With almost one in every seven Americans repudiating religious affiliations, it’s no surprise that Americans are creating their own religions, and in droves; Universism is one such faith.

“Universism seeks to solve a problem that has riddled mankind throughout history: the endless string of people who claim that they know the Truth and the Way…to dispel the illusion of certainty that divides humanity into warring camps,” is how the religion’s 28-year-old founder describes its aim.  With no definite dogma — uncertainty is one of the religion’s core tenets — it’s difficult verging on the impossible to identify what, precisely, identifies Universism or many of its similarly fragmented offshoots as a religion.  

When I visited the Church of Fools last year, I was warned that the “Church of Fools is currently not suitable for children.” Undaunted by the “often colorful and occasionally offensive,” language that apparently litters the church, I knocked on its virtual door only to be told: “Sorry, but Church of Fools is closed at the moment.”

The Church of Fools is one of the newest ventures into what can loosely be defined as religion. The online church claims to be the United Kingdom’s first 3-D, Web-based church, and its target audience is the religiously marginalized. The church began as three-month “experiment” in 2004, and during that time it drew a virtual congregation of up to 10,000 visitors a day. The pious may choose a character, sing, pray, and jubilantly exclaim Hallelujah!”

Absent any sense of accountability, the aptly named Church of Fools and the vaguely named creed of Universism (with an online congregation of 8,000 strong) are certainly creating potential breeding grounds for demagoguery and charlatanism in the anonymous and amorphous space of new religion.

Mimi Hanaoka