to set the foundation for a new major religion.
 
NervousXtian

NervousXtian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,503
Nope. You'll just see the current religions shift back and forth but you won't see a new religion from here on out. The current major religions only still exist because of the time they were created. Yes he same time humans started really growing in numbers and started written recordings of history.
 
OP
OP
Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald

Member
Feb 23, 2018
367
SteveWinwood said:
well it depends on what you consider major

Scientology claims to have something like 12 million followers

for a 70 year old "religion" that sounds pretty good numbers wise
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I was just thinking about Scientology, but I find it very hard to believe that they have 12 million followers (and a quick Google search makes me think I'm not the only one). But yeah, a more sympathetic and less bar shit crazy Church of Scientology might have had more of a following
 

onadesertedisland

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,660
Fitzgerald said:
Wouldn't it be more probable that people then flock towards existing religions?
It almost feels like mysticism as a whole doesn't exist anymore in the Information Age and for a good reason. I find it hard to believe that anyone would believe a prophet-like magical figure in the vein of Christ these days.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Someone will sell a semi-plausible solution to the current world and it will take off. Religions are born during uncertainty.
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
43,611
Fitzgerald said:
Wouldn't it be more probable that people then flock towards existing religions?
It almost feels like mysticism as a whole doesn't exist anymore in the Information Age and for a good reason. I find it hard to believe that anyone would believe a prophet-like magical figure in the vein of Christ these days.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Come to Brazil, you would be surprised.

Even worse when it's done for politicians.
 
S-Wind

S-Wind

Member
Nov 4, 2017
2,176
In the USA there seems to already be some new religions:
- Guns
- Capitalism
- Libertarianism
- Whoever is the Republican president at the time (Trump, Dubya, etc.)

I'm sure I'm missing several others...
 
N.Domixis

N.Domixis

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
9,208
I'm expecting the opposite. The more we learn about how the world and universe works the less need for a fucking god.

most gods were created to explain the unexplainable.
 
dakun

dakun

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,588
not really because people don't call new religions, religions anymore. They are called cults. And rightly so i might add.

I don't think any new "aspiring" religion could possibly hope to be as large as the major religions of today. Because of the age we live in any new prophet or mystical story that would arise would quickly be under scrutiny and fall apart. (despite of course people believing in their own prophets and stories that don't hold up to scrutiny)
In the end any new religion would have to be set up on alot more fundamental truth rather than supernatural stories.
But the way religions diminished in power and in our daily lives over the last century i doubt it'll last alot more than that in the future.
 
elenarie

elenarie

Game Developer
Verified
Jun 10, 2018
9,823
Yes. In a few years, everyone will be my subject. They will all fear and love me.
 
Combichristoffersen

Combichristoffersen

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,756
Nature said:
In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

'The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age.'

- H.P. Lovecraft
 
absoluteMadLad

absoluteMadLad

Member
May 1, 2020
120
I think atheism is already rising. Other than that, maybe if we live through a new dark age then yes, someone will use it as an opportunity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.