Poetic Faiths are those new religions that take the skeptical, scientific worldview as read and then ask “now what?” They tend towards: They are, in various permutations, simultaneously post-theistic and post-atheistic; beginning with the premise that there is no literal supernatural and then honoring the actual power of myth, symbolism, etc. in the human psyche, … Read moreScattered notes on Poetic Faith
The Satanic Temple is a science-positive, socially progressive religion in Halloween regalia. Penny Lane’s 2019 documentary Hail Satan? is an illuminating – “Lucifer” being the Light Bringer, after all – and well-produced documentary on a fast-growing but still widely misunderstood religious movement. Far from being the embodiment of all evil, the Satanic Temple is revealed … Read more“Hail Satan?” (documentary trailer, 2019)
The following poem was composed by Tolkien in response to his friend C.S. Lewis’s remark that myths were valueless. It’s worth noting that, as a devout Christian, Tolkien could not conceive of a mortal creation that might equal that of an omnipotent deity, and so refers to myths as “sub-creations”. Somewhat ironically, the immense popularity … Read more“Mythopoeia” (J.R.R. Tolkien, 1931)
Often described as “the slowest-growing religion in the world”, Dudeism was inspired by the philosophy espoused and exemplified by Jeff Bridges’ character in the Coen Brothers movie The Big Lebowski. According to Dudeism.com: While Dudeism in its official form has been organized as a religion only recently, it has existed down through the ages in … Read more“Dudeism: the Path to Lebowski Enlightenment”
In this 2018 report, Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves observes that: I think if most Christians are honest about it, I think they’ll admit that they’re just pretty much picking and choosing what they will believe and what they won’t. I think that the more people become comfortable culturally identifying with their religions and realizing … Read more“The Satanic Temple’s Protest for First Amendment Rights”
Artist/scholar/witchdoctor M. Dudeck offers a concise precis of his massive RELIGIONVIR.US project, a queer science fiction religion. In this video montage, Dudeck and his collaborators enact aspects of PSALMS: a 45-minute music-centered performance featuring 13 invented psalms accompanied by a complex digital soundscore and projected video.
A trailer for the 2017 documentary American Jedi, which is available to stream via various platforms. Here’s an in-depth interview with Jedi Knight and Deacon Alex Bird, explaining his devotion to the philosophy/quasi-religion of Jediism: But your myth doesn’t reach back to any time that’s actually real. That’s true. I mean that it has to speak … Read more“American Jedi”
A ’90s-vintage documentary on the Radical Faeries, a queer spiritual counterculture dating back to 1978-9.
We are Cultpunks. We affirm that belief systems, rituals, symbols, pilgrimages, tenets, holy days, shrines, festivals, taboos, mythologies and pantheons can and should be created as works of art. If so, then surely any sufficiently advanced magic is likewise indistinguishable from technology, and religions may usefully be considered as psychological technologies. Just like any other tech, … Read moreRead this first: “A Cultpunk Manifesto”
Existential wisdom from Jamie Wheal, the author of Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex and Death In a World That’s Lost Its Mind.