How do you create other religions in a setting where one religion is the one true religion with a god that...

How do you create other religions in a setting where one religion is the one true religion with a god that semi-frequently intervenes in the world, without making the other religions cults of evil?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=yRujuE-GIY4
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

an original scripture with multiple interpretations, and riddles with multiple answers. alternatively certain groups rejecting the god rather than worshipping

"It is written that the Great Dragons descended from heaven and made the world, and the nobility were given a great blessing from the Dragons."
"No, the blessing is of the Dragons' Essence, not from the dragons!"
And thus a thousand year schism began. Add extra factions as needed. Every ass-numbingly autistic dissection of dogma spawns yet another religion. They all technically worship the same God, but the doctrine is subtly different. And they all fucking hate each other.

everyone interprets the god and his teachings differently, like is this fucking hard

this is basically how abrahamic religions work in the real world you fucking torgladyte

It'd be a little different if God regularly came down and told people who was right and wrong and could give scripture out of his own mouth rather than through prophets.

"What'd he say?"
"I think he said 'Blessed are the cheesemakers, for theirs is the kingdom eleven'."
"That's nice of him. Eleven whole kingdoms of blessed people, imagine!"

Huh, I hadn't thought of that. I guess if I went with that approach the miracles and divine interventions would either have to be spread around for multiple denominations (maybe even the non-believers sometimes), debatable as to whether it was their god (and not a demon), or have to help everyone out at once, so as to not show favor towards one denomination.

Actually, that gives me an idea...

Chill out, I was in a bit of a rut, I'm not great with religious creation.

That's not quite the idea I had in mind, rather it was more along the lines of every now and then the people see two angels/demons having a battle or some holy man will come back to life after being murdered, stuff like that.

As for the occasions that men do get to speak to angels, if they ask them "are we the right church/temple/denomination/etc." I imagine the angel could either exasperatedly refuse to answer or respond along the lines of "you're ALL idiots".

Make the intervention vague, open to interpretation.

How interconnected is your world? If there's no means of mass communication or the like, people would really easily chalk the actual divine intervention to just being stories, then you end up with a bunch of other religions existing for all the reasons religions do IRL that are dominant in their regions of the world for the same reasons religions are IRL.

"Oh great angel, we must ask, what is the holiest day? Is it Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?"
"What part of 'Praise God every day of your life' was ambiguous, you lazy fucking shit."
Bitchy DMV Worker Angels is my new favorite idea.

Have the other religions not focused on a god, Buddhist style.
Sure, there's a god, but god's gonna judge you in the hereafter, you've got other stuff to worry about here and now.

If there's one true god, that doesn't necessarily mean there's only one religion based on the actions of that god. The god intervenes semi-frequently in various ways in various places. The people that witness the interventions (and/or the aftermaths of those interventions) will have witnessed them in the context of their own perspectives, which will color their interpretations and practices. If the witnesses are geographically separate from each other, there would likely be entire sets of divine interventions that are known in one culture and not known in the other, possibly leading to additional separation between the particulars of the faith.

You said there is one true religion based on this god. Perhaps it is the religion that has done the best job of correctly interpreting the sign, portents, and miracles they were exposed to. Maybe the one true god likes for them to be right and for the others to be wrong, and has intentionally allowed the incorrect interpretations to flourish.

Why doesn't the one true god just come down and correct the people who are wrong? Fuck you, you're not god's boss, you don't get to tell it what to do.

Pretty darn interconnected, the miracles and divine intervention is still happening and it's around WW1 era technology. I'm also perfectly fine with making the population apathetic towards god and the demons, if that fits better.

I take it your angels aren't faithfully accurate representatives of the god in this setting? If mortals were all idiots in the context of the question, that would suggest there is no true religion and the OP premise is shaky at best.

"I just want you to know that when you rebelled against God I was the one the advocating for him to terminate your asses and start from scratch, okay? So please don't get on my fucking nerves while I'm down here."

Yeah, I stated that wrong. There's not necessarily one true "religion", but there is definitely a god and that isn't ambiguous in the setting. It's not like Game of Thrones, everyone clearly knows that there is definitely a god and that god does have a scripture and all that, but that doesn't mean that one religion in particular follows his teachings correctly.

Why would there be other religions in such a setting? Why do you feel compelled to put something into a setting when it logically wouldn't exist?

Animism is a basic construct of the human mind, user. It's instinctive - even little children anthropomorphise things and create imaginary friends and attribute human level intelligence to animals.

>Every ass-numbingly autistic dissection of dogma spawns yet another religion
Just like in deal life, eh? Well worded, user

I guess it depends on the religion in question. Does God affect their lives directly? Do they demand worship? Is there a punishment for not doing so? Has the God given humanity a pre-defined code of ethics?
Did God even ask for a religion to be started, does it help at all? If any of those are true it'd be really hard to be apathetic to God.

The other thing you could do is make the reverse true and have the supernatural elements completely apathetic towards people. With no guiding hand people start interpreting stuff pretty much how they like to fit with their pre-conceived notions.
The religions don't guide the shaping of ethics and a way of life, the way of life and cultural ethics shape the religions and how they interpret what God wants (which, in their eyes, lines up with what they want.)

So WWI technology & communication, one true god that's still doing revelatory / overtly miraculous work, no single religion currently has a fully accurate take on how to deal with this in a way that's fully pleasing to the one true god.

Ask most religious people and they'd tell you you just described the real world in WWI. Multiple religions, most think they're the best game on offer, no self-evidently-authoritative judge has settled the matter to everybody's satisfaction.

>Does God affect their lives directly?
Every now and then an angel will come down, grab a few people (seemingly without any preference as to their denomination) and assign them on a holy mission. Or said angel will get involved himself and kick some ass. Demons attempt to do the exact same thing, with varying degrees of success.

