I am bored so I have decided to share what I would call my own religion. Aside from this I am not very religious but I wanted to hear people's thoughts on this. If you want to leave hate on this please either make it in the form of constructive criticism or just leave. Now then I believe that after this world you go to the Shadow World. It is very similar to this one but with a few difference that aren't very relevant here. Anyway, the world is inhabited by Shadows. They are beings with a jet-black human shaped body, a pyrimid shaped head with a red/blue triangle in the middle and a long thin tail. When you die, depending on whet here you were a good or bad person in this life you will be reborn as an inherently good blue shadow or an inherently bad red shadow. Of you were a good person you are now bad and vice versa. If you kill yourself or are content with your death then you will not go to this world. The God that I believe in is called The Almighty Shadow. He didn't create anything, he isn't the founder of the universe and isn't here to bring everyone to heaven. The main reason why he is a God is that he can influence the odds of something to turn in your favour to a certain extent. Say if you had a 1/2 chance of winning something. By worshipping this god you will most likely win as changing these odds in your favour gives you a good chance of winning. He can't make everything guaranteed though. If something has a 1/1000000 chance of happening he may be able to improve those odds slightly but not noticlibly. The more you worship him the more he can influence odds. You can ask him for special favours to make the odds even more on your favour but he asks for more than worship for this. He will give you what you asked for but in turn will make something in your life worse to compensate. The main way you ask him to do these favours is by drawing a spell of sorts in the air. Start with a circle. Then from the edge of the circle draw 7 spirals going into the middle. Then draw a triangle that touches in the edges of the circle inside with another triangle inside that. Then draw a line straight through horizontally and vertically, along with a small line in between each of these not touching the circle. Grab the spell and hold it too your chest in a closed fists and ask for what you want. You can also use some of his power without praying directly too him. If you draw a circle with a circle inside it then a vertical and horizontal line through that, you can make yourself somewhat unnoticeable. Say there is someone picking people at random. You won't be picked by doing this. If someone is going through a list however and they will pick you than there is nothing you can do. You are using the almighty shadows power to influence the odds of you being noticed so if there is a 1/1 chance you will be picked there is nothing his power can do. Another thing he can do is answer yes or no questions about nearly anything. If you speak or think a question and you fell pins and needles all over your body then that's him answering yes. It's not like getting shivers all over your body. It's like you get sudden pins and needles in one part of your body and it spreads the disappears. The more you feel this, the more certain he is of his answer. This power is affected by heat though. If you are in a hot area you won't be able to feel an answer unless he is very certain about it. So that's my religion. Please give me your thoughts and tell me I'm not going insane. Please ask any questions you have
I read down to the blue shadow - red shadow part. I had to give it up due to a splitting headache I had prior to attempting this.
My comments/criticism: not every spiritual idea has to be worked out into a religion. Why does it has to be forged into some kind of religion? Do you want other people to copy/join your spiritual concept? If it's just for you and if its working for you, well good for you I mean is it really a religion when it is a set of beliefs for one individual? And yeah, it has been pointed out already but very important on a forum so: using the enter button properly would increase the amount of readers.
If you want to make a religion you need a set of myths, or some other form of narrative component. Otherwise people won't be engaged and it won't spread. As it is, this religion doesn't fulfill a lot of the requirements. It has no moral edicts It does nothing to explain our current situation (or include a creation myth) The afterlife you describe is...pointless. an afterlife is supposed to act as an enforcer of morality and obedience to a moral code. it fails to outline what being a "good" or "bad" person is. Also, if you're going to create a religion always go with a pantheon. Monotheistic religions are boring. As a potential real-world religion with some legs, I think it needs work. As a piece of fantasy world-building it is fine. You could set a fairly nihilistic story against this kind of religious backdrop, but having it fulfill some of the above would make it more believable. Real world religions have a kind of covergent evolution: even though they develop in isolation from each other, they usually share a lot of similar traits. If you want to create a new religion, it's best that you try and make sure to hit these beats.
I stopped reading shortly after mention of the shadow world too But it sort of reminds me of the upside down world from stranger things. Makes for a good tv or book plotline, but i dont really think people are going to believe it and follow you around and give you a ton of money, which is the whole purpose of starting a religion right
Do you have any insight into the mechanism that accumulates your goodness in this world to transform you into a blue or red in the shadow world? Do these shadows just spontaneously animate after someone dies? There's no sort of life cycle there? Any insight on what places limitations on the Almighty Shadow?
i have no problem with any possibility any of us can imagine. and i dissagree with those who feel they have to define the requirements of a belief. it is purfectly possible we may have unseen companions who intend us no harm. the idea of an 'eternal' afterlife, an eternal anything, is somewhat unconvincing, though it is a feature of many beliefs. a cyclic eternity of many births, lifes, and deaths is easier for myself to find convincing. science explains the existence of our universe as well as it needs to be. i do quistion the presumption of starting off with a discription of an afterlife. this would be fine to create a role playing game world though. the universal wonder of strangeness, is not a lack of sanity. it is something we can all experience. part of the motivation for beliefs is to share it, though many today, in their fanatacism, obscure it from us instead. at any rate an after life that is neither reward nor punishment, nor requires any sort of god or god-like hierarchy, is by no means inconceivable, nor in any way less likely then more familiar beliefs or lore. there exist a far greater of beliefs then are familiar to most people in western/northern/first world/advantaged nations. they are worth exploring to gain greater understanding. gratuitous conventionality is gratuitous, and if anything, it is the repression of imagination that leads to mental instability. my own beliefs are based partially on my exposure to a diversity of them, and in many ways also upon what i experience in my actual dreams, and like yours, well seasoned with a large dose of my own imagination. but also tempered by the realization, that nothing expected can be counted upon, other then that, the unexpected can always be found somewhere, in whatever world or time or place, even if sometimes we have to look hard to find it. the unknown itself, is no one's enemy. hatred of logic and lack of caution is everyone's.
Instant Karma Gonna Getcha Baby! The shadow is but the memory of the eternal light which never fails to illuminate the darkest night,The beacon lighthouse in a storm and the light at the end of the tunnel which never goes out.It is the greater context of the One Truth, our reality that none might ever put into words,What Socrates called, the memory of God that none may look upon and remember.There are many lesser truths and, then, there remains the One Greater Truth,That the Greater Truth, determines the meaning of everything and nothing!Without a Goldilocks Principle applying to everything that exists and doesn't,Murphy's Law would decide everything making discussing the issue pointless.Combining the two infinite karmic universes converge where instant karma gonna getcha baby!
I would say that if all this stuff increases your patience with people, even those hostile to you, along with your present moment awareness, then it may be a good religious toolkit for yourself. If not, then you should perhaps drop it , imho.
people think conventionality is a good thing, because they confuse it with consideration, which it isn't.
