History Main / PathOfInspiration

!!Examples

* According to some interpretations of Literature/TheBible, TheAntichrist will create one of these religions.
* Creator/{{Plato}} [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans advocates doing this]] in ''Literature/TheRepublic''.
* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' novels, the religion of the red Martians, which encourages the old and infirm to make a pilgrimage to the South Pole in search of heaven, was created and is controlled by a society of cannibals who use the pilgrims as their primary food source. ''Their'' religion is in turn the product of another sect of cannibals who feed on ''them''. When John Carter discovers these facts, and relates them to the world at large, he's nearly executed for heresy before he manages to prove it.
** There's actually a ''third'' level of PathOfInspiration among said second sect of cannibals, whose leader presents herself as (and is considered to be by her followers) a living goddess when in fact [[GodGuise she's nothing of the sort]]. When Carter exposes ''her'' it brings the whole system crashing down, and while [[WouldntHitAGirl he won't take her life himself]], her cheated worshippers [[CruelAndUnusualDeath aren't so merciful]].
* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' provides a rare example of this trope used for what are unquestionably good aims. The titular Foundation manages to turn the four empires surrounding their homeworld, Terminus, into puppet states by creating a "religion of science" as a guise for providing technological aid while gaining influence. At one point, despite handing the BigBad of one story a battleship to invade Terminus with, the Foundation proved that it had ultimate control of both the technology and the people. The result is that the Foundation is preserved and expands its influence--a key part of Hari Seldon's Plan to cut the Galaxy's dark age from 30,000 years to a mere 1,000.
** Showing off his abilities to understand the changes in societies, in a later book of the series, someone attempts to use that religion and finds out that economics is now more important to the current people than religion. The time of religious fervor has passed.
* The Clave from the ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'' commits mass human sacrifices "for a good cause". Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work like that...
* The eponymous Electric Church of Jeff Somers's cyberpunk novel "The Electric Church". Adherents of the faith have their brains mounted in artificial bodies to give them "time enough" to discover the truth of salvation. They tell others that "Time is your enemy" and ask them to "Let us show you an endless trail of sunsets," offering free immortality to anyone and everyone. [[spoiler:Systems in the artificial body suppress your higher brain functions to keep you an obedient servant. The whole thing is a monstrous world-conquering scheme to rule by religion, facilitated by the fact that converts keep their legal status as citizens in the world government because the brain is still alive, despite all free will and volition being suppressed by the technology involved.]]
* In an alternate future to the ExpandedUniverse of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', a large number of people in the "Bajoran Ascendancy" worship the True Prophets in the True Celestial Temple, a second wormhole that leads to the Grigari Meld in the Delta Quadrant. Most of these people are [[AppliedPhlebotinum brainwashed by the Grigari]], but the Grigari themselves are true believers--because the True Prophets want to reduce the universe to a mathematical abstraction.
* The Bene Gesserit of the Franchise/{{Dune}}-iverse. Specifically the Missionaria Protectiva, the subgroup which spreads the set of beliefs called the Panoplia Prophetica on several planets. These prophecies are all pretty vague, and seem to be designed simply so Bene Gesserit sisters have the option of creating a religious cult around themselves if they ever get into trouble.
** Subverted when the major prophecy spread by the Missionaria on Arrakis ends up being fulfilled by Paul-Muad'Dib, much to the surprise of the Bene Gesserit.
** Subverted again by Leto II, this time intentionally. After merging with a sandworm, he sets himself up as GodEmperor of his own theocratic state, with the state religion specifically designed to be as restrictive and frustrating as possible for humanity. That in turn is part of his {{plan}} [[spoiler:(ThanatosGambit, actually)]] to get humanity to save itself through expansion and innovation, making him a NecessarilyEvil form of this.

