The 2011 contest attracted over 900 entries via the Huffington Post’s comments section, of which over 100 were chosen to be featured; the 2013 iteration attracted a grand total of 3. You’ve got the long hair, the nice bushy beard, and lots of beliefs, but you don’t have the 2.2 billion adherents worldwide. Or perhaps … Read moreHuffPo’s “Create Your Own Religion Competition” (2011 and 2013)
Founded by the Reverend Chris Korda and Pastor Kim in 1992, the Church of Euthanasia is a Dadaist quasireligion promoting environmentalism via human extinction: Prayer for a Good Death by Rev. Chris Korda Great Spirit, I am unworthy;My species has disgraced itself.Of all the species that live, or have ever lived,Mine is the lowliest.Lower than … Read moreThe Church of Euthanasia: “Save the planet, kill yourself”
Like most, if not all of the diverse experiences at Shadow Traffic’s Lost Horizon Night Market, the Church of the Electric God was a one-night-only affair. Worshippers who entered the ephemeral box-truck Church (on a strictly individual basis) communed with a sonic deity via electronic drone music.
The Church of Universal Suffrage was founded in Nashville, Tennessee on June 1, 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic, upon the belief that: (…) all people are created equal and that they are all endowed by their Creator with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The right to vote is a … Read moreThe Church of Universal Suffrage
Australian artist Deborah Kelly describes Creation, a “queer science fiction climate change religion” and an experiment in collaboratively creating religion as a work of art: CREATION is a new religion, manifesting in spectacle and intimacy. A faith, a gathering of intention and purpose with which to face an era when paid opinion trumps environmental evidence. … Read more“A religion you can dance to”: Deborah Kelly’s Creation project
What if we had a religion that protected LGBT rights under the umbrella of religious liberty? During the first week of 2022, Republican lawmakers in Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and South Dakota introduced at least 9 measures that limit the ability of transgender and nonbinary youths to participate in sports or receive … Read moreThe Nontheistic, LGBTQIA+ Prism Sanctuary
In the film adaptation of scientist Carl Sagan’s 1985 science fiction novel Contact, radio astronomer Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) makes first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence from the Vega star system. This scene portrays the media and folk-religious response, as tens of thousands of people flock to the Very Large Array in the New Mexico desert; … Read more“The Message from Vega” – Contact (1997)
Chicago-based artist/architect Antwane Lee and his collaborators describe the Solar Shrine project: The Solar Shrine is an Afrofuturistic, interactive art installation which is inspired by the magical realism of Ancient Egypt and Nubia. These two ancient cultures believed in Ra, the Sun God. Ra had metaphysical powers as the giver of life on Earth and … Read moreThe Solar Shrine
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)