Motivation

Aren't there enough religions in the world already? It would probably be more correct to say there are far too many. So why invent another one?

As much as there are plenty of religions to choose from, there clearly isn't "something for everybody". The old faiths are beginning to flounder, and are failing to attract new members. It isn't the done thing to indoctrinate one's children anymore in Western society (and I would never claim it would be right), and they just aren't appealing to young people on their own merits. After centuries of theological development, they have begun to stagnate and lapse into traditionalism. Even current practitioners quite often only engage in it on a cultural basis, such that the religion is rendered little more than a set of obscure rituals.

But the need for religion hasn't gone away. When religions fade away, the spiritual needs of people still remain. Belief does not disappear, it merely becomes deregulated. People instead resort to mysticism and superstition, which manifests itself in the growing trend of the New Age movement. Many people who, however rightly, have rejected organised religion for its stubborn absolutism instead accept an ecclectic mix of often nonsensical beliefs for no more reason than that they'd like them to be true, on the basis that people are entitled to believe anything they like. Less spiritually-minded people may become agnostic or atheist instead and, finding it difficult to empathise with the sort of spiritual feelings they don't have themselves, tar New Age beliefs and organised religions with the same brush. In fact, one common feature of the old religions is that they actually discourage superstition - they do at least attempt an internal rationalism even if their founding principles are questionable.

The aim is to contruct a religion that has a principle of continuous development and self-improvement, and which appeals to people both on spiritual and rational grounds. It should be organised in much the same way that the scientific community is organised, such that religion becomes a method rather than a set of conclusions or doctrines. In a way, it could be described as a sort of applied social psychology.