- Joined
- Nov 12, 2012
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- Location
- Houston, in the great state of Texas
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- Political Leaning
- Slightly Conservative
I have for whatever reason looked into some rather creepy religions that are absolutely cults. Curiosity made me look. First I looked into some rather local and unknown cults here in Houston. Particularly demonic ones or cults centered around the worship of Satan. Strangely they are quite different than the church of Satan. So I looked at the more mainstream cults such as scientology, then into the watchtower organization and even the Amish. I really am starting to think scientology is actually an atheist cult, but the other two seem to call themselves Christian.
Now down to business, the part that makes me say they are cults is the institution of rules created by an organization or some random bishop and the coercion to follow those rules. Now the watchtower organization has many rules that they instill in their children and to break these rules requires the offender to be shunned, not shunning somebody is one of those offenses. Which may sound rather harmless but it becomes quite sadistic when you look at the rules. You aren't really allowed to have friends outside the organization thus making you dependant on it. This is coercion and frankly brain washing. The Amish are a little better but not much, they don't allow their children to attend schools, or learn anything of the world, then they have rumspinger, or something like that where they ate allowed to and even encouraged to see the world, but they have very little hope in thriving in it due to the brain washing and failure of the Amish to provide education to them.
To each their own, hey if you want to be part of a cult, be my guest.
But this really got me thinking, are all Christian religions cults? (i omit other religions for lack of knowledge) Most religions engage in this tactic to some extent
Are they all really cults? Is your religion different? If so I have some questions.
Atheist please feel free to contribute, I always welcome your perspective.
Now down to business, the part that makes me say they are cults is the institution of rules created by an organization or some random bishop and the coercion to follow those rules. Now the watchtower organization has many rules that they instill in their children and to break these rules requires the offender to be shunned, not shunning somebody is one of those offenses. Which may sound rather harmless but it becomes quite sadistic when you look at the rules. You aren't really allowed to have friends outside the organization thus making you dependant on it. This is coercion and frankly brain washing. The Amish are a little better but not much, they don't allow their children to attend schools, or learn anything of the world, then they have rumspinger, or something like that where they ate allowed to and even encouraged to see the world, but they have very little hope in thriving in it due to the brain washing and failure of the Amish to provide education to them.
To each their own, hey if you want to be part of a cult, be my guest.
But this really got me thinking, are all Christian religions cults? (i omit other religions for lack of knowledge) Most religions engage in this tactic to some extent
Are they all really cults? Is your religion different? If so I have some questions.
Atheist please feel free to contribute, I always welcome your perspective.