Real New Religion

            The tale of a man claiming to have been given secret information by extraterrestrial beings, who have telepathically chosen him and lead him to a specific meeting spot sounds like the plot of an X Files episode. However, as much as Scully would shake her head in disbelief, this is not a story for entertainment purposes.  This is what Claude Vorilhon, known now as the prophet Raёl, experienced.  These aliens, the Elohim, bestowed upon him the knowledge that they, in fact, had crated the human race and had inspired the Bible.  Unfortunately, they had created humans unable to understand science, thus leading to many problems in the future.

            While this story seems far-fetched and unbelievable, it is not so strange that Raёl has not had success in developing a following.  The idea that a person could be visited by powerful beings and be given sacred, secret knowledge not a new concept by far. Prophets are a staple in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, all of them claiming divine intervention.  Raёl ties himself to these prophets by equating his experience with Ezekiel’s and claiming to have the same father as Jesus Christ.  When faced with declarations such as these, the initial reactions for most people consist of shock, disbelief, possibly scorn.   While these are the general reactions to outlandish claims, I would argue that the real issue here is not the fantastic nature of the claims, but the newness and unfamiliarity of the claims.  In the Bible, there are many-eyed angels, beasts with multiple heads and talking horns, and quite a few people who claim divine knowledge.  These are all accepted as religious truths that do their own work, and they are old enough to have gained a sort of gravitas; they are not seen as frivolous hoaxes, as new religions and prophets are.

            This is all to say that new religions, biblically based or otherwise, have a place in the sea of ancient religions.  They may be outlandish to be introduced to, but they can be just as genuine and inspirational as any ancient text or group.  Their newness alone is no reason to be dismissive.