What makes a religion a religion
as opposed to a cult? This is an honest question that I hope someone will
answer in a comment below.
Wagner says, “Instead, make
belief is the real life performative act of as-if. It is creating the
appearance of the real or the meaningful as a means of generating its
acceptance as real” (215). It is make-belief instead of make believe.
What happens though if people do believe something like that is real? Take the
man who is in love with Twilight sparkle. Isn’t that make believe. He
completely believes with his whole being that she is real, she is capable of
feelings, she can think and communicate, and that they love each other. When
someone believes so deeply in something it seems to me that they can make a
religion out of it.
Wagner talks about people
devoting themselves to movies like Lost, Twilight, and Starwars. The people who
devote themselves have ‘believers’ in the form of fanatics. They recite
‘scripture’ from their holy books, aka, twilight etc. They wear designated
clothing that shows their ‘god/gods’ and “pray in public and virtual forums”.
This scares me to death.
How many of you have heard of
Cullenism? It’s this new idea going through the twi-hard virtual community. It
is a religion where the followers worship Edward Cullen and Stephanie Meyer.
They have special days, holy places (forks), a prayer, and a list of beliefs.
People post of forums professing their faith and saying they will live for
eternity like the Cullens if they follow the rules and rituals of their faith.
All this makes
me question religion. I don't know why this book made me have a dark moment,
but it is true. What if future religions are based on books written by authors
like Stephanie Meyer or even game designers! I'm not familiar enough with
gaming to be able to talk on that but what if these forums dictate the newest
and most popular religions? How will society look in 20 years? I'm terrified to
find out.
I've also been interested in the future of religion. As far as cult versus religion, I believe the difference would be in numbers, exclusivity (how easy is it to join?), and perhaps how they deal with sacrilegious acts (consequences). I'm no expert here, not even a religious person myself. Just throwing that out there.
ReplyDeleteWhat this book has ultimately revealed and emphasized to me is that we are creatures of habit. Our worship and ritualistic observation of various things that we have considered sacred in all of humankind's history is a long laundry list. We've had sun worshipers, (insert animal here) worshipers, etc. Point being that we will always seek out meaning and meaning-making in various things and make a ritual and perhaps even a religion out of it. It is not a new thing to be taken back by what someone finds sacred... like a extreme Twilight fanatic for instance. Our generation, like the previous ones before just has to anticipate and develop the perspectives necessary to live alongside those that say dedicate their lives to a Edward Cullins character. The challenge here is living in a more pluralist society.
Hopefully this made sense. I'm highly caffeinated...
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