Do Cults still exist?
Sifter22
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I was watching Most Evil earlier and it was about Cult followers. It concentrated on the main ones such as The Manson Family and Jonestown. I would assume some exist, think I've heard of one called 'The Family', but are they on a lesser scale and less dangerous? Do you think we're ever going to have anything like a Jonestown or Waco disaster again?
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Come join our teacher, he will deliver you to salvation and you will live forever in peace and harmony.
...there are tons of the buggers.
At the risk of repeating myself-
Scientology, the Family, there are still some Aum Shinrikyo kicking about, the Raelians, I think the SES are still going...
To be fair, though, I think the Raelians are fairly harmless. When I used to work for *major comics retailer* in the 90s we had a stall at the Fortean Times UnConvention- one year we were sandwiched in between the Church of the SubGenius and the Raelians.
The SubGenius were definitely more fun, and the Raelians weirder, but I don't think they tend to make a habit of f*cking with people's lives as much as many others.
Islam can be
Most of them are dangerous to your wallet.
Although I wouldn't see any of the big cults we have today as martyristic (hmm I may have made that word up ), I don't think it's outside the realms of possibility that there will be some in the future.
they got power and control and influence unfortunately
It's usually the more eschatological cults that are prone to mass suicides and the like- because something like Scientology doesn't preach an afterlife, or have an apocalypse story, it's unlikely that kind of thing would ever be an issue.
Doesn't stop 'em being dangerous, though- (again, using CoS as an example) Google Lisa McPherson, or Operation Snow White. Or Shawn Lonsdale.
Finally we agree on something.
Yeah I'm well aware of CoS, their methods and endless bollox. :mad: Do they still have to do boat duty? I'm sure thems were good times (for Hubbard).
Yeah, the Sea Org is still going strong, I'm afraid
I think so, though I know the Freewinds got busted for being full of asbestos about three years back... not sure what the upshot of that was, but the Sea Org definitely still exists.
Pfft, I'd love to be cynical and say you reap what you sow, but all I think of when I hear about that is John Denver singing Calypso. So another reason to hate it.
Sure it is... :rolleyes:
Scientology is a proper religion in the same way that Battlefield Earth is a decent novel.
Made up by a science fiction writer.
Christianity as a whole is not a cult. Certain groups may be. Unfortunately sometimes evil people use religion to control other people. However, most Christian churches don't really have many cultlike qualities. Cults are usually closed societies and control every aspect of a person's life. Most Christian churches are not that way.
a minority only
maybe
and that's when they are liberal