Religion

About

Religion is a spiritual and cultural system of ideas, beliefs and behaviors typically built upon a history of holy and sacred traditions.^[28] Adherents of a religion can engage in a variety of religious practices including worship, celebration, prayer, meditation, sermons, sacrifice, and contribute to aspects of human culture such as art, writing, music, dance, and philosophy,

History

Early History

One of the first known religious acts by humankind diverging from all known species is ritual burial. The first known undisputed burial occurred 100,000 years ago in Qafzeh cave where a child was buried with ritual goods not part of the cave's natural interior.^[1] The oldest known religious text is the Kesh Temple Hymn (also known as the Liturgy to Nintud) and was written on a Sumerian clay tablet in 2600 B.C. (first paragraph shown below).^[10]

The princely lord, the princely lord came forth from the house. Enlil, the princely lord, came forth from the house. The princely lord came forth royally from the house. Enlil lifted his glance over all the lands, and the lands raised themselves to Enlil. The four corners of heaven became green for Enlil like a garden. Kesh was positioned for him with head uplifted, and as kesh lifted its head among all the lands, Enlil spoke in praise of Kesh.

Contemporary mainstream religions are but are not limited to Christianity,^[2] Islam,^[3] Judaism,^[4] Hinduism,^[5] Buddhism,^[6] Sikhism,^[7] Shintoism,^[8] and Taoism.^[9] The evolution of each religion is long, elaborate, and often disputed. Below is a chart of religions across history though it has been criticized for multiple inaccuracies and exclusions on Reddit.^[21]

Indiana and Arkansas Religious Freedom Restoration Acts

Indiana and Arkansas Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, also know as Indiana SB 101 and Arkansas SB 975, are two bills passed in March 2015 by the state legislatures of Arkansas and Indiana. The bills are controversial due to the fact that they allow businesses and individuals to assert that their religion is a defense in discrimination lawsuits, exempting them from federal non-discrimination laws. The federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed in 1993^[29]. This law was partly intended to protect the religious freedom of Native Americans, allowing them the ceremonial use of peyote and the ability to conduct ceremonial gatherings on land they considered sacred. However, in 2014, the Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision^[30] recognized a corporation’s right to religious belief, and shortly thereafter, several states introduced bills that would allow corporations to discriminate based on those beliefs. In Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a bill in 2014, but in March 2015, the governors of Indiana and Arkansas ratified theirs.

Fandom

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Related Subcultures

Atheism

Atheism is, in the broadest sense, the absence of belief in the existence of deities.^[12] Atheism is considered by most in the atheist community to not be a religion and many go on to say atheism has no belief system beyond not believing in a supernatural being.^[13] It is however a notable belief among the religious community.

Christianity

Christianity is a religion which worships a single God and his son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Followers of Christianity are commonly known as Christians, sometimes shortened to Xtians. They believe that God created the universe and everything in it. They also hold the belief that his son Jesus was hung on a cross to die, only to come back to life 3 days after. Jesus Christ represents the forgiveness of sin from humanity. Christianity is currently the religion with the most followers in the world. The central religious text that Christians use as a guide is the Bible.^[2]

Islam

Islam is a monotheistic Abrahamic religion which revolves around the worship and submission to God. Islam’s followers are known as Muslims and they believe that God’s final prophet was a man named Muhammad. Islam’s central religious text is the Qur’an which is believed by Muslims to be God’s direct words.^[3] Muslims commonly practice “The Five Pillars of Islam” which include Shahadah, or announcing that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is his messenger, Salat, or praying towards the holy city of Mecca at five regular intervals throughout the day, Sawm, the ritual of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, Zakat, or giving 2.5% of you money to people who need it more if financially capable, and Hajj, which is the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca at least once during a Muslim’s lifetime if they are capable.^[14] Two major sects of Islam include the Sunni^[15] and the Shia.^[16]

Judaism

Judaism refers to the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people, as an ethno-cultural and ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites of the Ancient Near-East. According to the Hebrew Bible, The Israelites descend from the Patriarchs Abraham, his son Isaac and Isaac’s son, Jacob. The biggest persecution against the Jews occurred during the Third Reich by the Nazi government, where approximately six million Jews were killed in what would be known as the Holocaust, often referred to as one of the biggest genocides and most horrific events in human history.^[17]

Kopimism

Kopimism is an online movement espousing the benefits of free file-sharing that is officially recognized as a religious community by the Swedish Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency. Kopimists consider copying information as a fundamental right and encourage piracy of all types of media including music, movies, TV shows and software. Although it is recognized as a religion, the belief system lacks deities and other supernatural beliefs. The domain for the website kopimi.com^[25] was created and registered by the Swedish organization Piratbyrån on January 25th, 2005. The site encourages the use of kopimi, a copyright alternative designed to encourage copying for any purpose, and includes instructions on how to display the kopimi symbol on a website.

