Creating religions

[Esioul]

Another thread gave me the ideas of asking this.

When you have to create a religion for a story, how do you go about it?

[Hypes]

In reply to this

Hey- you've given me a few ideas, thanks. Well, I think a lot of mainstream religions, if not all, basically tell people to be nice to each other (sorry about the simplicity here, I don't know a great deal about religion), so what if mine (which has to play a bad role, I think) told people to be not very nice to each other, and not to care what other people thought or said? It's probably a crazy idea..

No, don't make it that obvious - it wouldn't be believable. As with all religions, especially Christendom and Islam there are different theological interpretations, and these often radically differ. One could even argue that these two religions are the result of the same divide and are really quite the same, but this is another debate.

Take for example the most infamous at present day: the muslim extreme fundamentalists. They are religious fanatics, and believe strongly in the fact that they are right, and therefore mean that whatever their tactics, they are justified. 11/9, the Palestinian suicide bombers or the UN headquarters in Iraq is a good example of the result of these beliefs: death and destruction.

However, one must keep in mind that they do not set out to do wrong, they set out to do what they believe is right.

Islam is not an evil religion, despite the fact it drives some of its followers to despiccable acts through i.e. terrorism. The reason for this is not the religion in itself, because Islam is a far kinder religion at its roots than even Christianity. However, it is twisted and malformed into the unrecognisable by certain teachings.

What it all boils down to is the fact that religious-based evil is not created by the religion, but by the mind which interprets it.

So, to create a religion suited for your purposes, create one regardless of whether it is intended to do good or evil. Then have your villains interpret it in such a way that gives you the effect you wish. There are very few people who do malicious acts simply for the sake of being cruel. They do it because they believe they are right.

A good example would be Hamilton's newest book, Pandora's Star. Here he has a religious terrorist group who believe a crashed starship contained an alien with a malicious intent towards humanity. Even though the institutes researching the starship state that there were no survivers on board, they persist in their belief that the Starflyer has lived through the crash and infected the minds of the researchers and other political figures. Therefore, they strive to eliminate this perceived threat to humanity and engage in acts of terrorism. Again, their justification is that the end migitates the means because they are ultimately right, and all they are doing is protecting humanity as a whole. Therefore they are just in their terrorist activities.

I hope you see what I mean.

PS: I do repeat myself a lot, don't I.

... Swedes again.

[Esioul]

I still don't get the Swedes thing!

I see what you mean about the religion though- the people who beleive in it should beleive that what it is telling them to do is right. Hmmmm. Perhaps interpretations changed over time, gradually, so 'what is right' is seen as having slightly differen agendas?

[Hypes]

Yes, basically.

You could even have them follow the same religion, but interpret it differently. That would create a very interesting contrast. After all, that's what happened between the Jews and Christians. They separated over the issue of the Messiah and his arrival. Or even the Catholic and Protestant Church. Same thing - though these are not violent today, there was quite a bit of suppression and fighting back when it occurred

As I said, you have to go ask them.

[Esioul]

But I don't know any Swedes that I can ask! I can't even remember what it was I was going to ask them, either...

So it's a religion that was once the same thing but changed a bit... one group I think didn't like change an awful lot, and tried to serperate themselves from everything ele. The other group really liked change.... I'm probably rambling now.

It might be worthwhile doing a bit of research into history.

[Hypes]

I can recommend Albert Hourani's A History of the Arab Peoples for more information on Islam. Also, I'd suggest you talk to people about their views on their own religion. I imagine they could provide a far more life-like image of their religion than some dull web page. Of course, a balance between the two would probably be best, to avoid as much bias as possible.

Rambling is good. Just be prepared to pick out the useful bits from the rubbish, is all.

[I, Brian]

I have to admit I have been extremely lazy when it comes to creating religion - I have essentially taken elements of doctrine from other religions and simply mixed them about.

From a comparative point of view there are a lot of similarities between religions - how they develop, and core ideals. What differs most markedly is how the messenger is followed - the source of Revelation is often the most contentious part of all.

Personally, I'm more into the philosophical element, and this is limitless. Religion itself - there are patterns of constructs, doctrines, and rituals that can be extrapolated from, or otherwise re-arranged. There are actually a lot of core ideals shared across religions because of the shared human experience.

One particular issue is how sacrifice is used to help the world escape punishment - in the most terrible of circumstances human sacrifice would be required. Christianity actually turned this concept on its head by creating a doctrine around not simply a human sacrifice - but a god-man sacrifice.

[I, Brian]

Btw - don't forget out sister site:
http://www.comparative-religion.com if you want some good resources.

[Esioul]

Hey Hypes- you were at Writers BBS earlier today weren't you?

It's a small world...

Thanks for that link Brian. I may use it for some research.

[Hypes]

Yes, I was, actually. I saw you mention it in a post yesterday and I was curious, so I went and registered.

That site certainly looks interesting, tea-boy, I think I might use it myself. Thanks!

[Esioul]

Damn... and I thought it was a weird phenomemon (can't spell that...) that you were on there as well. What do you think of it? I've been hanging around it for abour three years now.

Hmmm... I could use human sacrifice to make it scarier...

[Hypes]

No such thing as coincidence. Sorry to disappoint you, though.

The jury's still out, actually. I'm not at all used to the entire BBS setup. It's a bit confusing at first, but I'm sure I'll get around to understanding at some point this millennia.

[Hypes]

By the way, human sacrifice might work, as long as it's not over the top.

[Esioul]

It's quite different to this... I basically just hang around that one thread. Its confusing though, because most of those people have been there for about 8 years.

[Hypes]

Ah, I see. Well, I will give it a try. I'm sure there's some good information to extract from that place.