parareligion

Why this word is great

**PARARELIGION**

A parareligion is a secular belief system that adopts religious-like structures—rituals, moral codes, communal identity—while explicitly rejecting supernatural or theistic foundations. The term derives from the prefix *para-* ("beside, alongside") and *religion* ("system of faith or worship"). Unlike *quasi-religions*, which blur boundaries with traditional faiths, parareligions assert their secularity through materialist worldviews; unlike *secularism*, which distances itself from religious forms, they actively repurpose them. Marxism's eschatological historical dialectic, environmentalism's creation myths of ecological balance, and fandoms' pilgrimage sites all demonstrate how parareligions sacralize the profane through borrowed solemnity.