I feel, this time, I have a more introspective topic to write about - about the evolution of new religions - continuing with my previous post on "Religions and Institutionalization".
As usual it started with a 'controversial' discussion on religion and God, and as we sifted through topics like Scientology and Tom Cruise an interesting question emerged - why we do not have any new religions emerging recently? This is despite having a much smaller world - interconnected in many ways, including the Internet and its latest social networking platforms, when propagation of messages can go viral!
A quick survey on the Web did not reveal much, (though it revealed interesting religions as in this link) and an extensive search would be required considering this list. Though many of them are referred as 'religions' and some were found as late as in 1980's they do not seem to have any significant following. But at the same time, we cannot underestimate them, because today's popular religions also would have started in the same way, but took atleast 3-4 centuries to spread and establish themselves across the world. So, we never know! despite the connected world we live in.
In my analysis, I believe that there are two strong characteristics that are exhibited by today's popular religions, which will stop or delay the arise of any new religion - one is continuous propagation (and propagation through all new media) by identified leaders - and the other is the embedding of the sense of community among their members, which is done by regular and mandatory gathering of their members in a place for worship. The latter ideal ensures that people don't get distanced too much from their current religious practice and instills a sense of 'belonging' and probably 'pressure' on who are not inclined.
Disclaimer: I don't intend to start a new religion! and I am not an atheist!
