Religion can be understood primarily as an attempt of a group of individuals gathering together to understand essential questions based on a set of cultural practices specific to that group. Sometimes these practices may not seemingly conform to our normal expectations from a 'religion'. One, however could easily make the argument than any religion can look strange to those on the outside of it, but most of the major world religions all follow a pretty similar pattern as far as practices and beliefs. The world however is a big, strange and diverse place.
According to an article from trending posts the religions listed below are considered to be some of the “weirdest” religions.
Scientology
The Church of Scientology is a cult created in 1952 as an outgrowth of an earlier self-help system called Dianetics. The Church of Scientology holds that at the higher levels of initiation mystical teachings are imparted that may be harmful to unprepared readers. Scientology also teaches that people are immortal beings who have forgotten their true nature. Its method of spiritual rehabilitation, in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past in order to free themselves of their limiting effects
Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth
TOPY is dedicated to the manifestation of magical concepts lacking mysticism or the worship of gods. The group focuses on the psychic and magical aspects of the human brain linked with "guiltless sexuality". TOPY's research has covered both left hand and right hand ritual magic and elements of psychology, art and music. On the 23rd hour (11:00pm) of the 23rd day of each month TOPY members were encouraged to make magical sigils. If an individual chose to do so, they were invited to mail their sigils to a central location where the magical energy in them could be used to enhance others.
Church of all worlds
The church of all worlds is inspired by the science fiction novel "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlen. They still use elements of science fiction novels in their religion, particularly the Harry Potter books. The key founder is Oberon Zell-Ravenheart who serves as the Church's Primate. They recognize “Gaea,” the Earth Mother Goddess and the Father God, as well as the realm of Faeries and the deities of many other pantheons. Many of their ritual celebrations are centered on the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece. Following the tradition of using fiction as a basis for his ideas, Zell-Ravenheart recently founded The Grey School of Wizardry inspired in part by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the school in the Harry Potter novels.
The Church of Euthanasia
The Church of Euthanasia was inspired by a dream, in which Rev. Chris Korda confronted an alien intelligence known as “The Being” who speaks for the inhabitants of Earth in other dimensions. The Being warned that our planet's ecosystem is failing, and that our leaders deny this. The Being asked why our leaders lie to us, and why so many of us believe these lies. Rev. Korda awoke from the dream moaning the Church's infamous slogan, Save the Planet - Kill Yourself.
Question: If you could start your own religion would you? If so what would it be?
Future Research: In my future research I plan on researching and writing about the more common and known religions, and writing about what causes religious conflict between common religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Muslim.
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