Is "just asking questions" a religion?

Vox claims that the rise of the Net, specifically social media, and most specifically, newer social media like TikTok, when mixed with the rise of the "Nones," is creating a new religion of "just asking questions."

First? The "rise of the Nones" is on pause right now, possibly in part COVID related, though the crest hit before then.

Second, by my version of defining religion, which relies on sociology of religion and philosophy of religion, it is not a region.

My definition, which I think I've uttered here before, is something like this.

Religion is about:

Metaphysical matters of ultimate concern, within a social group setting; and 

How one orients oneself within that group to a better relationship to these metaphysical matters of ultimate concern.

One, note that "metaphysical" shows we're clearly into philosophy. It means something that "transcendence" does not.

Two, note that "of ultimate concern" shows we're not talking about footy fandom. UK fans who would believe that they can conduct magic rituals to revive the career of a current player, let alone actually revive a dead star of the past, would be considered mentally ill by psychologists, and ministers, and presumably by Whitehouse.

Three, note that I did NOT say "god," or "deity/-ies" or "divinity/-ies." 

This means that Theravada Buddhists who do not believe in a personal deity are still part of a religion. They ARE, Stephen Batchelor, Robert Wright, and Buddhism flirter John Horgan. I also did NOT say "soul." Western monotheisms, and generally Hinduism, believe in some sort of personal soul, as in "your immortal soul," in the Western tradition, but Theravada claims to believe only in a "life force."

And, "karma."

And, that leads us to point the second, of the two main parts of my definition.

Karma is itself a metaphysical entity throughout Hindu and Buddhist belief, and basically similar among Jains, from what I know. Given that these religions claim one can be reincarnated as a piece of shit, or more literally, a dung beetle eating that shit, without knowing what one did wrong in a past life, or, per Theravada, even having a personal soul from a past life that COULD remember, is why I've said that karma is more offensive than original sin, following on an earlier post. But I digress.

The "just asking questions" may be a form of spirituality. Subsets of "just asking questions" may be part of religions, if their "just asking questions" is religiously based, but not be a religion itself.

And, if things like this:

(T)he renewed interest in holistic medicine, or the girlboss optimism of multilevel marketing companies

Are part of the basis of the piece, Rebecca Jennings needs to toss that Word doc in the trash. Those flunk my test easily. Not all holistic medicine is metaphysical, and ditto on the specific example of new MLM companies. 

Of course, with a Twitter bio like this:

senior correspondent at Vox covering internet culture with a minor in tiktok and feelings

None of the above is surprising.

And, with that, the story flunks my test, too.

History of religion has shown that new religions are organized and developed. Maybe Jesus wasn't starting a new religion, but Paul was. Maybe Muhammad didn't actually start a new religion, but the Umayyads did. Ditto for the Buddha vs followers of him.

I have said before that conspiracy theories are a new form of Gnosticism. Here, I caveat that parallel to note that while conspiracy theories offer claims to esoteric knowledge, AND, are "organized," as in an elite vs initiates, they're NOT focused on metaphysical issues or how to get oneself rightly oriented to them.