* In ''Literature/LordOfLight'', Hinduism is used for this purpose, to allow a handful of self-styled gods to control all technology under the guise of protecting the populace from progress too quick for them to understand. The protagonist uses Buddhism as a religious tool to recruit the opposition. It is worth noting that said protagonist only picked Buddhism because he needed to represent a religious leader as a way to present change as an option; when asked "why Buddhism?" he replied that Christianity would have hurt.
* Originally, the ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'' series portrayed the Kargish religion this way, its religious beliefs (particularly [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything their prejudice against magic-users]]) being imposed by evil gods. This was later retconned into being a good/neutral religion which got corrupted.
* In Neal Stephenson's ''Literature/SnowCrash'', L. Bob Rife's religion is in fact [[spoiler:an attempt to render people susceptible to brainwashing using the ancient Sumerian language, which is in fact a programming language for the human brain]]. The title refers to [[spoiler:the drug that does this, and the computer virus that can do this to people in the virtual world]]
* The Church of the Summer Kingdom in Jonathan Barnes' {{steampunk}} novel ''Literature/TheSomnambulist'' engage in murder and kidnapping, with darker plans against all of London. Their corporation [[PeaceAndLoveIncorporated Love, Love, Love and Love]] takes away their employees' names and replaces them with "Love" [[YouAreNumberSix followed by a number]].
* If it's possible to have a secular one of these, the Brotherhood in Literature/InvisibleMan is this in spades. Even the lower-ranking officials don't realize just how much the organization focuses on gaining power, and how little its highest-ranking members really care about helping the poor and downtrodden.
* Kokchu, the shaman in the ''Literature/{{Conqueror}}'' books, uses trickery and sleight of hand to make it seem as if he is performing miracles and thus exert religious influence over the Mongol nation. It's somewhat ambiguous to what extent he himself believes in his own teachings.
* Creator/DavidWeber's ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' books feature the Church of God Awaiting. It was designed by megalomaniac Luddites gone mad with power to prevent the last colony of humans from ever redeveloping advanced tech, in an attempt to avoid the attentions of the xenophobic alien Gbaba. And, of course, to feed the egos of the megalomaniacs in question by making them into "Archangels." The original idea for the colony was that they would abandon advanced tech for a few centuries to hide from the Gbaba, but preserve records of tech and the existence of the Gbaba so that the colony would know what to avoid doing until they had tech advanced enough to destroy the Gbaba. In the eight centuries between then and the present day, the members of the Church of God Awaiting, ignorant of this, also make it into a CorruptChurch.
* Franchise/StarWars has the Potentium Heresy. It says that dividing the Force into good and evil is too simplistic, and that as long as you listen to the Force, everything will work out for the best. It was a Sith lie. It actually catches Han and Leia's son, though he doesn't teach Luke's son about it.

* The Lazarus Intent in the Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures novel ''The Crystal Bucephalus'' was set up by a criminal who ripped off Christianity wholesale to create a religion which, rather than teaching the Messiah was resurrected and would return, taught that it was up to believers to invent time travel, and rescue their saviour from the moment of his death. The Doctor notes that while the church may be a fraud set up by a egomaniac (Lazarus isn't even a DarkMessiah, just a conman who thinks big), devout Lazarites tend to be good people.
* ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber Nine Princes in Amber]]'' has a variant on this where the Amberites can walk in shadow to find a planet where they've ''already'' been worshipped as gods, so that they can recruit the population as fanatical legions of foot soldiers.
* The Ahrimanites in ''Literature/{{Tranquilium}}'' are eventually revealed to be led by [[spoiler:American secret agents aiming to monitor and control the situation on Tranquilium, whilst [[MoralEventHorizon utilising "occult"-seeming ancient Atlantean magical practices]]]].
* In Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia, the Calormenes worship their god Tash, who is definitely a real and evil demon. Tash's cult has plenty of the [[DarkIsEvil trappings]] of being ObviouslyEvil; so far, it superficially appears to be a ReligionOfEvil. But we eventually meet a man named Emeth who is pure of heart and attained entrance to {{Heaven}}--who nevertheless was a pious member of Tash's religion--thus proving that the Calormenes (who are just normal humans, after all) are mostly just deceived and exploited, and not the kind of evil persons who would join the ReligionOfEvil.

