Here’s an interesting article:

Why Are There No New Major Religions?

I think there’s a bit of pint-missing in the article. Yes, there hasn’t been a new religion on the scale of Islam or Christianity since the rise of Islam… but major world-girdling religions have always been *relatively* few, and most of them are *really* old. Setting aside the notion that “maybe religion X is the One True Religion,” the worlds major religions have gotten *really* good at providing what people seem to want from a religion. Thus there’s just not that much room in the market for new suppliers.

Still, the article has some interesting stuff in it, including descriptions of what happened to a recently invented new religion in Indonesia that has drawn thousands of adherents, mostly from former Muslims. You’ll be shocked, SHOCKED, to discover that Indonesia has laws that make it effectively illegal for Muslims to eave their faith.