68 replies to this topic

[Sweeney]

Yeah. They hark on every religion though.

And this isn't telling you anything...?

[pyke]

And this isn't telling you anything...?

That religion is an easy target?

[Sweeney]

That religion is an easy target?

That's a potential intermediate step to the main conclusion, yes

[414de7fe6]

And we tend to assign the name "religious cults" to them. For example there are several Mormon cults (note: I'm not saying Mormonism is a cult but some sects) like the fundamentalist church as well as the one which was in the news in Texas earlier this summer. Girls not of legal marrying age were being forced into marrying men over three times their age. A cult at least to me is defined as a religion or group of peple who try to control your lives and try to prevent you from leaving in threatening ways.

I have also seen Christian cults in action in my own personal life. My cousin Sarah got involved with one and when she tried to leave they threatened to take her children away. They send her and her family all over Africa for mission work and forced her daughter to get a GED instead of a high school diploma even though she wanted to get one. My uncle is afraid to call the FBI on them because they might put the family into hiding and he'd never get contact with her again. Even the cult news letter and the occasional update on what country they're in is a bit of comfort to him.

So yes, there are cults like that, but they are not what the main religion of Christianity is like. They are completely separate just believe in somewhat of the same BASIC things. So Scientology is a cult because it tries to control the lives of its followers. If the follower tries to leave they are harassed beyond belief. They refuse medical care to those who need it. By this definition I, unfortunately, also believe Christian Scientists to be a cult. Any religion which causes harm to its members is not a true religion to me be it actually hurting them or hurting them by denying them basic needs.

The Jehovah's Witnesses are similar.

The slightest disagreement gets you 'disfellowshipped' which results in complete social shunning by the rest of your family (if like mine, most of your extended family is within the cult) until you're eventually forced back in just to talk to your family again. It's pathetic, and for a while - enough to turn me off religion entirely. I came to saw though that they're nothing more than a corruption of what Christianity is really about, and just a corporation using the bible to gain deeper access into people's minds and wallets.

Thank god I wasn't raised in it though - my parents had that much sense.

[Myrddin]

How is any religious movement not a cult

what the hell is wrong with you people

[Frizzle]

By definition you are wrong.

[redlion]

By definition you are wrong.

Who? Or was that so general it applied to everyone?

I'm quite okay with saying that religion is an opiate of the masses. You are only as free as you allow yourself to be. Organized religion is control, with deep social limitations inherent. Most religions are simplistic personifications of Gaia, the one god. Or Gaia's pantheon. All religions speak of the old ways. The truly primitive worship of dirt and sky. Don't get me wrong, religion has deep cultural roots, and most everyone in human memory had deistic worship inherent in their everyday lives. I don't undervalue it for its cultural primacy; I assess its value by its cultural impacts not its roots. Generally, deistic worship all falls under the category of control and has been a negative force in the advancement of the human race. The species.

I'm an Emerson fan.

[414de7fe6]

Who? Or was that so general it applied to everyone?

I'm quite okay with saying that religion is an opiate of the masses. You are only as free as you allow yourself to be. Organized religion is control, with deep social limitations inherent. Most religions are simplistic personifications of Gaia, the one god. Or Gaia's pantheon. All religions speak of the old ways. The truly primitive worship of dirt and sky. Don't get me wrong, religion has deep cultural roots, and most everyone in human memory had deistic worship inherent in their everyday lives. I don't undervalue it for its cultural primacy; I assess its value by its cultural impacts not its roots. Generally, deistic worship all falls under the category of control and has been a negative force in the advancement of the human race. The species.

I'm an Emerson fan.

Have a looksie at the origin of science (more specifically, the origin of the term Professor)

I think you'll be rather pleasantly surprised.

[Frizzle]

In traditional usage, the cult of a religion, quite apart from its sacred writings ("scriptures"), its theology or myths, or the personal faith of its believers, is the totality of external religious practice and observance, the neglect of which is the definition of impiety. Cult in this primary sense is literally the "care" (Latin cultus) owed to the god and the shrine. In the specific context of Greek hero cult, Carla Antonaccio has written, "The term cult identifies a pattern of ritual behavior in connection with specific objects, within a framework of spatial and temporal coordinates. Ritual behavior would include (but not necessarily be limited to) prayer, sacrifice, votive offerings, competitions, processions and construction of monuments. Some degree of recurrence in place and repetition over time of ritual action is necessary for cult to be enacted, to be practiced"^[1]

Cult is embodied in ritual and ceremony. Its present or former presence is made concrete in temples, shrines and churches, and cult images (denigrated by Christians as "idols") and votive deposits at votive sites.

By extension, "cult" has come to connote the total cultural aspects of a religion, as they are distinguished from others through change and individualization.

The comparative study of cult practice is part of the disciplines of the anthropology of religion and the sociology of religion, two aspects of comparative religion. In the context of many religious organisations themselves, the study of cultic or liturgical practises is called liturgiology.



Cult definitions coined from 1920 onward^{http://en.wikipedia....te-OCRTMelton-0} refer to a cohesive social group and their devotional beliefs or practices, which the surrounding population considers to be outside of mainstream cultures. The surrounding population may be as small as a neighborhood, or as large as the community of nations. They gratify curiosity about, take action against, or ignore a group, depending on its reputed similarity to cults previously reported by mass media.