* The syncretic mishmash of world religions called Enigma Babylon One World Faith that becomes the official one-world religion during the first half of the Tribulation period in the Literature/LeftBehind books, believing that all religions are true and have valid paths leading to God, yet denouncing biblical Christianity (as defined by the books' authors and the Tribulation Force characters) and its message of Jesus Christ being the only true way to God as heretical. In following with the interpretation of Mystery Babylon in Revelation chapter 17, this "anti-church" was merely set up to serve the Antichrist for a time and then would be destroyed, only to be replaced by the single-deity worshipping religion of Carpathianism.
* ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' by Charles Stross:
** In ''Literature/TheApocalypseCodex'', Bob Schiller's Golden Promise Ministry appears to be another American fundamentalist Christian sect, with maybe a few odd doctrines. This being a Laundry book, Schiller and his inner circle actually serve a powerful EldritchAbomination, not entirely willingly. Once Schiller completes a human sacrifice of nearly unprecedented scale the entity will escape its prison under alien stars, and humanity will end. It's clear that Schiller actively believes that what he's doing is in Christ's name, even if the whole thing is clearly a front for Nyarlathotep and comes with all the attendant crimes against humanity you'd imagine it would. That makes it ''even more frightening''.
** ''Literature/TheFullerMemorandum'' also features a mention of the Free Church of the Universal Kingdom, another Nyarlathotep cult disguising itself as a premillenialist dispensationalism branch of evangelical Christianity.
* Renewalist Church, official religion from ''Literature/MidnightWorld''. Basically, it's Christianity, but {{bowdlerize}}d so hard that it's not dangerous for the world-ruling vampires.
* Isaac's version of Islam in ''Literature/{{Edenborn}}'' turns out to be this. [[spoiler:His own spirituality was shattered by the revelation that God allowed humanity to die. He raised his children as devout practitioners of fundamentalist Islam to make it easier to overwrite their personalities with the minds of the extinct scientists who created him.]]

* The Divine Order in ''Series/{{Lexx}}'' is a textbook example of this trope.

* ''Series/{{Colony}}'' has the Greatest Day church, a movement which preaches that the alien Hosts are actually benevolent, and that their conquest and occupation of Earth was really for our own good, as it will lead humanity to paradise so long as they do as they're told. Near the end of Season 2, [[TheQuisling Snyder]] flat out admits that it's a sham designed to indoctrinate people into being obedient.
* ''Series/{{Runaways 2017}}'': The Church of Gibborum is a ChurchOfHappyology that appears to be a friendly charity organization that worships a cosmic "Spectrum" of color and light. The current leader, Leslie, is using it to sacrifice runaways to [[spoiler:revitalize the immortal Jonah.]] Leslie's daughter, Karolina, is a main character and portrays the religion positively despite the dangers of the church itself. It's repeatedly implied that Leslie's father founded the entire church to worship Jonah in the first place, though he's normally spoken of in metaphor, so most people don't know the real purpose.
-->'''Leslie:''' It's my church!\\
'''Jonah:''' And it's my religion.

* The basic shtick of the Luminositan Church in ''TabletopGame/ErrantStory'', founded on a DeityOfHumanOrigin which its priests use to keep the country of Veracia under their thumbs. (In fairness, it was the magical energy pumped into Luminosita that had much to do with Veracia becoming a world power to begin with, and we're not sure yet that Luminosita is of ''human'' origin, but he certainly isn't one of the "real" gods of the Errant World.)

* VideoGame/DyingLight: The Following. Good news, the priests are pragmatic bulwarks who protect the civilians of Harran. Bad news, DespairEventHorizon is an ''understatement'' to their grandmistress' emotional state. And insane from various zombie cure side effects.

