Religion As A Cult

[steve_bank]

"Cult" is an pejorative descriptor, not some sort of technical term.

Cult is one of those many important words in this discussion that have little meaning, but lots of connotation.

From God to morality to Scripture to religion, the list of words that people take as having a clear meaning when they don't is endless.
Tom

Amden briter Tom.

Aside from a texttbook definition of a cult, colloquially it invokes an image of mindless followers doungg the bidding of the leader. Absolute loyalty ad obedince.

Stalin, Hitler were personality cults. Trump represents a personality cult. , and Kim Jong Un in North Korea.

Some followers swoon at the thought of Jesus. To me Jesus is a personality cult. Devotees have a personal relationship with Jesus.

I agree with the concept of the Jesus cult, aka Christ cult, aka Christianity.

However, Christ is a manufactured persona, not the real historical person with that name. It the persona of all the things written about him, and all the things people say about him today. As he is a martyr, the true cult leaders, the 'influencers' inside of the cult of Christianity, are the true cult leaders.

All personality cults are manufactured. Hitler was very smart politically. He manufactured hus persona from speech to the clotes he war designed to push traditional German cultural buttons.

The persona of the pope. Back in the day you coud say JFK and Jackie was a political manufactured peroanlity cult.The image of the perfect family, which was utterly bogus. Yet many believed it.

When discussing religion it is really about culture.

Is not the ill defined term deism also a manufactured persona? Ifou go down the path of declaring things ill defined and meaningless you can reach the conclusion there is no meaning in language. Yet we all effectively communicate. Cultural usage defines meaning more than text book definitions. Dictionaries over time follow culture, not the other way around.

 

[Eldarion Lathria]

Cult is your religion. True faith is MY religion.

 

[steve_bank]

Cult is your religion. True faith is MY religion.

That's it in a nutshell.

 

[TheItinerantAtheist]

Cult is your religion. True faith is MY religion.

Both your religions are cults. I have no religion.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Does anyone think that the recent events within the RCC concerning invalid baptisms and marriages lends credence to the claim that the RCC is a cult? The ritualized behavior of eating Jesus which the RCC says is not ritual at all but the actual eating of Jesus's flesh and drinking of his blood is enough evidence for me that the RCC is a cult, at least from a rational perspective.

Maybe cults are nothing more than collections of irrational beliefs within humans that are acted out at the group level. As such there is a Santa cult for example.

 

[Politesse]

News flash: if you define a cult as "any religion", then all religions are cults "by definition". Shock, shock.

 

[skepticalbip]

Does anyone think that the recent events within the RCC concerning invalid baptisms and marriages lends credence to the claim that the RCC is a cult? The ritualized behavior of eating Jesus which the RCC says is not ritual at all but the actual eating of Jesus's flesh and drinking of his blood is enough evidence for me that the RCC is a cult, at least from a rational perspective.

Maybe cults are nothing more than collections of irrational beliefs within humans that are acted out at the group level. As such there is a Santa cult for example.

I have looked at it as:
. One person who holds beliefs wildly at odds with reality are seen as living in a fantasy world.
. A small group of people who hold the same beliefs wildly at odds with reality are seen as a cult.
. A large group of people who hold the same beliefs wildly at odds with reality are seen as a religion.