Disclaimer: I'm not anti religion and believe in the Lord but I also believe in thinking out the box and exploring ideas. So don't mean to offend anyone here!
Okay, so I was inspired to talk about this after hearing on the today show that Germany has been having an eye out for the Church of Scientology for about a decade now and wants to ban it because of the cultish behavior. I have had the same concerns about that sect before as well as a few others. However, then I thought, isn’t all religion, in some form, a cult? At least if you follow it to the degree that man has formulated it. I’m not talking following the Bible independently and believing in It’s word. I think the cultish atmosphere comes from how mankind behaves because of it. In Catholicism you follow one man- The Pope. And what he says goes (even if it doesn’t coincide with what the law allows such as abortion and divorce). He can even excommunicate you if he thinks you aren’t doing as the Bible would want.
Protestants do the same but this is not as well known. I have heard many instances where one was asked to leave the church because of their behavior no matter if they wanted to or not. And becoming a Jew or Muslim is no walk in the park either. Jehovah Witnesses have members come and make “house visits” to other members to get an idea if their living their life right. And every group has rules be it based on the Bible or Koran or a supplement. Technically you should only date and marry one of your kind, meaning if you are Jewish then another Jew, if you are of a type of Christianity then you must be with the same. All groups follow a leader within their place of worship, some unquestioningly. They go out and recruit. Some where certain garments only. Some Christian religions restrict drinking alcohol, or dancing to secular music or watching certain types of films (like horror or Harry Potter)
Our ideas of cults are the whole David Kuresh (sp?) thing or the Jim Jones bunch but you don’t have to take up arms or drink the punch to be a cult. It’s more a frame of mind, to me. That leaves little room for opposing thinking. Ends individuality. To a degree all religious practices are like that. It’s just that some entail more harmful practices and as such gain the title of cult. I have no problem with following religious ideals but when man gets involved things become a little cloudy…
3 comments:
Yep, all religions are cults.
I think the cult distinction depends on how old a religion is. Anything older than 100 yrs is not really a cult anymore. Mormonism is only around 100 yrs old and it is almost respectable. Give the Raëlians and Scientology another 100 yrs and they will be respectable as well.
I had my fingers all set to type and then I got here and find out that eschaton already made my point. I will elaborate a bit more though.
In the centuries following Jesus' death (assuming he even existed) there was a religious conflict in Rome. Christianity was becoming more popular among the people causing a rift. The government had to make a decision about what to do and it is believed that the adoption of christianity in Rome was more of a political decision.
That being said think of this. You mentioned David Koresh. He believed that he was the incarnate of Jesus and had a subtantial amount of people who believed and followed him and this was in 1993. With the level of intelligence, skepticism, and scientific progress that had been made at that point it's highly probably that Jesus had the same idea.
Let's bring this home. In my opinion if Jesus existed he was a wacko that ran around claiming he was the son of God and telling his disciples that they needed to hate their families. (L. Ron Hubbard made some outrageous claims). He had a group of followers who believed him (Tom Cruise, Jason Lee, (celebrity Scientologist Here), and people thought they were all nuts. Need I say more? I don't think that all religions are cults, they just all START OUT as cults. Cults are not defined negatively, they are just spoken of negatively.
Any religious person who thinks that their beliefs are any better than the next holy book of flim-flam is truly misguided. That's my two cents.
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