Branch from a faith
inherit its spine, then disagree in publicYou inherit the cosmology, the practices, and every claim — then choose, element by element, what crosses with you: keep, rewrite, or drop each claim; keep or leave each figure, rite, story and text. 171 faiths to branch from.
Dave StevismDave Steves is the physical manifestation of the Universe.
The Religion of HumanityWorship the species, and remember that most of it is dead.
ChristianityGod became human, died under empire, and did not stay dead.
The Bahá'í FaithOne God, one human family, one unfolding revelation.
Aum ShinrikyoA Japanese yoga school that built a doctrine of liberation, and then a chemical weapon.
Cao ĐàiAll religions are one — and God has a left eye on all of it.
Church of the Eternal BackupYou are data. Act accordingly.
Church Universal and TriumphantSpeak the decree out loud, fast, and the light answers.
ConfucianismSociety as ritual: become fully human through the forms.
CynicismOwn nothing, owe nothing, say everything.
DeismA creator you can infer, and cannot petition.
DiscordianismA joke disguised as a religion, disguised as a joke.
Dudeism (The Church of the Latter-Day Dude)The slowest-growing religion in the world.
EckankarSoul travel — leave the body on purpose, and come back with something.
Effective AltruismWork out where the money does the most good, then send it there for the rest of your life.
EpicureanismNothing to fear in the gods, nothing to feel in death.
Haitian VodouServe the lwa well, and the lwa serve life.
Heathenry (Ásatrú)The old gods of the North, honored again.
Heaven's GateThe kingdom of heaven read as a physical place, reached by craft.
IslamThere is no god but God — and life is submission to that fact.
JediismA prank on four censuses that some of the respondents meant.
JudaismOne God, one covenant, one long argument with history.
Love Has WonAn online ascension movement centered on Amy Carlson as Mother God.
MandaeismThe last Gnostics — baptized in living water, every week.
NXIVMA secular self-development system built around ethics, rank, and its founders' authority
PantheismGod is not in the universe. God is the universe.
Pilgrims of the Last TuesdayEverything ends. Practice on Tuesdays.
Pyrrhonism (Scepticism)Suspend judgement, and the quiet arrives on its own.
RaëlismWe were made in a laboratory, and the makers left a forwarding address.
Russian CosmismResurrect the dead — all of them — and then find somewhere to put them.
ShintoThe kami are everywhere — Japan's way of the spirits.
SikhismOne God beyond form; all people equal before it.
SynanonA recovery community that became an all-encompassing communal movement
TaoismThe Way that can be told is not the eternal Way.
The Brahma KumarisYou are a point of light behind the forehead, and the cycle is nearly round.
The Church of ScientologyYou are a thetan, and the recordings are not you.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti MonsterAn argument about science, in the shape of a religion.
The Church of the SubGeniusEternal salvation or triple your money back.
The Compost RiteReturn is the only afterlife we can promise.
The Deep Water PeopleThe sea does not need you to believe in it.
The Ethical Culture MovementDiversity in the creed, unanimity in the deed.
The Missionary Church of KopimismCopying is a sacrament. CTRL+C, CTRL+V.
The Neo-American ChurchVictory over horseshit.
The Order of the Solar TempleA neo-Templar order that expected to leave the Earth for Sirius.
The Rajneesh Movement (Osho)Sannyas without renunciation — celebrate first, witness after.
The Satanic TempleNon-theistic, and entirely in earnest about it.
The Sunday AssemblyChurch, minus the God bit, plus a live band.
The Urantia MovementA book with 2,097 pages and no author who will admit to it.
TranshumanismHuman nature is a first draft, and the draft is editable.
Twin Flames UniverseA founder-led online movement teaching divine partnership, inner healing, and Unionism.
Vedic ReligionThe fire-altar religion of the oldest hymns — the root of the Indian lines.
WiccaThe wheel of the year turns; the Goddess and God turn with it.
YazidismThe Peacock Angel keeps the world.
Yoruba ReligionThe orisha ride the world — ashe moves through everything.
ZoroastrianismGood thoughts, good words, good deeds — the oldest war on evil.
AhmadiyyaThe promised renewal has come — a claim the mainstream rejects.
AlephWhat Aum became, still practising and still reporting to the state.
BuddhismA path out of suffering, open to anyone, requiring no god.
Conservative JudaismHalakha binds — and develops.
