Create a new religion

The Religion Project .

For the religion project, your assignment is to create and describe your own religion. As you begin to plan your religion, think about the various religions and religious traditions that we have studied and the earlier discussion of gods, religion and the brain. You have two options:

· 1)  Create your own religion. It can fit in this world (e.g., be an innovative combination of religions or a new one entirely) or be purely imaginary (e.g., the religion of ants or of an alien society). No matter what you choose, it should be believable enough to be movie material.* 


· 2)  Describe (or design) a modern phenomenon that could fill the same needs as traditional religion and even function like a religion (e.g., a pseudo-religion centered around Michael Jackson, social media, your phone, politics, sports, something not yet invented, etc.). Describe your replacement ‘religion’ and compare it to a more traditional approach. For example, keeping in mind our earlier discussion of the ‘American God’ or one of the religions we have discussed, how does it meet similar needs? Is it a successful replacement? Why (not)? 


Several suggestions and questions follow. You do not need to address all of them, and you certainly should not just address them in order. In fact, some of them are not even relevant to option 2. They are there to help guide you as you go about crafting and presenting your religion.

·  Describe the society from which the religion emerged. 


·  Describe the religion’s origin: what events or figures led to the development of the religion? 


·  Describe the god(s), if there are any. 


·  What is the relationship between gods? What are their personality traits? Where does it/they 
live? What does it like? Require? Is it good? All-powerful or all-knowing? How does it 
interact with people? 


·  Describe the belief system, rules and morality. 


·  Describe the priesthood. 


·  Describe religious practice: what people do both regularly and when there’s a problem. 


·  What problem (if any) does your religion address and how does it solve it? 


·  What mystery does the religion help to explain? 


·  What benefit do people get from practicing it? 


·  Are they exclusively committed to this religion? 


·  What would it take for them to abandon it? 
The project should be at least 5 pages, double-spaced. You are welcome to structure it in any way you like. The goal is to clearly, thoughtfully, thoroughly and creatively presents your religion to me. Make sure to explicitly connect your project to class. You may either intersperse allusions to class material throughout your work or have a paragraph or two at the end where you make explicit mention of how your project relates to class. 


The projects will be graded according to the following criteria:
1) Presentation (30%): Is your project thoughtful and presented clearly and coherently?
2) Originality and Perceptiveness (20%): Is your religion creative and/or your analysis of it

thoughtful and insightful?
3) Class connection (20%): (How well) do you connect your project to the class (e.g., themes,

theories and religions)?
4) Argument and Evidence (30%): Do you offer a compelling explanation of your religion?

*If you plan to make a religion based on a popular phenomenon (e.g., football or a pop star), it is probably better to answer the second question, explaining how it acts like a religion. If you decide to create a religion out of it, make sure it passes the believability test.