I haven't been to a sacrament meeting for a long time... But I'm sitting in one now and the topic is the BoM. The current speaker is pontificating on the "my father dwelt in a tent" scripture. I'm sitting here thinking just how easy it is to relate just about anything from any book to your life.

So, since the BoM is a work of fiction, I'm wondering what other great literary works would you choose to be the basis of a religion?

Hmm... I think the works of CS Lewis would be a great basis for a religion! (Though that kinda feels like cheating)

Any other ideas? :)

Tolkien

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them,
One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

One CULT to rule them all, one CULT to find them,
One CULT to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
In the land of Morridor where the Shadows lie.

If you want a book of Fiction to base a religion on, then my suggestion is stick with a proven winner.

Bible

Koran

Book of Mormon

Etc.

Aye, the Book of Mormon could work fairly well if and only if:

(1) It was severely edited for length, repetition, phrasing, and logic.

(2) Certain silly stories were omitted. The Jaredite submarines, for example, would be either evil or impossible even if miracles were allowed.

(3) More of its sources were found and footnoted. That could be the miracle, that Joseph Smith produced a memorable book from obvious rubbish.

There's a novel, 'The Bloody Red Baron', wherein Manfred von Richtofen is actually a vampire, and transforms himself into a giant bat in combat over the World War One trenches; when the Brit's discover this, they enlist English aristocrats, who are also secretly vampires, to fly over the night skies and fight him.

Sounds good to me.

All hail the Red baron!

The Dune Books by Frank Herbert.

The Temple of the Jedi Order is a bona fide, non-profit religion with HQ in texas. That's based on Star Wars

Horton Heard a Who =)

Horton Hears a Who caused my brain to hurt a little. I never thought a child's story would cause me to think existentially, but it did.

upThink, I wrote a fantasy/sci-fi book series of which several parts of the plot came about because of my journey out of Mormonism. If these books were adopted into a set of beliefs, we'd have a matriarchal-run religion based on respecting the balance of nature, honoring others' freedom to choose good or bad, and encouraging critical thinking. The lead matriarch encourages questioning ... and not just faith promoting questions, either.

Sounds like a great series!

fearguiltpromise Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Horton Hears a Who caused my brain to hurt a
> little. I never thought a child's story would
> cause me to think existentially, but it did.


How about Horton Hears The Who?

Animal Farm by Orwell would probably be the most profitable.

The Story of O

Harry Potter

Dyanetics by L Ron Hubbard would be a good one.

Oh there's so many:

Dune,

LOTR, Silmarrilion (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Friday (Robert Heinlein) Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, Job: A Comedy of Errors

Star Wars--Jedi

Foundation Series (Isaac Asimov)

River World (Philip José Farmer)

Brave New World

Song of Ice & Fire (aka Game of Thrones) (George R.R. Martin)

Thomas Covenant (Stephen R. Donaldson)

There's too many to list; most of these have some sort of "religion" already written into the Books, but you could expand, expound, exhort, preach and teach on any these.

Great suggestions, everyone! :)

Damn, dianetics has been taken. Ok, how about 50 shades of grey?

I'd go with "The Camp of the Saints (Le Camp des saints)," a 1973 French apocalyptic novel by Jean Raspail.

The novel set where Third World mass immigration to France and the West leads to the destruction of Western civilization.

Now, forty years after publication, the book returned to the bestseller list in 2011.

Plumb prophetic...a novel about population migration and its consequences.

Most of the story centers on the French Riviera, where almost no one remains except for the military and a few civilians, including a retired professor who has been watching the huge fleet of run-down freighters approaching the French coast.

Just read it and weep for the Great Race.

See the Old testament
See the new testament
See the Book of MORmON
(See a Disney Cartoon Movie)

In the old test god is a spirit who can speak
by the time Disney is done candlesticks have mouths, eyes, legs and they can dance and sing.
i.e. Things get more anthropromorphic as they go


If you want to start from scratch,

see L Ron Hubbard's book
"Dianetics"