HasidismGod wants the heart — serve in joy.
HinduismA family of paths sharing dharma, karma, and liberation — not a single creed.
JainismNon-violence taken to its logical end.
Karaite JudaismScripture without the Talmud.
La Luz del MundoA Mexican Restorationist Christian church centered on modern apostleship, baptism, and communal worship.
Orthodox JudaismThe Torah is binding as given.
Reconstructionist JudaismJudaism as an evolving religious civilization.
Reform JudaismRevelation continues — and ethics is its core.
SamaritanismThe other Israel — the Torah kept on Mount Gerizim.
Santería / LucumíThe orisha crossed the ocean wearing saints' faces.
Second CopyThe copy is not you. Keep it anyway.
Shekinah ChurchAn independent Christian church centered on spiritual gifts, leadership, and salvation
Shia IslamLeadership belongs to the Prophet's house.
StoicismTwo handles on everything; take the one you can hold.
SufismThe heart can know God directly.
Sunni IslamThe path of the community's consensus.
TenrikyoSweep the dust from the heart, and live the Joyous Life.
TerasemLife is purposeful, death is optional, God is technological, love is essential.
The Attention OrderWhat you look at, you become.
The Ledger of Small KindnessesEvery kindness is recorded. By you. That is the whole religion.
The Salt LineOnly the sea. Only salt.
The Tuesday ReformedGrief does not keep a calendar.
Advaita VedāntaNot two. The self and the absolute are one.
Ananda MargaSelf-realisation and service, and neither one on its own.
CatholicismOne, holy, catholic, apostolic — with Peter's successor at the center.
Dvaita VedāntaSelf and God: eternally, gloriously distinct.
Eastern OrthodoxyThe liturgy is heaven on earth; the goal is to become like God.
MahāyānaThe Great Vehicle — awakening, for everyone.
Oriental OrthodoxyThe first families of Christendom — parted at Chalcedon.
Remnant Fellowship ChurchA Christian movement linking devotion, obedience and everyday self-control.
ShaivismShiva: destroyer, dancer, and the yogi's god.
ShaktismThe Goddess is not a consort. She is the power itself.
SmartismFive deities, one Brahman — worship any, arrive at the same place.
The Church of the EastThe church that went east when the empire went west.
The Druze FaithOne God, seventy generations of silence.
The Family InternationalOne law only — love — read out to its last consequence.
The Long Now AssemblyKeep the ledger in centuries.
TheravādaThe way of the elders — the oldest surviving school.
The Taiping Heavenly KingdomA Chinese monotheism that became a state, and then a war.
The Twelve TribesThe church in Acts, restarted — and everything in one purse.
The Unification Church (Family Federation)Finish what the cross left undone — and do it through a family.
Transcendental MeditationTwenty minutes, twice a day, with a sound that is only yours.
VaishnavismVishnu preserves — and comes down when the world needs him.
VajrayānaThe diamond path — enlightenment at full speed.
Nichiren BuddhismThe whole teaching, chanted: Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.
ProtestantismScripture alone. Faith alone. Every believer a priest.
Pure LandWhen the path is too steep, call the Name.
The Ancient Church of the EastA calendar quarrel that hardened into a church.
The Armenian Apostolic ChurchThe first nation baptised, and the church that outlived the nation's states.
The Assyrian Church of the EastThe church that went east — to China, and nearly out of existence.
The Coptic Orthodox ChurchSaint Mark's see, and the longest fasting year in Christendom.
The Eastern Catholic ChurchesEastern rites, Roman communion — a bridge, not a schism.
The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo ChurchThirty years old and sixteen centuries old at the same time.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo ChurchTewahedo — made one. Its own canon, its own calendar, and the Ark.
The International Society for Krishna ConsciousnessChant the names, and Krishna is present in the sound.
The Malankara Orthodox Syrian ChurchSaint Thomas's Indians, with a catholicos of their own since 1912.
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of GodA Ugandan Marian movement that kept the commandments by keeping silent.
The Old Catholic ChurchCatholic — without the infallible pope.
The Syriac Orthodox ChurchAntioch's church, still praying in Aramaic.
Traditionalist CatholicismThe Latin Mass, kept against the current.
ZenDirect pointing at the mind. Sudden awakening. Sitting.
AnabaptismBaptism is for believers — and the sword is not for us.
AnglicanismScripture, tradition, and reason — held together by common prayer.
