Religion has served as a backbone for civilizations since time immemorial. They serve as spiritual hubs and have continued to influence life, politics and society. In this presentation I would like to show you a couple of religions that aren’t well known but have a considerable number of followers as well as some parody beliefs.
Last Thursdayism is a belief or rather a philosophy that the whole universe was have been created last Thursday (or by implication, on any other given date and time). Under Last Thursdayism, all people, planets, fossils, every memory you have (even those before last Thursday), stars were all formed at the time of creation in a state much older than they are. It doesn’t really have any followers or rituals but proving it wrong is impossible. It’s not falsifiable, which means that it can’t be shown to be false. If you bring an argument “Last Thursdayism is false because I have a photo that was made 2 months ago. I wouldn’t be able to do that if the world was created last Thursday” it could be easily explained that on the day of creation that photo and the memories of you taking it, were created last Thursday.
Nuwaubian Nation or Nuwaubianism was a religious organization founded and led by Dwight York. It originated in 1970s as a black Muslim group and went through many changes. Originally it combined concepts from Judaism, Christianity and esoteric beliefs. York abandoned the Muslim theology of his movement in favor of Kemetism (a contemporary revival of ancient Egyptian religion) and UFO religion. York also wrote a book entitled „The Paleman”. It describes his version of human origins. “Hideous reptilians are the ancestors of white-skinned people, whereas black-skinned people are the ancestors from the Annaqi, beatiful dark-skinned extraterrestials with woolly hair and benign qualities.”. In 1993 they built their headquarters in Putnam County. An ancient Egypt-themed compound called Tama-Re. By the 2000, the Nuwaubian movement had around 500 adherents. A couple years later York was accused of child molestation. In 2004 he was found guilty and sentenced to 135 years in a federal prison. As part of the verdict, the Tama-Re complex was sold under government forfeiture in 2005.
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| Tama-Re compound source: http://www.nuwaubianfacts.com/HolyLand/Holyland02.jpg |
Another religious organization is the Church of Euthanasia founded by Chris Korda and Robert Kimberk in Boston. Their only one commandment is “Thou shalt not procreate” – encouraging believers and others to engage in suicide, abortion and non-procreative sexual acts. These are 3 out of 4 pillars. The fourth one is cannibalism (of the already dead). Their famous and controversial slogan is “Save the planet. Kill yourself.” Their goal is to reduce world population by voluntary means only, therefore, murder and involuntary sterilization are strictly forbidden by the church doctrine. They also received legal threats after a 52 year old woman committed suicide using their guide on “how to kill yourself”.
Did you know about any of these religions/beliefs?
Do you know any other extraordinary religions/organizations?
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Euthanasia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuwaubian_Nation
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nuwaubianism
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Last_thursdayism
“Teaching new religious movements” David G. Bromley
Comments
Have you heared about anti-theism? It's a belief that religion is the source of most evil and all forms of it should be fought against. It can lead to a paradox because doesn't that make it a religion itself? Despite that I identify myself with such movements to a deegre.
I think that religions may be dangerous, because there is a lot of people who will thoughtlessly follow some leader, even if this person shouldn't actually be free, because this is some psycho.
Another interesting religion that I know is cult of Aśtar Szeran, it’s a Czech and Slovak UFO religion. It’s so weird and bizarre that I found it really funny. They believe that people are being chipped by Lizard-people and only way to be saved is escaping earth with trans galactic ship.
You should definitely visit their website if you want to know something more about it : http://www.anioly-nieba.pl/polski/default_pl.htm
Scientology is somewhat of a smorgasbord of religions and beliefs. They were originally created as a money-making religion by L. Ron Hubbard and this is still the way that they operate. They reject the truth of God and exchange it for their own human truth. They believe that they have immortal life when only Jesus can impart that. It is a mixture of false Eastern religions that puts weight on human achievement through effort, completely ignoring the fact that human works are worthless in achieving eternal life. They also do not regard the Bible as the inspired Word of God and do not believe what the Word teaches. By rejecting Jesus as Savior, they do not pursue the only possible way to gain eternal life. Sadly, many celebrities are involved with Scientology.
Personally I know one quite funny religion, its believers worship pussycats, here is a link to its website:
http://catreligion.org
I had no idea they exist and I'm no sure if I wanted to know about them. In my opinion every belief against rights of human and discriminating other people should be banned.
But religion is a very personal thing and everyone has its own vision of it (That’s why there are so many religions in this world).
As I said for me it is stupid to make such theories and is only thing to make people argue with each other.
Buddha by himself said that it is more the way of living.
Enlightenment is the only start of your long journey I would say (if it is possible to gain enlightenment of course :D)
I know some religions that raised in fact from making fun of other strong and extraordinary believes, this is for example Pastafarians or the Church Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM). It grew as a social movement that promotes a light-hearted view of religion. They oppose to the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in public schools. Pastafarianism are legally recognized as a religion in the Netherlands and New Zealand – where they can even get married.
I find them very interesting so I invite you to read a bit more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
To sum up, the religion is good, but not for psychopaths.
In my opinion creating more and more religions create more hatred between people who believe in a different god.
Your examples are quite shocking, sadly (or thankfully) I don't know any other organizations / religions like that.
Your beliefs are not something I should discuss.