To find this odd yet also intriguing

[religiousquestions]

I met someone today (at a home ed group) and the conversation got onto religion and she told me she has devised her own? Gave a brief outline when I asked about it (she called it her personal belief system).

It got me thinking - can anyone just start their own religion ? Are religions registered somewhere to make sure they are following guidelines of some sort ? I found it odd but also really interesting!

Of its her own personal belief system, that's really not that different than living according to your own moral code etc, is it?
Any group that has stuff in common can get together and discuss that. It only becomes illegal if she made claims about being able to cure people, or ask for funding when people are in a vulnerable state etc.

"Are religions registered somewhere to make sure they are following guidelines of some sort ?"
Not as such. There are many laws covering false medical claims and around the protection vulnerable people etc. The laws around coercive control etc aren't just for sexual relationships.

How do you think religions begin? Even more recently with ones like Scientology.

I had a very, 'spirited' debate about this with my Religious Education teacher as a teen (in Irish Catholic school). We were learning about cults and my feeling was that the only real difference between a cult and a religion is scale. She disagreed 🤣

The whole family follow her belief system and she teaches her children , none of it was alarming it all seemed pretty standard sorts of things (about kindness and stuff) a few bits that some might find a bit ‘out there’ but nothing cult like. I just found it really unusual !

Well, apparently if enough people put it on a census form then it becomes a recognised religion...see the attempt at people putting Jedi a few years back.

Not sure Home Ed groups needed another reason to be a bit odd. 😬

You can start whatever religion you want.

Search for John Oliver - Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption. He started a church to highlight church financial abuses. You'll find it on youtube, probably.

One of Tony Blair's more absurd legacies is a law which means that religious opinions are legally more privileged than secular ones....

I still don’t really understand how it is different from teaching your children to live by the moral code and social values you find acceptable? But then I don’t really understand the need for religion other than bringing people together in communities, I understand why people benefit from that and enjoy rituals. Is there a deity or higher power and are there rituals in her ‘religion’?

Becoma a Pastafarian!
https://www.spaghettimonster.org/

Yes there seems to be a certain higher power and her children have been taught that it isn’t creation v science as to how the earth and humanity came about that it’s one and the same , that creation / the bible is how it was as the people recording things weren’t advanced enough to understand science etc etc . She was telling me quite a lot about it and it was very interesting. The home Ed group is held in a hall next to a church her dc we’re asking about the church and she was explaining why they don’t go to church etc

😂

Scientology is not a religion even though it has that status (at least in the US) for tax purposes. It is a cult and when you look into it you can see the intentions behind it and the malicious 'jokes; behind some of the acronyms that are used. Any organisation that deals in fear and threats and requires more and more money from its members is a cult.

Are religions registered somewhere to make sure they are following guidelines of some sort ?

God knows.

sorry couldn’t resist. Very interesting thread though.