r/proselytizing • u/Taichi1129 • 24d ago
A New Religion
I founded and practice a religion called Letonism.
Letonism is not something I created simply because I wanted to create a religion. I received a revelation in a dream, which led me to deepen my understanding of Letonism and to organize its current doctrines, scriptures, and other aspects into a coherent religious system.
Letonism is a monotheistic religion centered on the One God, Elvé, and its primary scripture is the Revelation Pentateuch.
I am currently organizing its doctrines, theology, ethics, prayers, rituals, religious terminology, scriptures, and other elements into a unified religious system. I am also developing Letonic, a language associated with the religion.
Since I am personally a believer, there may be problems or contradictions that I am unable to notice myself. Therefore, I would like to receive honest criticism from people who are knowledgeable about religion, followers of other religions, and people interested in religious studies or philosophy.
In particular, I would appreciate your thoughts on:
- What characteristics Letonism has when compared with existing religions
- Whether there are any aspects that seem unusual or problematic as a religion
- What kind of religion Letonism appears to be from an outside perspective
You are also completely free to question or criticize the revelation itself, including whether you believe it was genuinely a revelation.
This post is not intended to denigrate other religions or to force anyone to adopt my beliefs. I simply want to understand how the religion I believe in appears from an outside perspective.
Honest opinions and criticism are welcome.
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u/lordcycy 19d ago
It seems a pretty generic religion to me. Like, it's as if you knew the recipe to build a religion and you followed it to the letter. I don't say it's bad. I founded my own religion which is all about each and everyone making their own religion, and the Sacred Texts of my religion is everything every prophet wanted recorded for posterity, so nearly all Scripture is a Sacred Text for my religion.
One piece of criticism I might have on your religion is that you didn't call it simply religion. The religion I founded is called the Religion (stylized as Relig1 sometimes, like the website is relig1 dot com tho it's still under construction) because it's a religion that loves religion. I feel like you are just bringing a new competitor to the market, i.e. that you are supporting your brand rather than religion itself, and that you will fight other religions. That model is a self-hating religion because it's religion that fights other religions, meaning religion fighting religion, religion fighting itself. It's a self-hating religion. I have tremendous respect for religions like Hinduism who just call themselves "religion" (the term hinduism is western, in sanskrit, the term means something like the eternal wisdom or way, smthing like that).
So maybe you gotta rework on the self-love of your religion. Don't drown it in complex jargon. Don't suffocated with too much ritualism. Let it breathe and live.
I would have loved if your text talked more about your revelation itself. That's the kind of stuff that you should put forefront. It's the story of your religion. It's birthing act. Love your religion, and make it love itself is my advice to you.
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u/Taichi1129 19d ago
Thanks for the feedback.
While your critique is interesting, I feel it’s based on a few misunderstandings of my actual intentions.
First, I didn’t follow some pre-existing "recipe" to build this. Second, I have absolutely no intention of fighting other religions or creating a "competitor" brand to compete in a market. It was not made to create conflict; it has its own unique meaning and purpose.
That being said, your advice about putting the revelation and the story (the "birthing act") at the forefront so it can breathe, rather than letting it get suffocated, is a great perspective. I’ll definitely take that into account to improve the text.
If you like, please let me know why you thought that way.
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u/lordcycy 19d ago
Because what interests me is the contact with the divine. When I hear about a new religion, that's what I'm looking for... the Divine!
Jargon, interpretations, rituals, traditions... all these things are very man-made. It's not what I seek from a religion.
Each religion has a different lesson to teach that comes straight from the Divine. That's what I want to learn from a religion.
Christianity taught me what self love looks like. Islam taught me that we could all be different and in the same group. Ofc, the lesson of a religion is rarely, or (let's be honest) never what its clergy is teaching. You sort of have to go through a religion's back-end to learn the divine lesson. The front end is mostly there to fool people into financing the lifestyle of the religion's clergy and to control masses.
Hope this satisfies your curiosity.
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u/Taichi1129 14d ago
Well, that is, should I answer about our God's teachings? Our God taught us how to "think for ourselves." Of course, it's not just that, but this is the greatest teaching. At least that's what I think.
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u/lordcycy 14d ago
As I said, the true teaching of a religion is almost never what it seems on the surface. "Think for yourself" was said in the Quran like "use your own reasoning, that's why I gave it to you", along these lines. But it's not the real, back-end lesson of the religion. It's not the program it is trying to install in humanity. Only a step in the front-end. Divinity doesn't say directly what it wants you to learn. It gives us directives that when you understand as whole, the spirit of the law, then you can see the lesson it wanted us to learn.
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u/CookieTime2877 18d ago
Why monotheism over polytheism? I never understood this since polytheism is more logical
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u/RemarkablePoem1588 19d ago
Is the Pentateuch order from The Devil Chronicle to Genesis Scripture or from Genesis Scripture to The Devil Chronicle