New Religion

Founding a new religion is a tricky process. The main elements that I see going into founding a religion are establishing moral rules/guidelines (i.e. how does this religion affect my day to day actions?), establishing a hierarchy (or lack thereof), and setting up a system of symbols that can be recognized as adhering to said religion. I think that any religion that is founded that wishes to stick around for a while (without being mocked by everyone *cough* scientology) requires a lot of time. Maybe not for the actual process of founding the religion, but the more time the religion is around the more legitimate it will become. By legitimate I mean respectable to the general public. In general I would say that any new religion that is founded inevitably draws from other religions that exist before the founding of a new religion. This could be a progression as obvious as Christianity to Judaism, or something harder to draw connections with, like scientology. The founder's position is one of great importance. Depending on who the founder of a new religion is, people might automatically accept or reject the new religion. If the founder is well-respected and esteemed by colleagues/general public the religion has a much better chance at being recognized than if the founder is on death row for raping and murdering children. Sorry, that example is a little extreme, but it gets the point across.