Recently went on a bit of a bender learning about Scientology from a few podcasts and the book Going Clear and found it fascinating how they dealt with a flawed founder who lived in recent history. These days everything is recorded and searchable and I was wondering if you thought a new religion can form with this knowledge readily available?
From my basic understanding Mormonism is relatively new and is now considered a legit religion and I wonder if Scientology could pivot in the same way in a few hundred years despite what were know now.
Scientology is already a “legit religion” and with how common conspiracy theories and things like the anti-vax, birther, and truther movements I really don’t see why a new religion couldn’t form. On top of that, most religions are created out of thin air, they are evolution of existing religions which is why there are heated debates on whether something like Mormonism is a denomination of Christianity or a separate religion.
I do wonder what the line is between a ''legit" religion and a cult. Many people I’ve come across would refer Scientologist of the Latter Day Saints as cultists. I myself am ok with letting anybody believe what they want as long as they’re not hurting someone.
“These days everything is recorded and searchable” not to make religion out to be a grand delusion, but I don’t think the internet age stops people from believing what they want to believe. I mean just look at the 2016 Election. There may have been a lot of misinformation flying around, but people don’t to go through the proper fact checking to determine if something is true or not.
Yeah, like others have said already, it’s not so much about how many verifiable facts are readily available, but weather or not enough people are willing to listen to them. It can literally become s situation where we’re asking someone to believe the truth instead of their own (or someone else’s) more appealing fiction.
I’m right there with ya. I don’t need the whole world to be on the same page as me, I just hope more people will be good to each other regardless of differences.
Hey y’all we feel that this platform is not the place to discuss religion in this manner as it’s inevitably going to bump up against Rule 1 at some point. Topics on sensitive subjects such as religion should be well sourced and less speculative.
