# Religions, Philosophies, etc. That Were Not Practiced By Their Namesake **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 19, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472 "2012-12-19T00:07:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/1 "2012-12-19T00:07:52Z")
Jesus **Christ** was not a **Christ** ian. He was a Jew. Similarly, Halie Selassie ( **Ras Tafari** ) was not a **Rastafari** an; he was a Christian. I’ve also read that Marx wasn’t very Marxist, and that Queen Victoria wasn’t very Victorian. What are some other examples? ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/2 "2012-12-19T00:16:52Z")
Buddhism, started by the reluctant Siddartha Gautama. He didn’t consider himself immortal; didn’t consider his philosophy to require faith, but effort. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/3 "2012-12-19T00:19:25Z")
Conversely, were there any religions, philosophies, etc. named after their founder, where the founder **X** actually referred to himself as an **X** ian? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/4 "2012-12-19T05:46:05Z")
“Judaism” comes from Judah, the tribe of Israel which produced the Davidic dynasty. However, Judaic practice is based on the Torah revealed at Sinai, several hundred years after the progenitor and namesake of said tribe lived (if you believe he existed at all) and whatever proto-Judaic religious belief system he practiced differed from Torah Judaism in at least one significant respect: his offspring with his former daughter-in-law were considered legitimate. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/5 "2012-12-19T16:11:14Z")
> [@Troppus](#): > > Buddhism, started by the reluctant Siddartha Gautama. He didn’t consider himself immortal; didn’t consider his philosophy to require faith, but effort. Well, those beliefs would be evidence that Siddartha wasn’t a true Baptist, but I’m not sure those beliefs disqualify him from being Buddhist. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/6 "2012-12-19T16:18:37Z")
Heck, Mormon wasn’t a Mormon, considering that the system of beliefs bearing that name wasn’t founded and given that name until more than a millenium after the putative death of Mormon. > **[Mormon (Book of Mormon prophet)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_(prophet))** > > Mormon /ˈmɔːrmən/ is believed by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be a prophet-historian and a member of a tribe of indigenous Americans known as the Nephites, one of the four groups (including the Lamanites, Jaredites, and Mulekites) described in the Book of Mormon as having settled in the ancient Americas. > According to the Book of Mormon, the prophet Mormon engraved an abridgement of his people's history on golden plates. Based on the chronology described in the bo... ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/7 "2012-12-19T21:55:52Z")
Islam is one of the few whose name actually was used by its founder. Of course, so is Scientology, so I don’t suppose that’s much of a distinction. Unless it can be said that Islam invented branding. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/8 "2012-12-19T22:57:46Z")
Thomas Kuhn was the paradigm shift guy, but people read a lot more into it than he intended. For example it encouraged the idea of what I will call “Scientific relativism” the idea that scientific laws are just stories and not more valid than other stories. E.g. Darwinism v. Creationism. Kuhn was quick to say, “I am not a Kuhnian”. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/9 "2012-12-20T00:12:50Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Jesus **Christ** was not a **Christ** ian. He was a Jew. Similarly, Halie Selassie ( **Ras Tafari** ) was not a **Rastafari** an; he was a Christian. I’ve also read that Marx wasn’t very Marxist, and that Queen Victoria wasn’t very Victorian. > > What are some other examples? Assuming Jesus Christ said what he is supposed to have said and believed it, how could he not be a Christian, even if he a) didn’t necessarily call himself that, and b) was born and raised a Jew? People always make a point of his Jewishness, but it seems to miss the obvious point. Anyway, Martin Luther apparently was called but did not identify as a Lutheran. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/10 "2012-12-20T03:06:24Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Assuming Jesus Christ said what he is supposed to have said and believed it, how could he not be a Christian, even if he a) didn’t necessarily call himself that, and b) was born and raised a Jew? People always make a point of his Jewishness, but it seems to miss the obvious point. > … According to Acts 11, the term “Christian” (actually, the equivalent term in a local language) wasn’t used until after Jesus had died and been resurrected. This doesn’t mean that there had been no Christians before then, just that they hadn’t been _called_ Christians. Here’s an analogy. We refer to the people of the Byzantine Empire as the Byzantines. They, however, called themselves Romans and believed they lived in the Roman Empire. Does that mean that they weren’t Byzantines? They were, but the term is more modern. > [@HeyHomie](#): > > …Halie Selassie ( **Ras Tafari** ) was not a **Rastafari** an; he was a Christian… This is an interesting case, because Haile Selassie wasn’t really an active leader in the Rastafarian faith - the leaders of the faith pointed at Selassie and said he was divine, and Selassie turned and looked the other way to a great degree and let people worship him. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/11 "2012-12-20T13:26:02Z")
Mary Baker Eddy (founder and chief prophet of the Christian Science Church) went to medical doctors and took morphine. Apparently, she did not practice what her church preached (that disease and pain are illusory). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/12 "2012-12-20T13:57:10Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Mary Baker Eddy (founder and chief prophet of the Christian Science Church) went to medical doctors and took morphine. > Apparently, she did not practice what her church preached (that disease and pain are illusory). For that matter,Scientolofy/Dianetics founder L. Ron Hubbard was notorious for keeping a virtual pharmacy on his ship and self-medicating. He also came ashore during his “exile” for an operation to remove a growth from his head. None of this should have been necessary for a “Clear” who had full control of his body and mind, which Hubbard was supposed to have. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religions-philosophies-etc-that-were-not-practiced-by-their-namesake/644472/13 "2012-12-20T15:31:07Z")
This is the key problem with all such belief systems-if they were true, nobody would deviate from the path prescribed by the cult. L. Ron Hubbard should be alive today-in perfect health. In fact, he died a drug-addled toothless old man…so how can anybody swallow the rubbish that is $cientology?