Calvinism (the Reformed tradition)Grace chooses first — sovereignty all the way down.
Christian Science (the Church of Christ, Scientist)Matter is not what is real, so sickness is not what it appears to be.
CongregationalismThe local church answers to Christ and to nobody in between.
Jehovah's WitnessesGod's name known, God's kingdom preached.
LutheranismLaw and gospel, rightly divided.
PentecostalismThe Spirit did not retire in the first century.
Peoples TempleAn integrated church in Indiana that ended as a settlement in Guyana.
Quakerism (Religious Society of Friends)Silence, until the Light speaks.
RastafariJah lives — and Africa is the promised land.
RinzaiThe kōan school — awakening arrives like a shout.
Seventh-day AdventismThe Sabbath kept, the Advent awaited.
SōtōJust sitting. That is the whole of it.
The Armenian Catholic ChurchArmenian rite, Roman communion, and the same 1915.
The BaptistsA believer's church, a free conscience, an immersed body.
The Chaldean Catholic ChurchEast Syriac liturgy, Roman communion, Baghdad address.
The ChristadelphiansNo Trinity, no immortal soul, no hell, no clergy — and a kingdom coming to Jerusalem, not to the sky.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)The wing of the Restoration Movement that decided unity mattered more than the pattern.
The Christian Churches and Churches of ChristThe third stream: instruments yes, denomination no.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsThe heavens are open again — restoration, not reformation.
The Church of the NazareneWesley's second blessing, kept when the Methodists let it go.
The Jacobite Syrian Christian ChurchThe Malankara half that kept Antioch.
The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian ChurchEastern liturgy, evangelical reform, Anglican friends.
The Maronite ChurchA church built around a hermit, and a country built around the church.
The Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum)In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things love — and a hundred-year prayer meeting.
The New Church (Swedenborgianism)The Last Judgment already happened, in 1757, in the spiritual world — and nobody down here noticed.
The Order of the Quiet HourOne hour of silence a day, kept together, apart.
The Plymouth BrethrenNo clergy, no name, no denomination — and the rapture, which they invented.
The Restoration Movement (Churches of Christ)No creed but Christ, no name but Christian — and no piano.
The Salvation ArmyA church with ranks, a brass band and no sacraments at all.
The Shakers (United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing)Celibate, communal, and convinced the Second Coming already arrived — in a woman.
The Syriac Catholic ChurchThe West Syriac rite, in communion with Rome, out of Mosul and Aleppo.
The Syro-Malabar ChurchThomas Christians in Roman communion — arguing about which way the priest faces.
The Syro-Malankara Catholic ChurchA 1930 crossing, with the Qurbana carried over intact.
Unitarian UniversalismNo creed — seven principles, and the search itself is sacred.
Analog SabbathOne day a week with no screen in it.
MethodismGrace for all, holiness for life, method for both.
Ordinary TimeNothing special is happening. Attend to it.
PresbyterianismThe church governed by elders, reformed by the Word.
Secular HumanismOne life, no supervision, and the whole of the responsibility.
The Amish (Old Order)The Ordnung is not a costume — it is a fence, and the district votes on where it runs.
The Branch DavidiansAdventists who read the seals of Revelation as opening now.
The Brethren in ChristAnabaptist bones, Pietist heart, Wesleyan pulse — and it argues with itself about which is load-bearing.
The BruderhofCommunity of goods, started again in 1920 by people who had read about it.
The Church of the BrethrenNo force in religion, no creed but the New Testament, and the full love feast.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day SaintsKeep the covenant the main church let go.
The HutteritesNobody owns anything. That is not a policy — it is the article of faith.
The International Churches of ChristThe Restoration Movement with a discipler assigned to you.
The MennonitesThe largest Anabaptist body, and the one that stopped being plain.
The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (the Exclusive Brethren)The doctrine of separation, carried to the point where you cannot eat with your own child.
Nothing by that name. Try fewer letters — or instead.
Start from nothing
a new root — no parent, no inheritanceNothing is inherited, so everything here is yours and everything blank stays blank. A faith with three honest claims reads better than one with nine invented ones — the schema fills in over time.
What this faith holds to be true. One to nine, written here or borrowed below — doctrine is an index, not a library.
Starting from nothing does not mean starting from silence. Search every faith's elements — a figure, a rite, a text, a claim — and take what is genuinely yours. A borrowed element crosses whole, and records the faith it came from.