While poking around online I stumbled onto this thread in another history forum and thought it might generate some interest...or not, I don't know...I am new here.
It only has the original post and one substantive response...both are copied below...
"Melek Taus - 07 Aug 2003 20:32 GMT
WI Poe started a religion based on his pseudo-scientific prose poem
Eureka?
"Eureka is based on the untenable nebular hypothesis of the French
astronomer and mathematician, Marquis de Laplace, who explained the
genesis
of the heavenly bodies by the gradual coalescence of a thin, luminous
substance diffused through space. It is dedicated to the German
naturalist
Alexander von Humboldt, whose massive "Cosmos" attempted to harmonize
a knowledge of the physical environment with a classic ideal of
humanity, But it
was actually much closer (as Daniel Hoffman points out) to the dubious
revelations of his contemporaries Joseph Smith and Mary Baker Eddy,
the founders
of Mormonism and of Christian Science." - Jeffrey Meyers, "Edger Allan
Poe: His Life and Legacy"
The work is available online at
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/poe/eureka.html
Poe lectured on "Eureka" in New York on February 3, 1848, to
overwhelmingly
positive response from the audience and press. Given his general
impoverishment
at the time, WI Poe decides to start a "Church of Divine Volition"
based on
"Eureka"? Would it attract as much of a following as Mormonism or
Christian
Science? Would the sect survive Poe's death? Would Poe's posthumous
reputation
be completely dominated by this sect to the detriment of his literary
genius?
All answers welcomed!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raymond Speer - 08 Aug 2003 14:58 GMT
EUREKA. A Greek word meaning "I have found it," also a religion
established by philosopher, poet, and author Edgar A. Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe announced the principles of Eureka at public
gatherings in New York State, and later in a set of lectures in New
England and the Ohio River Valley. Transcripts of those lectures form
the _Exposition_, the holy book of the Eureka religion.
At some length, the _Exposition_ holds that order arises naturally out
of chaos. The Guiding Principle is coeval with the Created, which either
means that humankind has nothing to do with God (the Fort Launderdale
branch), that God influenced but did not cause humankind (the Hobart
branch), or that God is nothing but gravity and so nonsapient (Ayn
Rand's Reorganized Eureka).
Poe found converts to his new doctrine in Kirtland, Ohio, home of a
religious colony founded by Brigham Young and his wife, Josephine Smith.
Josephine Young believed that she was in frequent contact with angels,
and Poe worked with her as he refined the doctrines of Eureka.
The Eurekites traveled to Tasmania to be closer to the South Pole on the
assumption that human souls congregate at the Pole after death (H.P.
Lovecraft, once a Eurekite, founded the MOM offshoot of the Faith by
postulating that an Elder Race had coalesced before humankind and could
still be found at the South Pole. August Derleth, his successor as High
Priest of the Mountains of Madness, claimed that the Elder Race's
Minions were locatable on the planet of Pluto.)
Today, the Australian province of Tasmania is the center of the largest
branch of Eureka. Of the 551,856 people living in Tasmania, the 2001
census indicates that 430,600 are Eurekites. Eureka claims 40 million
adherants world-wide, and make unverifiable claims of being the world's
fastest growing religion..
Eurekite beliefs are frequently mentioned in prosecutions for statutory
rape, as some phrases in E.A. Poe's _Rules for Life_ endorse marriage
between mature males and very young females. Critics of the faith allege
that the faith's leaders condemn such practices but do not enforce the
law against Eurekite lawbreakers. In 2002, the age of consent for
females in Tasmania was raised from ten to sixteen in response to
world-wide criticism of their status quo.
See also August Derleth; H.P. Lovecraft; Mountains of Madness; Edgar
Allan Poe; Ayn Rand; Josephine Smith Young: Brigham Young.
It only has the original post and one substantive response...both are copied below...
"Melek Taus - 07 Aug 2003 20:32 GMT
WI Poe started a religion based on his pseudo-scientific prose poem
Eureka?
"Eureka is based on the untenable nebular hypothesis of the French
astronomer and mathematician, Marquis de Laplace, who explained the
genesis
of the heavenly bodies by the gradual coalescence of a thin, luminous
substance diffused through space. It is dedicated to the German
naturalist
Alexander von Humboldt, whose massive "Cosmos" attempted to harmonize
a knowledge of the physical environment with a classic ideal of
humanity, But it
was actually much closer (as Daniel Hoffman points out) to the dubious
revelations of his contemporaries Joseph Smith and Mary Baker Eddy,
the founders
of Mormonism and of Christian Science." - Jeffrey Meyers, "Edger Allan
Poe: His Life and Legacy"
The work is available online at
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/poe/eureka.html
Poe lectured on "Eureka" in New York on February 3, 1848, to
overwhelmingly
positive response from the audience and press. Given his general
impoverishment
at the time, WI Poe decides to start a "Church of Divine Volition"
based on
"Eureka"? Would it attract as much of a following as Mormonism or
Christian
Science? Would the sect survive Poe's death? Would Poe's posthumous
reputation
be completely dominated by this sect to the detriment of his literary
genius?
All answers welcomed!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raymond Speer - 08 Aug 2003 14:58 GMT
EUREKA. A Greek word meaning "I have found it," also a religion
established by philosopher, poet, and author Edgar A. Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe announced the principles of Eureka at public
gatherings in New York State, and later in a set of lectures in New
England and the Ohio River Valley. Transcripts of those lectures form
the _Exposition_, the holy book of the Eureka religion.
At some length, the _Exposition_ holds that order arises naturally out
of chaos. The Guiding Principle is coeval with the Created, which either
means that humankind has nothing to do with God (the Fort Launderdale
branch), that God influenced but did not cause humankind (the Hobart
branch), or that God is nothing but gravity and so nonsapient (Ayn
Rand's Reorganized Eureka).
Poe found converts to his new doctrine in Kirtland, Ohio, home of a
religious colony founded by Brigham Young and his wife, Josephine Smith.
Josephine Young believed that she was in frequent contact with angels,
and Poe worked with her as he refined the doctrines of Eureka.
The Eurekites traveled to Tasmania to be closer to the South Pole on the
assumption that human souls congregate at the Pole after death (H.P.
Lovecraft, once a Eurekite, founded the MOM offshoot of the Faith by
postulating that an Elder Race had coalesced before humankind and could
still be found at the South Pole. August Derleth, his successor as High
Priest of the Mountains of Madness, claimed that the Elder Race's
Minions were locatable on the planet of Pluto.)
Today, the Australian province of Tasmania is the center of the largest
branch of Eureka. Of the 551,856 people living in Tasmania, the 2001
census indicates that 430,600 are Eurekites. Eureka claims 40 million
adherants world-wide, and make unverifiable claims of being the world's
fastest growing religion..
Eurekite beliefs are frequently mentioned in prosecutions for statutory
rape, as some phrases in E.A. Poe's _Rules for Life_ endorse marriage
between mature males and very young females. Critics of the faith allege
that the faith's leaders condemn such practices but do not enforce the
law against Eurekite lawbreakers. In 2002, the age of consent for
females in Tasmania was raised from ten to sixteen in response to
world-wide criticism of their status quo.
See also August Derleth; H.P. Lovecraft; Mountains of Madness; Edgar
Allan Poe; Ayn Rand; Josephine Smith Young: Brigham Young.