Topic: Philosophy – New Religion
Order Description
Directions: Choose one of the stories from David Eagleman’s book Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives.
Write a paper which uses the story you choose as the basis for a “new” religion: in the paper include all of the elements below. (Please don’t merely write out a check list where you answer each of the questions in order. Write this paper as if you are describing this religion.) One way to think of these elements is to frame them in light of Huston Smith’s six aspects of religion: authority, ritual, speculation, tradition, grace and mystery. (100 pts.)
1. Briefly summarize Eagleman’s story.
2. Give your “new” religion a name.
3. Explicitly show how the conception of the afterlife in the story plays a role in the doctrine of the new religion.
4. Does this religion have Priests, Priestesses, Rabbis, Pastors, Imams, Gurus, Shamans, etc.?
5. What kind of scriptures, if any, does this religion have?
6. Are there special practices or rituals which are part of this religion?
7. When did this religion first develop? (i.e. Is this a new religion created within the last couple of years, the last couple of hundred, or is it very old and its ancient scriptures and artifacts been only recently discovered – perhaps in the renovation of some archeological site?)
8. Does this religion have a single branch or are there variations of belief? (Think Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Catholic/Protestant/Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Sunni/Shi’a Islam or Orthodox and Reform Judaism, etc.)
9. Is this a patriarchal or matriarchal belief system? (Explain why it’s the case.)
10. What kinds of persons would be attracted to this new faith? Why?

The goal of the paper is to have you reflect on the various components/aspects which make some set of ideas as a religion as well as to have some fun thinking about a “new” religion.