Future Religious Visions and Revealed "Truths" are Unpredictable

There has been a lot of publicity about a big religious experience on a college campus. A prominent NY Time columnist and converted Catholic, Ross Douthat, frequently defends his version of Christianity. He has, however, the ability to see it and the rest of religion in a rational way. Important, he says, are the sociology and economic forces of our time that I like to write about. However, he points out, the future of religion, Christianity and all others, also depends on who has, or claims, an encounter with the deity. The deity may not be one that exists today or has ever been heard of previously. He notes the entire history of religion, all religions, has taken unpredictable directions because someone claimed to have had a revelation.

Douthat notes the Bible claims Paul had only one encounter that changed the course of world religion. The rest of his life, so the Bible says, consisted of walking about telling of his encounter and writing letters to keep his organizations going. 

In the U.S. we have our own big-time encounter. In the 1820's Joseph Smith heard from God and saw tablets that started the Mormon Church. It is today the fourth largest church in the U.S and in popular around the world. It is said Smith may have originally thought of the encounter as applying only to himself personally and his personal faith. Later it was regarded by others as a revelation applicable universally. 

The unpredictability is enhanced by the ability of those later who claim to know about the encounter and write about what they think happened. Those who wrote about Paul's encounter said many were present and he saw the white light. Yet, no one who wrote about it claimed to have been there. No one else was present when Joseph Smith had his conversation with God. What actually happened in these encounters is not important. What people later think happened is the force that prevails. 

Donald Trump has been, maybe still is, seen as some kind of religious message. If he can pull this off, many others can too. There was a strong secular trend going on in the last half of the 1800's. That was when Mormonism took off. 

We can't know when the next person will see a light.