# What religion would YOUR favorite author found? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 6, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487 "2009-03-06T04:51:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/1 "2009-03-06T04:51:09Z")
L. Ron Hubbard was, famously, a science fiction writer before he became a religious prophet-messiah-dude. Unsurprisingly, his religion is heavily involved with outer space themes. This begs the question ‘what kind of religion would other authors have come up with?’ Would Heinlein have created a lusty violent expansionist humanistic religion? Would JK Rowling have one full of magical dragons? Would Hemingway have just skipped to the chase and worshipped Crom? Would Melville have worshipped the whale? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/2 "2009-03-06T05:21:31Z")
The Amber series by Roger Zelazney is quite specifically laying out a religious history of the universe. As a person living in one of the Amber shadows, your best bet is to stay non-worshipful. The stories of the actions of the gods are exciting and intricate, but if one of them shows up saying you should do what he says, you’re better off to say, “No thank you. Why don’t you try the alternate universe two steps down.” Piers Anthony and/or Robert Heinlein would create good religions to worship under. Scantily clad busty babes of all ages will be sure to enter your life at some point. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/3 "2009-03-06T06:12:36Z")
Orson Scott Card, naturally, would found Mormonism. Indeed, his recent novels have basically been Mormon propoganda in the guise of fiction. And he’s already attempted to retcon the homosexual relationships in _Songmaster_ and _Ender’s Game_. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Dirx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@Sir\_Dirx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Dirx)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/4 "2009-03-06T06:36:44Z")
One of my favourite authors is H. P. Lovecraft. I really, really, don’t want to dwell on the specifics of the religion he’d found. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/5 "2009-03-06T11:36:54Z")
Philip K Dick was dwelling a bit on Gnosticism in his later books already wasn’t he? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/6 "2009-03-06T12:38:05Z")
Terry Pratchett would found Omniasm, which is Humanism thinly disguised as Christianity. Neil Gaiman? It’s a toss-up between Syncretic Polytheism and Fairy Worship, really. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/7 "2009-03-06T12:44:48Z")
Ayn Rand did found one- Objectivism. Taylor Caldwell went from a cheery American-right Catholicism w/ a dash of metaphysics to a cynical New Ageyness. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/8 "2009-03-06T13:15:11Z")
John Barth wrote my favorite book (_Sotweed Factor_), and can provide a good answer to the OP so I’m going with him. In one of his earlier books, _The End of the Road_, the protagonist was rendered catatonic by the overwhelming meaninglessness of life. Eventually the character became functional again, by following the principles of Sinistrality, Antecedence, and Alphabetical Priority. > [@](#): > > Above all, act impulsively: don’t let yourself get stuck between alternatives, or you’re lost. You’re not that strong. If the alternatives are side by side, choose the one on the left; if they’re consecutive in time, choose the earlier. If neither of these applies, choose the alternative whose name begins with the earlier letter of the alphabet. These are the principles of Sinistrality, Antecedence, and Alphabetical Priority—there are others, and they’re arbitrary, but useful. ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/9 "2009-03-06T13:21:49Z")
I’m not sure what you’d call it, but there would be one commandment–“Love as thou wilt.” ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/10 "2009-03-06T13:43:22Z")
One of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenson, describes a religion in his book _Anathem_ that I thought plausible and compelling (as religion, not as a theory about reality!). Who knows, maybe he’d have started the religion himself if given a chance. The idea was that there was a man who raped and killed a young girl, and was caught and brought to trial. While waiting for his trial, he came to be wracked with guilt about what he had done, and found himself coming to a deeper and deeper understanding of moral realities. And when he finally was brought before the judge, he tried to explain what he had learned. But he foud the only way he could do it was through story. So he began to tell the judge stories. The judge listened to the stories to find out whether, indeed, the man had gained some true insight into right and wrong. And we are the subjects of these stories. Each of our lives is a story told by this man who is on trial for his life. The choices we make are the events in the story he tells. And the moral quality of the choices we make determines the storyteller’s fate. Of course, if he dies, we all go with him. Anyway, I thought this was an intriguing idea for a religion. It links up the personal and moral with the cosmic and inscrutable, just like all the decent religions do. And it incorporates the theme of the foundation of reality involving an unjust sacrifice leading to moral transformation, a theme which my Christian upbringing prepares me to look favorably on. Anyway, I thought it was neat. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/11 "2009-03-06T13:52:51Z")
I know you weren’t exactly asking for _fictitious_ religions authors have invented, but its close enough isn’t it? With that, I remind this thread’s readers of Vonnegut’s [Bokononism](http://bernd.wechner.info/Bokononism/poems.html). Damn insightful. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/12 "2009-03-06T14:28:01Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I know you weren’t exactly asking for _fictitious_ religions authors have invented, but its close enough isn’t it? The first answer addressed a fictitious religion, so by the principle of Antecedence, apparently I was. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/13 "2009-03-06T14:54:24Z")
Diane Duane’s books, especially the Wizard ones, already address a lot of issues of belief and come close to religious ideas. The Wizard’s oath, in particular, can sound like the creed of a particular sect of True Believers. - God, (‘the one’) is all over the universe. He/she/it may or may not be omnipotent, but then again, it doesn’t need to be. - The one has many servants mightier than mortal creatures, (the powers, often considered angels or saints.) It also has one formidable Adversary, which itself has many faces and many minions. - All life is sacred. Harm nothing, unless it is the only way to avert a much greater evil. - Entropy, the exhaustion of energies, is the greatest masterpiece of the Adversary, therefore practice conservation. - Preserve the innocent and guard that which is in danger. - This great and holy work must be undertaken not for rewards in life, (which will come by accident if they come at all,) nor for the hereafter, (where all are preserved in love regardless of their works,) but because it is the just and right thing to do. - Promises, too, are sacred, as is the truth. What you vow, you shall be required to hold to. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/14 "2009-03-06T16:06:09Z")
> [@Sir\_Dirx](#): > > One of my favourite authors is H. P. Lovecraft. I really, really, don’t want to dwell on the specifics of the religion he’d found. Lovecraft did not believe in the supernatural, but, oddly enough, there is an incipient religion based on belief in Cthulhu: [http://www.cultofcthulhu.net/cthulhu-1a.htm](http://www.cultofcthulhu.net/cthulhu-1a.htm) Also, one of Aleister Crowley’s disciples, Kenneth Grant, believes that he has made contact with beings from the Cthulhu Mythos. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/15 "2009-03-06T16:16:03Z")
I think that Isaac Asimov might have founded a religion believing that God is the sum total of the laws governing the universe. Thus science is a search for God. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-religion-would-your-favorite-author-found/488487/16 "2009-03-06T18:26:20Z")
> [@](#): > > by **Attack from the 3rd dimension** > Would Heinlein have created a lusty violent expansionist humanistic religion? No, but the [Church of All Worlds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_All_Worlds) was based partly on _Stranger in a Strange Land_. When Heinlein learned of it, he was polite to them, but he did his best not to encourage them.