How to make a religion

Making a religion is like bringing any other product to market, or publishing a book.

1) Have several people write a book explaining what your religion is about. The more plausible, the better, but make it magical so it's not just another philosophy book.

2) Use plenty of vague, open ended ideas and poetic language. Stay away from facts because they might come back to bite you.

3) Throw in some general predictions, like; There will be an increase in knowledge, things will be more organized, there will be war etc. If you make a self-fulfilling prediction - Golden. Don't make specific predictions, like on 6/24/08 the world will end, or after 6/24/08 you won't have any (rational) followers.

4) Like any book, make new editions from time to time, but you can't change it too often, or people might get wise to the fact that you are editing. Call the editing process a "Holy" act to do damage control.

5) If you have a council, vote on what will be put in or left out of the holy book. (See council of nicea).

6) The longer the editing process and learning, the more water tight your message will be. The best religions are thousands of years old. Religions aren't made over night, but if favorable conditions come up, the bad ones will die and the most plausible, vague, poetic ones will rise to the top.
In the end, you have to remember, people would rather be happy than right, so play on their gullibility, create a cult, have fun.