# What is the most recently founded major religion?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 14, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441 "2013-07-14T01:15:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/41 "2013-07-14T16:55:13Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> Is it possible that the next Catholicism, Hinduism, or Islam-level major religion has yet to be founded? Or was that strictly a relic of a time when such claims were impossible to verify?
Is this verification more possible nowadays, or less possible?
If some charismatic person claims that God spoke to him/her, how can this be verified or debunked?
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/42 "2013-07-14T17:12:05Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> But you see, that’s reasonable! If someone claims that Bob and Jane revealed themselves, and commanded them to never touch asparagus, okay. I don’t believe you, but if you believe it, what an experience you had!
>
> But if you “just know”, which is what I get from a lot of New Age and Wicca adherents, then you made it up. Or someone else did and shared it with you and you liked how it sounded.
>
> The nature of divine revelation though isn’t that you heard something you liked and ran with it. Divine revelation is usually traumatic and frightening and involves the person receiving the revelation giving up the life they once knew. If there is a God, he’s not around to please you, he’s going to expect things from you that you may find inconvenient.
The thing about Wiccans (and many other neopagans sects) is that by and large, each and every one has had some sort of Divine Revelation, or thinks s/he has. It’s a group of people who believe that they have the power and ability to talk to and hear the Divine each individually, themselves, without the need for a central authority or Priest/ess to intervene on their behalf, explain old texts or tell them what God/dess wants of them. (In fact, it’s considered pretty damn rude and presumptuous to tell someone what God/dess wants of them, unless they’ve asked you for such intervention.)
Priest/esses are often teachers and lead group workings, and are often leaders in a practical sense (scheduling, planning, setting up, cleaning up, fundraising, etc.), but they’re not needed to interpret Divine messages. You can do that yourself. Use a pendulum, cast herbs, interpret smoke trails, lay Tarot cards…we have many, many ways of receiving direct Divine wisdom. Sometimes it’s confirmation of what you thought/believed already, and sometimes it is indeed traumatic and life-changing.
So it’s not that Wicca lacks claims of Divine Revelation…it’s that we have far too many of them to centralize! 😃
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### Author:  [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/43 "2013-07-14T18:24:53Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#):
>
> Well, I guess you could market science as a religion with the prophets Galileo, Newton, Einstein, etc. Sort of _Science For Dummies_. We could call it **Scienetics**! I’ll start writing the infomercial now. Since Tom Cruise is already shilling for that other “religion,” I’ll try to rope in Brad Pitt to be a spokesperson. 😃
I would pick Bill Nye for spokesperson and beatify Richard Feynman.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/44 "2013-07-14T18:56:25Z")
It’s tricky to rule out a religion just because it’s an offshoot of another religion. In fact, most religions seem to be, and the ones that don’t seem it, it’s probably just because we’ve forgotten the religions they’ve shot off from. Christianity, for instance, certainly originated as an offshoot of Judaism (with some influence from Mithraism and Zoroastrianism), but it’s generally considered a completely separate religion nowadays.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/45 "2013-07-14T20:17:40Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> Mormonism counts because didn’t Joseph Smith claim to have received divine revelation?
>
> Scientology I don’t know about, didn’t Heinlein freely admit that they were just his ideas? For the purpose of my question, I’m only counting claims of divine revelation, not philosophical musings on the universe that gain followers.
L. Ron Hubbard, not Heinlein. And yes, it was widely reported that in the late 40s, Hubbard told some people that if you really wanted to make it big, you should found a religion. Then he had a long “fact” article in John Campbell’s Astounding (later Analog) Science Fiction magazine on Dianetics. I don’t know if Scientologists actually use that term, but I do know that it is the basis of Scientology. I read the original when it first came out in, IIRC 1951. I was a regular reader of SF (still am, obviously). The basic idea was that all our problems stem from our memories of trauma. If you could trace those trauma, analyze them, “clear” them, why all our neuroses would vanish. And these traumas start in the womb; in fact, I think the actual fusion of egg and sperm was the first one. Obviously we don’t remember the early ones and it requires special methods to clear them. That’s where Scientology comes in. I’d best stop here before I get into IMHO territory.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/46 "2013-07-14T22:15:00Z")
Another recent faith is the Nation of Islam which was founded in 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad. I was reminded of it by the mention of dianetics, which the NOI is now promoting. It’ll be interesting to see if the Church of Scientology and the Nation of Islam manage to pull off the first cult merger.
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### Author:  [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/47 "2013-07-14T22:47:44Z")
> [@Uber\_the\_Goober](#):
>
> Picking a nit, bolded is not true.
>
> Cite that claim, then we’ll talk. Otherwise, I have it on very good authority that it wouldn’t be accurate to lump JW’s in with Mormons, etc.
How about these, for starters:
The Watchtower does not consist of men’s opinions.
_The Watchtower_, January 1, 1942, p. 5
Jehovah had a work for them to do… He put his “words,” his message, into the mouth of his servants for them to proclaim earth wide.
