Religion
Related: About this forum"Going Clear: HBO Scientology film
I finally saw it the other night and thought it was riveting.
Did we ever discuss it here?
I'll start with one takeaway I got:
In living memory we have seen the rise of two religions with a lot of influence and followers. Both are demonstrably based on bullshit ginned up by con-men. Scientology and Mormonism. This has not stopped it's believes from following it with literally missionary zeal.
But we are suppose to accept that nomads, goat-herders and day-laborers, thousands of years somehow found the truth and aren't as ridiculous as these?
The other thing I got was how easy it is to intimidate the US government and how the Congress thinks Acorn and Planned Parenthood are threats but leaves these thugs alone.
TheBlackAdder
(28,244 posts).
Having written a college term paper on cult influence back in the 1980's this show reinforced many of the traits of cults. How people will mainly return to a neutral state if they are able to escape their influences, but escaping IS the problem. Just like with even the Amish and many Baptists, if you leave the church you are cut off from family... this is a big control mechanism.
If a religion needs to pressure its congregation to stay, by levying ostracisation, is their message really strong?
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Also, the threats of lawsuits really shows how weak the government is. Supposedly, their tax status is under review, but let's see how that plays out.
edhopper
(33,652 posts)Judaism, Christianity and Islam functioned in the same way?
Obviously Mormonism started as a cult and had the good sense to take it's followers somewhere where there was no leaving the group.
Unlike most times when religion is involved, I think your last comment shows it is about power and not the beliefs of the religion.
TheBlackAdder
(28,244 posts).
People are ritualistic, so the aforementioned religions took many traditions, celebrations, dates, and parts of those that predated it to make them palatable to people. Any new religion is a threat to the current institutions and it is not unreasonable to think that members were not pressured to remain.
Power, money and its conversion to political power are the main motivators of most people. This is true of the French Revolutions bourgeoisie successfully convincing the poor to overthrow their government so they could rise into power, to the Kochs who are using their wealth to affect political and cultural change in the country.
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edhopper
(33,652 posts)it is the beliefs of those they manipulate that lets them attain those goals.
Their goal is to protect and act on their beliefs. Their motivation is religious.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Blasphemy is still a crime in most of the word including many western countries and is punishable by everything from a fine to death. Blasphemy and atheism was punishable in the American colonies until the Bill of Rights guaranteed religious freedom. So it's really only a relatively recent phenomena that most modern religions didn't stop operating as even more cult like than the two you mentioned. Once you remove the threat of force and ostracism, religion inevitably declines.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)I fail to see any substantial difference in level of bullshit between Scientology and other religions.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)that all religions are cults. All of them.
It's true that the ones we consider mainstream Protestant, and reform Judaism, and sometimes Catholicism don't generally behave like cults, but look at ultra Orthodox Judaism, so-called Protestant fundamentalism, and the extremes of Islam. Cults, pure and simple.
edhopper
(33,652 posts)it's not the congregation so much (with some exceptions). But the clergy certainly looks to be a cult.