How would you create a religion that would last 1000 years?

Tagged:

You’re going to need to come up with something more powerful than Christianity. To give you an example of what you’re up against here, Christianity managed to displace all of Europe’s pagan pantheons over the short course of a thousand years. It’s quite possible that it would have replaced all of Asia’s religions too if Christian missionaries had been motivated enough or gotten there sooner.

Christianity rests on a powerful idea, that faith alone can make you a Christian. All you have to do is accept Jesus, and Jesus does the rest.

There’s a very practical aspect to why this is so powerful. You were nothing in the ancient world without a people and a creed. You had no way of getting anywhere, the most you could hope for is a short career in banditry before you met your end. It’s mentioned multiple times in the Bible that showing up in town as a total stranger can get you gang-raped by the whole town, just for sport. The world just wasn’t a nice place.

So when Christian missionaries showed up in many towns, they were the nicest, friendliest, most generous people around. And all they asked was for you to accept Jesus as your personal savior.

Have you ever heard of stone soup? Some friendly strangers show up in town with no food. So they get some water and boil a big rock. Some people come around and asked what they were eating. “Stone soup! It’s great like this, but it would be even better with some carrots!” So the villagers go get some carrots. One by one, eventually a great big hearty stew is made for everyone in town.

Religion is just like that, where belief and a little cooperation makes the whole world a better place. And Christianity is the culmination of religiously-cultivated cooperation. All you have to do is say you’re a Christian, and you can share in the hearty stew. This massively contrasts with other religions and what you had to do to earn the fruits of everybody’s labor. Christians will share their soup with you, all you have to do is ask.

If you want to make Christianity’s successor, you’re going to need to come up with an even more powerful motivator for cooperation than just asking.