_Survival Into a New Earth_ (1984), p. 109
You will be interested to learn that God has on earth a people, all of whom are prophets, or witnesses for God. In fact, they are known throughout the world as Jehovah’s Witnesses.
_Awake!_ June 8, 1986, p. 9
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2013, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/48 "2013-07-15T15:06:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Sanskrit महर्षि महेश योगी maharṣi maheśa yogī; 12 January 1918[1] – 5 February 2008), was born Mahesh Prasad Varma and obtained the honorifics Maharishi (meaning “enlightened spiritual one”)[2] and Yogi as an adult.[3][4] He developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of a worldwide organization that has been characterized in multiple ways including as a new religious movement and as non-religious
I knew several people who were into this in the mid-80’s and later, although some also claimed to be devout catholics at the same time.
Oooommmmmmm…
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### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/49 "2013-07-15T15:31:00Z")
It had its own founder (Lenin), its own “theology” (dialectical materialism and the golden age to come), its clergy (political officers, ministry of information), and its own enforcement (KGB). The religious rites were also interesting-big parades, huge posters of the Communist “saints”, mandatory “re-education” for dissenters, and mental hospitals for those who refused conversion.
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/50 "2013-07-15T16:03:21Z")
Happy Science, a movement well-known within Japan but little outside, was founded by a man with quite the [claim to fame](http://www.happy-science.org/en/okawa/living-buddha).
> [@](#):
>
> Master Ryuho Okawa’s Past Incarnations
>
> It is the third time in 300 million years of humankind’s history for the core consciousness of El Cantare to descend to earth. The first time he was called Alpha, and during his second incarnation his name was Elohim. However, his brother souls (branch spirits) have incarnated on earth more frequently and founded a new era and hope for humanity each time. These were his five past incarnations.
>
> Master Okawa’s past lives and brother souls.
>
> Master Okawa’s past lives and brother souls (branch spirits): La Mu, Thoth, Rient Arl Croud, Ophealis, Hermes and Gautama Siddhartha.
> 17,000 years ago - La Mu in Mu Continent
>
> 12,000 years ago – Thoth in Atlantis
> 7,000 years ago - Rient Arl Croud in ancient Inca Empire
> 6,500 years ago – Ophealis in Greece
> 4,300 years ago – Hermes in Greece, Crete Island
> 2,500 years ago – Gautama Siddhartha (known as Shakyamuni Buddha) in India.
>
> Master Ryuho Okawa is the reincarnation of the highly revered Shakyamuni Buddha. Whilst alive, Shakyamuni Buddha himself prophesized about the future Buddha, and, since ancient times, people of India passed on this prophecy from generation to generation that a future Buddha will be incarnated 2500 years later to a land in the Far East.
You will note that yes, he is claiming to be of Greek mythology in a past life. It is a bizarre religion where the founder is thought to be a savior of the world. Really weird revelations. It was founded in the mid 1980s, so it’s pretty new.
They have a claimed membership of several million. They have a political party which received 450,000 votes in a recent election, so they could be close to or over the million mark.
My exwife was an adherent, and yes, that’s a major reason she’s an ex. Thanks for asking.
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### Author:  [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/51 "2013-07-15T19:47:01Z")
> [@simster](#):
>
> I’m not going to debate the claim - I believe I’ve done that before on this board - they claim to be ‘God’s mouthpiece’ and his ‘chosen organization’, that pretty much sums up claiming to get orders or information straight from GOD - which is pretty much the very definition of “divine revelation” - So much so that they have claimed (and still do ) that you cannot come to the truth thru the bible alone - you must follow the society’s teachings.
>
> The name "Jehovah’s Witnesses’ was officially adopted in 1931 by Rutherford, the society’s second president. He ‘took over’ after Russel’s death in 1916 - there was a split in the ‘organization’ at that time - before then they were called ‘Bible Students’ and there are some of that organization still around today.
>
> Regardless of all of the above - they are still ‘just another sect’ of christianity - there is nothing new or even truly ‘unique’ about them.
Having a few elderly JW in the “second tier” of our family, I can attest that they are totalitarian in their expectation of faith… something I find wholly delusional.
While JW believe that a certain 144,000 “elders” will go to heaven and the remaining “loyal witnesses” will live with peace on Earth, they do indeed maintain that you are either with them or you will not be saved. But to think that the no other person of any religion - regardless of their actions as a human - can have their “paradise”. That is arrogance of the highest order.
Interestingly, they do not believe in Hell, lake of fire, etc… just that you will die and rot… which ironically for as much of a cult as I think the “religion” is, we do agree on that aspect! 😃
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### Author:  [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2013, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-recently-founded-major-religion/663441/52 "2013-07-16T06:23:57Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#):
>
> Happy Science, a movement well-known within Japan but little outside
[Pssst](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16471456&postcount=33).
But, seriously, I think the Happy beat the Raelians for the WTF crown, and that’s saying a lot.
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