AHC: A religion which worships Electricity / Electronic Technology

[baltur2]

How could we get some kind of cult or new religious movement which worships Electricity and/or Electronic technology. (e.g. lightning is divine, tesla coil on the altar, being shocked by a leyden jar as a kind of sacrament, electric poles and tv antennas as sacred objects, priests dressed as electricians waving around a voltmeter and a solderer etc.)

Possibilities in my opinion:

1. A spin-off from the Enlightenment in America in the late 18th century, built around the personality of Ben Franklin

2. Developing in the 19th century from Victorian Spiritism

3. Developing in the USSR under Lenin, who placed a great philosophical emphasis on electrification

4. Developing in the mid 20th century from a Pacific cargo cult

5. Spinning off in modern Russia from the cult of Gadget Hackwrench

6. Spinning off from Kopimism in modern Sweden

 

[Gabingston]

 

[twovultures]

I think the cargo cults of OTL kind of meet your challenge, as they are religions based around obtaining spiritual power which in turn will bring the material power of manufactured goods common in industrial societies. Some of them involved making mock radio antennas for model airports to encourage the ancestors to bring planes of cargo.

 

[Help]

What would its stance of lightning be?

 

[nbcman]

Maybe there's a corruption of Thor worship where believers try to touch the divine by getting struck by lightning? Or by getting shocked by electricity period?

 

[Mort the Reaper]

Reminds me of this one CK2 mod called After the End where there's a religion that worships radiation.

 

[Anarch King of Dipsodes]

The Lord of the Dynamos

"So ended prematurely the Worship of the Dynamo Deity, perhaps the most short-lived of all religions. Yet withal it could at least boast a Martyrdom and a Human Sacrifice."

-- H.G. Wells

 

[Deleted member 114175]

Reminds me of this one CK2 mod called After the End where there's a religion that worships radiation.

In 1981, Thomas Seobok suggested that an atomic priesthood should be created to preserve the knowledge of radioactive waste by religious means.

 

[snassni2]

In 1981, Thomas Seobok suggested that an atomic priesthood should be created to preserve the knowledge of radioactive waste by religious means.

That sounds like Asimov's Foundation. The nuclear power plants were operated by priests.

 

[Decatur]

Maybe there's a corruption of Thor worship where believers try to touch the divine by getting struck by lightning? Or by getting shocked by electricity period?

I know this should be in post-1900 but...

December 1945: Robert A. Heinlein are sitting in a bar in Philadelphia discussing religion (specifically, how to profit from creating one.)

Then RAH mentions a book on Norse mythology he had been reading. Hubbard suddenly gets an "Eureka!" look on his face and says, "Hold my beer...."

 

[Fabius Maximus]

How could we get some kind of cult or new religious movement which worships Electricity and/or Electronic technology. (e.g. lightning is divine, tesla coil on the altar, being shocked by a leyden jar as a kind of sacrament, electric poles and tv antennas as sacred objects, priests dressed as electricians waving around a voltmeter and a solderer etc.)

Depending on how broadly you define "worships electricity", this might be OTL. Many cultures have had some sort of thunder/lightning god, and the distinction between a god and the phenomenon he's associated with isn't always very clear-cut.

 

[iani]

In a change from the usual 'Simpsons did it first' trope, wasn't there an episode of Futurama -hell is other robots?
edit: https://vimeo.com/103021223