The Religion Project - World Religions Dr. Hundley

For the religion project, your assignment is to create and describe your own religion. As you begin to plan your religion, think about the various religions and religious traditions that we have studied and the earlier discussion of gods, religion and the brain. You have two options:

1) Create your own religion. It can fit in this world (e.g., be an innovative combination of religions or a new one entirely) or be purely imaginary (e.g., the religion of ants or of an alien society).

2) Describe (or design) a modern phenomenon that could fill the same needs as traditional religion and even function like a religion (e.g., a pseudo-religion centered around Michael Jackson, social media, your phone, politics, sports, something not yet invented, etc.).

scribe your replacement ‘religion' and compare it to a more traditional approach. For example, keeping in mind our earlier discussion of the ‘American God' or one of the religions we have discussed, how does it meet similar needs? Is it a successful replacement? Why (not)?

Several suggestions and questions follow. You do not need to address all of them, and you certainly should not just address them in order. In fact, some of them are not even relevant to option 2. They are there to help guide you as you go about crafting and presenting your religion.

• Describe the society from which the religion emerged.

• Describe the religion's origin: what events or figures led to the development of the religion?

• Describe the god(s), if there are any.

• What is the relationship between gods? What are their personality traits? Where does it/they live? What does it like? Require? Is it good? All-powerful or all-knowing? How does it interact with people?

• Describe the belief system and rules.

• Describe the priesthood.

• Describe religious practice: what people do both regularly and when there's a problem?

• What problem (if any) does your religion address and how does it solve it?

• What mystery does the religion help to explain?

• What benefit do people get from practicing it?

• Are they exclusively committed to this religion?

• What would it take for them to abandon it?

The project should be 5 pages, double-spaced. You are welcome to structure it in any way you like. The goal is to clearly, thoughtfully, thoroughly and creatively present your religion to me.

If you wish to include accompanying artwork (e.g., make a statue, altar, draw/paint an image, or create a comic strip/mini-graphic novel), a 4 page, double-spaced write-up is acceptable.*

If you are ambitious and artistic, you may make a graphic novel in place of a paper, but the content must be comparable to a 5-page paper.

The projects will be graded according to the following criteria:

1) Presentation (30%): Is your project thoughtful and presented clearly and coherently?

2) Originality and Perceptiveness (40%): Is your religion creative? Does your presentation of it build on the themes discussed in class?

3) Argument and Evidence (30%): Do you offer a compelling explanation of your religion?

*Be creative. Do not simply reproduce an image from the textbook or the internet. You can make a 3d image (e.g., a sculpture or papier mâché), paint or draw a picture, make a collage, use photoshop, or create something using technology (e.g., an animated cartoon, computer game or video), etc.