Could a new religion emerge?

[ruby27]

Could a new religion emerge or are we now to technologically sophisticated for a new messiah or truth to catch on?

There doesn't seem to have been a new major one since Sikhism in the 15thc. ( I think).

Is the market saturated and there is no space left for something new, or could someone really charismatic, with excellent PR, fill a spiritual gap?

[ruby27]

I accept for some they have already found the 'truth', but you must recognise that so have others it just happens to be a different 'truth' so couldn't it be possible the 'truth' is still out there waiting to be discovered.

For non believers, maybe we just haven't been sold the right product yet!

[jno]

I suppose there's scientology - I wouldn't call it a religion, but Tom Cruise thinks it is and so do many others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology

[Octavius]

Not sure I'd call it 'major' as such, but Bah�'� Faith seems to have evolved in the 19th C.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1'%C3%AD_ Faith

[Theland1]

ruby 27, I think this is an excellent question, and so pertinent to the times we live in.
As we get more technologically sophisticated, we do not automatically see our problems reducing, but we do see our lives being controlled more and more. Employers now have so much control over us, that being accountable for our time and work rate is a pressure that previous generations didn't have to cope with. Maybe as there is a greater realisation that we are nothing more than a number, a, "human resource," a cog in the machine, then there will be a greater yearning for some recognition of our humanity, an overwhelming desire to be treated as people rather than assets, to be worn out and then replaced.
In other words, a spiritual hunger will become more acute, and a recognition that there is another world other than the one associated with deadlines and targets and performance related rewards.
So there, for starters is the beginning of the spiritual hunger, or as you call it, a "gap."
(continued)

[Theland1]

(continued)
As you probably realise, evangelical Christians believe that the hunger for spiritual fulfillment will be satisfied, or at least there will be the promise of satisfaction, from an emerging world religion, as prophesied in the Bible.
Moves to bring this about are already underway, with the ecumenical movement, the reaching out by the R.C. church under the banner of peace, to just about every religion there is in the world, of course, the R.C. umbrella will be there to encompass them all.

The charismatic person who will lead the new world religion will be the antichrist.

The market is not saturated, he only thing lacking is a greater satanic influence to bring the religions evermore closer together, and this will happen, and indeed is already happening.

[Theland1]

The prophecies are in the Bible for your examination. Better still, look up the various prophecy web sites that deal with the subject of the one world religion.

[Theland1]

For example.

[Theland1]

And here.

[Theland1]

Conjecture being guesswork based on incomplete information, then no it is not conjecture on my part.
The prophecies are there in the Bible for all to read. Whether or not they are believed is another matter.
The moves towards a one world religion are now very advanced, with the R.C. church taking the lead and trying to get the flock under its shepherding / authority.
These are facts, not guesswork.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Well there's five minutes of my life I could have better spent sticking skewers through my testicles and par boiling my eyes.

...and you have the gall to call scientific investigations into abiogenesis and Steven Hawking's work on the beginings of the universe 'speculation'.

Sheesh.

[beso]

There have been plenty of new religions quite recently.

To name a few:
David Koresh and the Branch Davidians.
Jimmy Jones and the People's Temple.
Shoko Asahara and Aum Supreme Truth
Gerald Atrill and Hermes Far Eastern Shining

Joseph Smith formed The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latterday Saints (Mormons) around 1830.

[ruby27]

I suppose I was thinking about the major ones, rather than sects, something where large numbers of people became converts and then subsequently a following grew. However maybe this only happens with time - the big ones have been around a lot longer than Scientology for instance.

Its the thought that whether an individual could start something radically new that caught on. I just couldn't imagine in this day and age that the aposotles could now create such a best seller as the bible, or that Mohamed revelations would prove to be so popular.

What I hadn't realised was how many new ones have started.

[Whickerman]

Wicca developed in the 60s...


Christianity took a couple of hundred years to take hold, and only then because it became the religion of the Roman Empire. That's what seems to be replicating in the middle east and europe with Islam.

[The Sherman]

let me get this straight Theland. Years ago someone wrote that eventually someone would try and make a one world religion, and now someone has tried to make a one world religion..... so someone wrote something then someone else has tried to make that happen BASED on what he has read!!!!!!? How on earth is that a prediction coming true!? thats someone TRYING to MAKE a prediction come true!

thats why predictions like that are absolute nonsense! read harry potter for the definitive answer to predictions and prophecies-you may think i'm joking but believeing in twaddle like that is berter explained in a kids book!

[Theland1]

As you will Sherman.

[R1Geezer]

This one was started recently
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Society-and-Cul ture/Question569585.html