There's lots of reasons why people study alternative religions. What's yours?
Also, feel free to discuss your answers in the forum.
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Explore Alternative Religions
I chose the learning answer, but it’s not quite why I’m here. I’m interested in a calm dialogue between people who are open to possibilities. I think organized religions tend to put people in boxes, professing to believe things they can’t possibly know. They are expected to have faith in what someone tells them to believe. Alternative religions seem more open to the mysteries of life and death.
What is an “alternative” religion? They are all an alternative,in my view, to reality, in that they generally involve a selective belief in the supernatural, which I cannot help but think of as irrational.
My interest in religion is in the history and motivation, propagation and decline. More the sociology of religion than the theology.
“Alternative Religion” is a problematic phrase, although I can’t think of a better one other than, perhaps, “non-mainstream religion”. It also is commonly used to mean religions outside the widely recognised world religions.
On about.com, the Alternative Religion section is basically the collection point for any religion that doesn’t already have its own category.