>Do they demand worship? Is there a punishment for not doing so? Has the God given humanity a pre-defined code of ethics?
Well, there is a written guidebook like the Bible, but the wording can be a little vague at times. One might say that you are meant to follow the spirit of the words rather than the exact lettering, but others might call you a heretic for such beliefs. Kind of like religion in our own world.

>Did God even ask for a religion to be started, does it help at all?
He definitely wants followers, but then I guess you could always have those people who insist that what they have isn't religion, it's a "relationship with god".

>The other thing you could do is make the reverse true and have the supernatural elements completely apathetic towards people. With no guiding hand people start interpreting stuff pretty much how they like to fit with their pre-conceived notions.
>The religions don't guide the shaping of ethics and a way of life, the way of life and cultural ethics shape the religions and how they interpret what God wants (which, in their eyes, lines up with what they want.)
Interesting idea, I probably won't go with it but I'll keep it in mind for other settings.

I'm sorry my guy, didn't mean to be hostile, I'm v intoxicated tonight. Hope your setting is going well ;)

>One might say that you are meant to follow the spirit of the words rather than the exact lettering, but others might call you a heretic for such beliefs. Kind of like religion in our own world.

Well there's your answer then, user. You have one religion, but a bunch of different denominations of it, sometimes changed by those who claim to be prophets and develop cults of personality.
Mormons, Jehova's Witnesses, Catholics and Anglicans are all Christians, but they have some pretty radically different beliefs on various issues. Same with your fictional world. If they are local to different regions and thus have different names for God, you've got different religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam all follow the same God after all, they all just happen to have different names and disagree on what's canon and what's important to their religion, which is something that already exists in your world.

If you're more interested, read up on the things that caused the separation of the Abrahamic religions, the split between Sunni and Shiah Muslims, Catholicism and Protestantism or how Anglicanism came to be formed and become what it is today.

Instead of thinking like trying to make different religions, just make a bunch of different denominations for your one god and change up some of their language. You get all the effects of having different religions while keeping them all well aware that their god is right and real, because they are.

OP is your god a very large sxy girl?

that's hot

Thanks user, for some reason I didn't think of that idea. So basically, I'd be creating a world similar to ours if the Abrahamic religions and all their denominations existed, but not the pagan religions. Which leaves a heck of a lot of room for variety while still having people be able to (with teeth clenched and fist bared) say that they worship the same god ("but those others people are doing it WRONG").

It would be funny, imagining a giant angel and demon having battle outside a city, then afterwards all the denominations argue over how that battle clearly showed that they were in the right and the others are in the wrong somehow.
>guy 1: "The angel defended a city with a majority Carnian population, therefore he was defending our church"
>guy 2: "That was just so you could live a little longer to convert to the Mestasi temple before you die!"
>guy 3: "I'd just like to point out that this battle happened on the exact day that the Riordan brotherhood said it would."
>guy 1: "You've been making predictions about coming battles every day for the last hundred years, even a broken clock is right twice a day!"

>Riordans only think you go to heaven if you die in battle
>Akashic Brotherhood think that only the wise go to Heaven
>Mesati believe that the spiritually pure go to Heaven
>The Stevians think Heaven is reserved for people named Steve
>Turns out It's Sheol for everyone, fuckos!

>one angel sits in an old abandoned cathedral, passing out sage advise to those willing to listen
>his words frequently cause divisions within the churches, as no one knows how to interpret his words
>he's actually trying to tell them to put aside their differences to work together for a greater purpose, but few people are willing to see through their dogmatic mindset and see the truth

The angel is played by Alan Rickman.
>"Of course I'm the Voice of God. I wasn't bloody well picked for my face, now was I?"

Like in real life. The Christian God is real, but other people made their own thing & that's okay

Could you not have other semi divine beings that are worshipped as gods or aspects of the one true God? There's a plot hook in there somewhere. Alternatively, have it similar to Small gods, where being a/the major player is dependant on the number and zealotry of your followers. Maybe the current god is just the most popular entity and the others are trying to unseat it legitimately

no you were RIGHT it's mind boggling that this isn't obvious

Dragon worship, nature worship, magic worship, various rituals that don’t include a worship aspect, have a self-appointed prophet show up.

Also animism.

Since the idea of using different denominations has cropped up look into the Gospel of Judas and other gnostic texts to see how radically different traditions can be.

The angels could possibly be worshipped (against the god's wishes)

>well meaning, but misguided god denyers
>same religion, but schism over minutiae like wether god has a beard or sth
>full on contrarian anti-god

>group screwed over by luck or the bad guys' schemes, blames god

Let's not forget the possibility of lesser beings being worshiped as gods. Like a fucking dragon. Or they could be dedicated to a philosophy.

>Life started.
>No one questions it.
>Suddenly a people starts to question where they came from.
>Differing interpretations pop up based on local cultures and values.

Ta-dah!

The god's interference is often times seen as just part of the world and the non-believers don't think it's divine?

Perhaps, although it would be pretty hard to explain otherwise.

youtube.com/watch?v=yRujuE-GIY4

It'd be very hard to prove that this "god" thing is any different than any other extraordinary powerful extra-planar entity. That might sound like quite a pedigree on its own until you realize it describes just about every random demon, angel, elemental, and shoggoth, and all of which have yet to be proven more powerful than the local dragon either. COULD be god, or could just be boss-angel with delusions of grandure.

Every now and then God comes down and says: “This one. This denomination is the correct one.” All the practitioners of rival denominations hear this, and they redouble their worship, because while God prefers those guys, if we work really hard, we’ll convince him we’re the true chosen children and he’ll favour us.