WikiFur:This week's featured article/Week 45, 2006
Lapism is a belief system created in the stories of Phil Geusz. Described as a religion followed by a small but growing number of people on twenty-first century Earth, the most obvious feature of Lapists is that many of them have undergone a physical transformation through genetic engineering - the Change - to resemble anthropomorphic rabbits.
Lapists believe that the Change serves both to alter behavior directly, making the person more peaceful and friendly, and encourages social reinforcement; as the believer commits to appearing in public with a rabbit-like appearance, others react to them as a representative of Lapism, inducing them to live up to the group's positive stereotype. Not all Lapists have undergone the Change, and the relative importance of the physical rabbit-form and a person's actual beliefs and behavior is a major theme.
Lapist teachings do not specifically mention any gods or appeal to revealed knowledge, making it similar to some religions, such as Confucianism, that are sometimes called "philosophy" rather than "religion." Lapism could be considered as either, and even Lapist characters disagree on the question. (more...)