Religious Acceptance Function

Any given religion becomes more accepted the older it gets. I propose a model for this called the Religious Acceptance Function (Ra) which is a function of time.

Ideally the longer a religious “meme” has been around the more “accepted” it is. Probably because as time goes on there are fewer people around to tell the details about how or why the original “religion” was founded. In addition as an idea exists in a community for a length of time the more “comfortable” it feels.

Ra = Acceptance rate of a given religion as a function of time

k = “religiosity” of population (how prone are they to accepting a religious proposition)

O = “Outlandishness of claims” (barrier to acceptance of a religious claim)

In this model the acceptance rate is the relative portion of a given population exposed to given religious claim (a “new religion”) that accepts the religion as either acceptable or one they practice.

K is defined as the “religiosity” factor. However religious population is will help define how effective a new religion will take hold and become accepted. If the population is largely irreligious no new religion will be readily accepted.

O is the “outlandishness” factor which is, simply put, how outlandish a religious claim is and represents a barrier to acceptance and adoption of the new religion. As O is decreased adoption and acceptance is hastened.

Ultimately the point at which a religious concept is accepted is the "propensity level" or the baseline level for that that society to accept any given religion.

The following figure is a rough example of this in action.