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October 28, 2004 - How to Start a Religion - Part 2 Part 1 De-emphasize sin In general, people don't want to be told their sinners and they surely don't want to be told they're in need of a savoir. The best way to allay those fears of hearing about fire and brimstone is to keep sin on the DL. Just don't emphasize it very much. Sure there's really no getting around it, though various cults and sub-religions have tried, but if you can keep it off the forefront of people's minds, they'll start to believe they're actually "good" people. "Good" people that just have made a few mistakes that are easily remedied through works. Strategically shift Jesus ever so slightly to the side Other than Satanism, you won't find one, I repeat, one, major religion, sub religion, cult, or anything that thinks or view Jesus Christ as a bad or nefarious individual. But that does not mean there revere him as "My Lord and my God!" as Thomas revered him. Because if you hold Jesus as God, he is everything; there is nothing else worth focusing on. If you demote Jesus to just another "god", just a "good teacher", merely a "prophet", etc., you reduce his need for complete and total worship. What do you do with this new void? Fill it with other things like paying attention to church leaders, past saints/martyrs, special services, church membership, baptism, sacraments, secret rituals, many many many prayers, etc. and require the people to focus on those instead of Jesus. You keep him on the radar with the sheep and the beggars and the "love your neighbor" thing, but you hold back the Trinity just enough so the people don't realize that Jesus is more than enough for them. My dad is better than your dad I've always understood arithmetic to involve numbers, but it seems a lot of people like to practice addition and subtraction when it comes to the Bible. I can't think of any book, well there isn't, that has been more misrepresented, subtracted from, added to, marginalized, and claimed as being incorrect than it. Also, never mind the fact that no one ever gives any proof of the Bible being incorrect or corrupt. If everyone else can get away with substance-less accusations, you sure can. To start a successful religion, you need to utilize these accusations and run with them by creating your own "holy" book at least equal, or superior, in authority and revelation to the Bible. This way you not only relegate the Bible to being the subjective word of God from the objective and inerrant, you create yourself a completely new set of rules and regulations as to "enlighten" your adherents as well as make up some history of somebody, or somebodies, a long time ago to copy the Bible as much as possible. Make sure you also get this book, or books, to the presses as quick as possible; order copies that look just like Bibles with the leather covers and quality paper. This way people will have no choice to accept the book as authentic because it looks so professional! And what book with leather covers, beautiful pages, and exquisite font could be telling a lie?! And like the initial divine revelation, claim God gave you the words to write the book. Hook, line, and sinker! Part 3 coming next week... |
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