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[Amour]

I actually know somebody who's into scientology and that person is the most worthless human being I know. Come to think about it... I've never met somebody who was into scientology who wasn't a douche.

[Myzt]

Cult: no ifs ands or buts about it.  It's fucking retarded, and the people who follow Scientology are more misguided and deluded than christians, which is a  difficult feat to do...

[pyke]

Cult: no ifs ands or buts about it.  It's fucking retarded, and the people who follow Scientology are more misguided and deluded than christians, which is a  difficult feat to do...

Christianity s messiah has the benefit of living before the internet and also not being a fiction novelist . It's also an innocent mistake for most faithful Christians to practice their religion, since it was what they were raised to believe the majority of the time.

[steve189]

I think they are a cult crazy crazy crazy people. just my opinion

[Metigue]

No, listen to reason guys. It just makes so much sense,

We didn't evolve from Apes (Crazy people)
God didn't make us (Lol, people actually believe this shit?)

What really happened is:

ABOUT 50,000 YEARS AGO THERE WAZ THIS WARLORD CALLED XENU AND HE RULED THE WORLD BUT THERE WER DEEZ ALIENS CALLED THETANS OR SUM SHIT ND THEY CAME IN BATTLECRUIZERZ AND SHOT XENU AND WER LIKE "LULZ" AND THEN XENU FELL DOWN A MOUNTAIN AND BECAME LORD SAURON AND GOT LOST WITH THE ONE RING AND FRODO AND IS LOCKED AWAY FOR ANOTHER THOUSAND YEARZ BUT WUT HAPPENED IS THE ALIENZ ALL JUMPED OUT OF THERE BATTLECRUIZERZ AND R NOW STUCK TO YOU AND CAUSE ALL OF UR PROBLEMS.

MAKEZ SO MUCH SENSE RITE?

GIV US $10,000,000 AND WE WIL TEL U WUT HAPPENZ NEXT

(Level 10 Alien hunter here)

(Note: Sarcasm was used in the above post at some point)

Edited by Metigue, 17 October 2009 - 06:36 AM.

[BellaBleu]

<br />No, listen to <b>reason</b> guys. It just makes so much sense,We <b>didn't</b> evolve from Apes (Crazy people)God <b>didn't</b> make us (Lol, people actually believe this shit?)What <b>really happened is:<br /><br />ABOUT 50,000 YEARS AGO THERE WAZ THIS WARLORD CALLED XENU AND HE RULED THE WORLD BUT THERE WER DEEZ ALIENS CALLED THETANS OR SUM SHIT ND THEY CAME IN BATTLECRUIZERZ AND SHOT XENU AND WER LIKE &quot;LULZ&quot; AND THEN XENU FELL DOWN A MOUNTAIN AND BECAME LORD SAURON AND GOT LOST WITH THE ONE RING AND FRODO AND IS LOCKED AWAY FOR ANOTHER THOUSAND YEARZ BUT WUT HAPPENED IS THE ALIENZ ALL JUMPED OUT OF THERE BATTLECRUIZERZ AND R NOW STUCK TO YOU AND CAUSE ALL OF UR PROBLEMS.MAKEZ SO MUCH SENSE RITE?GIV US $10,000,000 AND WE WIL TEL U WUT HAPPENZ NEXT<br /><br />(Level 10 Alien hunter here)(Note: Sarcasm was used in the above post at some point)

All you need is melodramatic tone and serious music...maybe flashing photos of Tom Cruise would help as well...

[sealonfire]

Good way to make money though. Start a religion.

That said, I've heard people who migrate to other countries and they couldn't get a job. They become a pastor and they got rich soon after.

[hahaman]

it doesn't matter if scientology is teaching the right or wrong thing.

the whole point about science is to view evidence, evaluate or reevaluate, and reestablish what u didn't know or what u thought u knew

it's about having enough sense and logic to always establish things logically with evidence and discussion.


blind faith and following to any sort of single rule, makes it just blind faith. that's not science.

i don't believe in mixing religion with knowledge. religion should be there for emotional support if needed, but never beyond. it should never dictate how we think, what we do, and nothing else beyond making us feel never alone

[am9]

like psuedoscience sorta thing? i had to write a report in biology on that stuff

[kbbbb]

Dianetics on its own are a bona fide religion and should not be banned. It is the way Scientology conducts itself that is an issue.

The scaremonger legal threat tactics to ward off critics
The social isolation of family members who leave the group
The illegal labour practices (including children)
The sexual abuse that is concealed within the organisation
The blackmail of releasing personal information gathered during what was supposed to be "private" auditing sessions should someone desire to leave
The violence against staff members (by David Miscarvage)
The extortion of money to progress in the religion
The misleading and deceptive information given to new recruits (that dianetics and other religions can be continued at the same time- at a point Scientology will pressure recruits to give up their other followings and heed strictly to Scientology beliefs)

The lack of transparency of these issues.

In 1983 (I think) the High Court of Australia ruled that the court cannot judge between quackery and religions and that Scientology should be recognised as a religion in Australia under tax law (and given an exemption). This is true and the religious practices are largely ethical (it's not like they sacrifice virgins or something). What Australian Senator Nick Xenaphon is calling for is an inquiry into the organisation's practices. This is the issue with the High Court ruling- it was gutless, shallow, and probably the fault of the Australian Tax Office because they failed to dig up good dirt to prove Scientology had illicit practices the Australian public ought not be giving tax breaks to. But this was in the days before the internet and Anonymous.