Otherkin

Otherkin is a term used to refer to people who believe that their physical bodies do not reflect their perceived “actual” non-human spiritual forms. This perceived entity may range from mythical species like demons, dragons, elves and faeries to wild animals and domesticated pets. The phenomenon of identifying oneself as a non-human dates back to the 1970s when a group of self-identifying faeries known as “The Elf Queen’s Daughters” was formed. However, the term “otherkin” was coined decades later in April 1990 with the appearance of the word “otherkind” on the Elfinkind Digest^[27], a mailing list for elves started by R’ykandar Korra’ti in March 1990.

Saint Young Men

Saint Young Men (Japanese: 聖☆おにいさん) is a Japanese anime about Jesus and Buddha living together as roommates in present day Tokyo. The movie was based on a manga by Hikaru Nakamura. Saint Young Men was released in Japan on May 10th, 2013.^[22] The DVD was released in October 2013.

Scientology

Scientology is a belief system created by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard in 1952, inspired by his earlier self-help system Dianetics. Scientologists believe that humans are limited by traumatic past events that keep them from realizing their immortality. The Church of Scientology is devoted to promoting the belief system and has been known to sue critics who claim that the organization abuses and extorts finances from its members. They were infamously hacked, harassed and protested globally by the internet vigilanti and hacktivist group Anonymous during Project Chanology in 2008.

Related Memes

Advice God

Advice God is an advice animal image macro series featuring a portrait of an old man with grey hair and a long flowing beard. The images are typically captioned with text that denounces religion (often christianity) by pointing out apparent biblical contradictions and attributing mischievous behaviors to God. The image of the old man comes from Michelangelo’s artistic rendition of the Christian God in The Creation of the Sun and Moon, one of the many paintings made between 1508 and 1512 that adorn the walls in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican City, Italy.^[18][19]

Coexist

Coexist is a word made up of religious and political movement symbols. The series of seven symbols composing the word are typically the symbols for Islam, peace, evolution, Judaism, Egyptian mythology/neo-paganism, Buddhism, and Christianity.^[20] It has existed as a movement promoting the end of discrimination against any belief system often appearing in the form of shirts and bumper stickers.^[11]

Cult of Kek

Cult of Kek, also known as Church of Kek, is a satirical religion based around the worship of the ancient Egyptian deity Kek^[26] (also spelled Kuk or Keku), an androgynous God of darkness and chaos who is often depicted as a frog or frog-headed man in male form or a snake-headed woman in female form. On 4chan, the character Pepe the Frog is often considered a modern avatar of the deity, who uses ancient Egyptian meme magic to influence the world, often by fulfilling the wishes of posts that end in repeating numbers. Additionally, the deity is often associated with the popular 4chan slang term “Kek”, and is often embraced by supporters of 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Practitioners are known to frequently write “praise Kek,” and jokingly refer to the church as a “religion of peace.”

Eye of Providence

Eye of Providence aka the all-seeing eye of God is a symbol often associated with The Illuminati especially online.^[23] It consists of an eye enclosed within a triangle. A depiction of the symbol is shown on the United States one-dollar bill (shown below). The symbol became associated with Freemasonry^[24] in 1797, a fraternal organization which many associate with the Illuminati.

I Can Be Your Angle Or Yuor Devil

"I Can Be Your Angle Or Yuor Devil" is an intentionally misspelled phrase used in combination with two-pane images highlighting two opposite sides of a fictional character or individual that are typically posted on Reddit, Twitter and other forums dedicated to cringe humor.

Religion Pigeon

Religion Pigeon is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photograph of a pigeon with a blue and yellow color wheel background. Similar to the Advice God and Scumbag Christian advice animals, the captions typically mock perceived religious contradictions found in various denominations of Christianity.

Search Interest

Searches for religion, religions, and religious all dip down during July for unknown reasons.

External References