Were the divine figures of todays established religions the pop gurus of their day?
New Age movements may someday become established faiths of the future (though it’s worth noting that New Age generally functions as an alternative to established faiths). But I don’t think that the fact that established religions are established makes them any more credible than New Age movements that are not institutionalized. And I certainly didn’t mean to argue that New Age and organized religions are similar; they differ greatly in their theologies. I just wanted to point out something that we often overlook: New Age and established religions are both forms of supernaturalism. A New Age belief in miracles is no more or less silly, and no more or less worthy of respect than, say, a Christian belief in miracles. Yet mockery of New Age is much more common and much more socially acceptable than mockery of established faiths. There’s a double standard in the way we think about New Age movements and the way we think about established religions that I find intellectually indefensible. In
