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Research Portfolio of Cometan

AN OVERVIEW OF PRESENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

The research interests of Cometan are divisible into four main subjects: human rights (including human rights in outer space and human and business), philosophy of religion, origins of religion, and new religious movements. Each of these subjects encompass various subtopic areas of particular interest to Cometan, some of which he regards to be his specialties. For example, within his research of human rights, Cometan has a particular interest in academic freedom and freedom of religion or belief and within that, specialises in the field of recognition of religion or belief. Another example is Cometan's interest in the history and origins of religion, into which his theory on an Astronic tradition is categorised which is based on the role of astronomy in the origins of religion. This page on Cometan.org provides you with a brief overview of each of these four research interest areas (including a section at the bottom of the page filled with miscellaneous research items that still relate to religion) and Cometan's latest contributions to each of the fields so far as a means of demonstrating the scope of Cometan's research.

Modules advocated for by Cometan:

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  • The origins of religion

  • Space religion and astrotheology

  • Freedom of religion or belief

  • Recognition of religion or belief

  • Beatification in the Catholic Church

  • New religious movements

  • Astronism and Astronist studies

  • Philosophy of religion

  • Systematic theology

  • Worldview theory

  • Soteriology (doctrines of salvation)

  • Eschatology (doctrines of destiny)

  • Ecstasies, apparitions, and locutions

  • Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese folk religion

  • Comparative religion

Cometanic module development methodology:​

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  • Focus on specific, niche subjects that other universities are not studying.

  • Any very broad modules should be specified and any modules that are being taught by lecturers who aren't researching or enthusiastically interested in that area should be discontinued.

  • A balance between historical, societal and systematic modules.

  • The aim should be to try to produce new knowledge and to come to a consensus.

Cometanic pedagogy:​

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  • Keeping in direct (face-to-face), regular contact with all students on the course.

  • (If small classes of between 10 and 15) A requirement that every student answers engages at least per class.

  • Encouragement of debates and get the class to move around the room.

  • Creating aesthetically pleasing lecture presentations that are exciting and engaging and that don't go overboard on amounts of information.

Human rights, religious freedom and space rights

 

Cometan specialises in the field of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), contributing significantly to the subfield of recognition of religion or belief (RoRB). However, just as all fundamental human rights are interconnected, Cometan's research interests also extend to other human rights violations connected to that of religious freedom, including violations of freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, right to a fair trial, freedom from slavery and forced labour and freedom of association.

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Another area of this field of research very important to Cometan, particularly based on his religious convictions pertaining to Astronism, is the upcoming field of space rights – the application of human rights law to the context to human spaceflight and extraterrestrial environments, an area with significant scope for Cometan to forge his scholarship in. Cometan is also interested in animal rights.

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Cometan.org/RoRB is indeed also a major resource presenting Cometan's work in the field of human rights.

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Cover for the Participant Information Pack of Cometan's PhD Research

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Cometan's book Recognition of Religion or Belief ( Coming in 2022)

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Cometan's Institutional Dictionary of Freedom of Religion or Belief (2021)

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Cometan's Doctoral Proposal for Religious Freedom & State Recognition of Belief (2020)

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Cometan's lecture Facilitationism: Cometan's Approach to Religious Freedom (2022). Click the cover above to listen to the full lecture delivered by Cometan as part of Season 3 of A Conversation with Cometan.

Philosophy of religion and belief systems

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Prime among Cometan's interests within the philosophy of religion is the structure and function of belief systems, namely how the beliefs of different system (whether these be religions, philosophies or spiritualities) interact with one another to form a functioning belief system.

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This branch of Cometan's research interests also includes the work he conducts regarding the religious lives of his Traditionalist Catholic grandparents Irene Mary and Derrick Taylor who Cometan has been working to beatify in the Catholic Church since 2020. Indeed, as part of this branch of research, Cometan conducted studies on the myriad procedures in the process of beatification. This has also lead to Cometan's interest in the history and development of Traditionalist Catholicism and the Society of Saint Pius X, of which his grandparents were early members.

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Beyond these, Cometan is also interested and has conducted research on the following: worldview theory, interfaith dialogue, religion and the state, traditions of religion, concepts forming the foundations of religions, and epistemological study of the relationship between knowledge and belief.

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Cover of Cometan's work The Beatification Story (2022)

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Cometan's The Theory of Dominationism (2020)

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Cometan's lecture When Religion Goes Extraterrestrial (2021). Click the cover above to listen to the full lecture delivered by Cometan as part of Season 2 of A Conversation with Cometan for a cohort of bachelors students at the University of Central Lancashire.

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Cometan's lecture Cosmocentrism: The Worldview of Astronism (2022). Click the cover above to listen to the full lecture delivered by Cometan as part of Season 3 of A Conversation with Cometan.

The origins and history of religion

 

In 2019, Cometan first had the realisation that his experience of religious devotion and connection to the astronomical world couldn't have been the first in human history; there must be a long lineage of this kind of activity and so, he began to conduct research to find out of his theory of an Astronic religious tradition was true.

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Of particular speciality to Cometan is the role that astronomy has been found to play in the origins of religion itself. Indeed this sparked Cometan's creation of the theory of an Astronic religious tradition existent since the Stone Age. Combining research from the fields of archaeoastronomy, cultural astronomy and religious history, Cometan attempts to understand the significance of the night sky and its phenomena in how human religion and belief have taken shape.

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This study of the origins of religion involved archaeological interpretation, palaeoanthropological analysis and also required knowledge on the philosophy of religion.

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Cometan's Master's Dissertation Astronomy in the Origins of Religion (2020)

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Cometan's Epistemology of the Study of Astronomy and Religion (2020)

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Cometan's Spiritualism's Impact on Contemporary Religion & Belief (2020)

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Cometan's Islam in China and the Plight of the Uighurs (2019)

Astronism, space religion and NRMs

 

Cometan founded the Astronist belief system in 2013 when he was just fifteen years of age and ever since, he has worked to develop his system of concepts and beliefs to the point at which a whole new subject for the study of religion, philosophy and spirituality has emerged.

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By extension of his founding of Astronism, Cometan has held a strong interest in the categories of space religion and space philosophy (that is, space-themed philosophical and religious activity). Space religion as a classification encompasses Astronism, cosmism, and many other movements oriented on a theme of space exploration or simply astronomical devotion. This is a phenomenon within the human religious landscape that requires far more research.

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As a subsequence of founding a new religious movement (NRM), Cometan sparked his own interest in other NRMs, particularly their origins, dynamics, structures and how they manage to survive in a world that often does not take kindly to new beliefs and to those that follow them.

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Official Cover of Cometan's Institiutional Dictionary of Astronism (2021)

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Cometan's UK Healthcare Policy: Impact on Jehovah's Witnesses (2019)

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Cometan's Scientology: Cult or Corporate Enterprise (2020)

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Cometan's lecture The Eschatology & Soteriology of Astronism (2021). Click the cover above to listen to the full lecture delivered by Cometan as part of Season 2 of A Conversation with Cometan for a cohort of bachelors students cohort at the Cambridge Muslim College.

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Cometan's book Omnidoxy (2019), founding text of Astronism

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