* DyingLight: The Following. Good news, the priests are pragmatic bulwarks who protect the civilians of Harran. Bad news, DespairEventHorizon is an ''understatement'' to their grandmistress' emotional state. And insane from various zombie cure side effects.

* The Eternal Order and the Church of Zhakata in the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' setting.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' lore, expounded in tie-in novels, has two significant cases: the Triune, an apparently benevolent church that was actually a front for the machinations of the three Prime Evils. Much later, the Black Road did much the same thing, but it was a more obvious deal-with-the-devil situation.
** The Zakarum priesthood was corrupted to the core by Mephisto, which gave the Prime Evils free reign to corrupt the highest seats of power to the point of madness. King Leoric was driven insane because he couldn't even think about doubting the [[TreacherousAdvisor Pope of Zakarum]], and demon summoning circles were ''[[RefugeInAudacity openly]]'' etched into the Kanduras fortress under the Zakarum cover story of protection runes.

Occasionally, this is the form that an AncientConspiracy would take. Distinct from the CorruptChurch, in that instead of being a legitimate religion that went bad, the Path of Inspiration is by design rotten to the core; the ScamReligion, in that the Path's leaders are true believers, not con artists; and the ReligionOfEvil, in that the religion is '''not''' openly evil. The typical high-ranking member is a StrawHypocrite. Usually has a DarkMessiah as the figurehead, whose outright evil is part of TheReveal. May overlap with HollywoodSatanism, especially in UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories.

* [=ComStar=] in ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'', who maintain humanity's SubspaceAnsible network, act as neutral mediators, and maintain a quasi-religious presentation. [=ComStar=] also spent some 200 odd years actively sabotaging efforts to recover LostTechnology, assassinated scientists, blew up factories, engaged in countless {{False Flag Operation}}s, and horded every piece of tech they could find to fulfill some prophecy. When ComStar became secular - following a coup after the ruler tried to take over all of known space - the more radical elements broke off and formed the Word of Blake, which didn't try to hide its intentions at all.

* ''Series/{{Runaways 2017}}'': The Church of Gibborum is a ChurchOfHappyology that appears to be a friendly charity organization that worships a cosmic "Spectrum" of color and light. The current leader, Leslie, is using it to sacrifice runaways to [[spoiler:revitalize the immortal Jonah]]. Leslie's daughter, Karolina, is a main character and portrays the religion positively despite the dangers of the church itself. It's repeatedly implied that Leslie's father founded the entire church to worship Jonah in the first place, though he's normally spoken of in metaphor, so most people don't know the real purpose.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, the Mythic Dawn started off this way. Much like real world cults, they attracted members from the fringes of society with promises of answers and paradise. Come ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', they reveal their true intentions and enter full blown ReligionOfEvil territory, worshiping Mehrunes Dagon, the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] of [[DestroyerDeity Destruction]], and kick off the plot of the game by [[TheKingSlayer assassinating the Emperor of Tamriel]].

* Franchise/StarWars has the Potentium Heresy. It says that dividing the Force into good and evil is too simplistic, and that as long as you listen to the Force, everything will work out for the best. It was a Sith lie. It actually catches Han and Leia's son, though he, somewhat GenreSavvy, doesn't teach Luke's son about it. This leads to a huge WhatAnIdiot moment.

* In the world of Ravnica in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', the Black/White Orzhov guild are known as the "Church of Deals" and built a religion in order to exploit their faithful and provide a support structure for their inner circle. For example, from the flavor text of [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=97194 Conjurer's Ban]]:
-->''Orzhov faithful file past to have their minds purged of "impure" desires. There, the guiltwardens eliminate any thoughts of hope or self-sufficiency.''
** To be completely fair, the [[JerkassHasAPoint Orzhov do kind of have a point]]. Ravnica exists within a planar bubble that causes departed souls to be unable to depart to any sort of afterlife. Indeed, the Syndicate's core tenet, when stripped of all its pomp and circumstance, is simply to provide a framework through which one can purchase a comfortable and stable eternity as a spirit. [[GoneHorriblyWrong Or at least, that's the idea...]]

