Wednesday, November 08, 2006

 

How to build a religion (and then watch it fade)


According to Seth Godin, The New York Times recently had a piece about Zoroastrians. The religion is fading, almost certainly to extinction. After more than 3,000 years, one of the most important monotheistic religions is going to go away. We can learn an important lesson about ideaviruses from religions, because they are in many ways the original (and longest-lasting) examples of the genre. Godin gives readers an idea on how to build a relgion that spreads.

"According to the Times, the Zoroastrians are fading away because they believe being good is just about enough and didn't build enough of the elements of an ideavirus into their culture. As they traveled the world, their attitude and hard work rewarded them with success and the ability to mix with other cultures. As a result, they were successful as a people but a failure as a long-term growing religion. It's a fascinating choice, isn't it?"

More information here.

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