Occasionally, this is the form that an AncientConspiracy would take. Distinct from the CorruptChurch, in that instead of being a legitimate religion that went bad, the Path of Inspiration is by design rotten to the core; the ScamReligion, in that the Path's leaders are true believers, not con artists; and the ReligionOfEvil, in that the religion is '''not''' openly evil. The typical high-ranking member is a StrawHypocrite. Usually has a DarkMessiah as the figurehead, whose outright evil is part of TheReveal. May overlap with HollywoodSatanism, especially in ConspiracyTheories.

A specific subtype of AncientConspiracy. Distinct from the CorruptChurch in that instead of being a legitimate religion that went bad, the Path of Inspiration is by design rotten to the core. Distinct from the ScamReligion in that the Path's leaders are true believers, not con artists. If the religion is openly evil, it's the ReligionOfEvil instead. The typical high-ranking member is a StrawHypocrite. Usually has a DarkMessiah as the figurehead, whose outright evil is part of TheReveal. May overlap with HollywoodSatanism, especially in ConspiracyTheories.

Creator/{{Plato}} [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans advocates doing this]] in ''Literature/TheRepublic''.

[[folder:Mythology And Religion]]

** It also seems that even among the highest officials of the Church, few know of its true origin and purpose. [[spoiler:Simon, for example, rose to become one of Church's most powerful priests, before accidentally discovering the Germonik Scriptures and learning the truth.]] Though many of those who aren't aware are rather evil anyway. Thus, Glabados could be seen as both a PathOfInspiration ''and'' a CorruptChurch.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine,'' Bajorans who worship the [[GodOfEvil Pah Wraiths]] believe that they're not evil, merely that the and the Prophets had some falling-out long ago; after the Cardassian Occupation devastated Bajor for fifty years, many turn to the Pah Wraith cult as an alternate spiritual path. The thing is, as the series goes on it's apparent that the Pah Wraiths are both real and ''very'' unfriendly. There's also a throwaway line about cult members having to get permission before they're allowed to have children.

* In the Han Solo trilogy of the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse the T'landa T'il can produce a state of complete pleasure in a person. This state of pleasure is highly addictive. Normally it is used to attract T'landa T'il females, but instead the self appointed priest use it to lure their victims to Ylesia. They go from planet to planet and recruit people. People who experience it and are not strong enough to resist it are drawn into it and become addicted. The pilgrims become slaves in the Ylesian spicemines. The revival is a major part of their day where the pilgrims get their daily fix. These poor slaves are completely brainwashed and can not live without their drug. The faux religion that the T'landa T'il have established is just a ploy to get free slaves and spice. The whole operation is owned by the Hutts. When the slaves are brainwashed and dependent enough they get shipped off to the spice mines of Kessel or sold as sex slaves in a brothel.
** Speaking of StarWars, the Potentium Heresy. It says that dividing the Force into good and evil is too simplistic, and that as long as you listen to the Force, everything will work out for the best. It was a Sith lie. It actually catches Han and Leia's son, though he, somewhat GenreSavvy, doesn't teach Luke's son about it. This leads to a huge WhatAnIdiot moment.

* The Church of St. Eva in ''BreathOfFireII''.
** The religion of the Urkan from ''BreathOfFireIII'' also somewhat qualifies. [[spoiler:Though their god isn't exactly malevolent (just so overprotective of the world that she decided to commit genocide on a race that COULD destroy it, even though they were a very peaceful race), she IS the final boss.]]

* ''Film/TheMist'' had a version of this, in that it was one woman's interpretation of religion that inspired the people in the store to form a cult and [[spoiler:attempt human sacrifice]]