Amos

Exactly because the mystery of faith remains a mystery. A mystery is beyond human understanding and therefore hidden.

The secret ceremonies you are thinking of are just silly little mindgames they play to impress members and there is nothing crafty about them, least of all supernatural, and if they did they would not be your kind of secret. Rebellious women love these things because they love to tinker with the forbidden fruit.

Koyaanisqatsi

A cult is the blind acceptance of somebody else's words on their say-so.

As we all here know...

Words are cheap...

-RRH-

I do sometimes get the feeling that most of the major religions were more cult-like when they first started. (But I guess if we haven't agreed on what is a cult, that doesn't get me very far.)

But it isn't just popular opinion that makes something a cult, and it isn't just a matter of time. There's a certain attitude that I've learned to recognize. I've seen it from a student group at our university, and the disciples of a meditation guru. There are things in the New Testament that remind me of them. The Hadiths do it too.

If I could talk with one person from the Bible, I would talk to Judas. I have this feeling that he knows something important.

Egoinos

The problem with the word "cult" is that its meaning is in transition. Which is also quite interesting: its not everyday you get to see a word changing before your eyes.

The older meaning is:

You can still find this used, most often in respect to the mystery cults of the Roman Empire. When used in this sense its not degoratory, not at all. Indeed, I've heard my theology professors - who are mostly Christians themselves - quite happily talk about the "Christian cult" or the "Jewish cult" using the older meaning.

The more modern one, as popularised by the press and by anti-cult campaigners, is this:

Whether Christianity falls (or fell) under the latter definition is arguable, of course I think it probably did - the fact that they shared monies and goods in common, gave up occupations as far as possible to become more involved in the cause, and followed a charismatic leader (either Jesus himself, or Paul, later) and lived in an unconventional manner for the time, would seem to indicate Christianity was a cult. I don't know whether it can be said to be one now in general though.

All of the above definitions were from Dictionary.com by the way.

Cutter

1. How many guns do they have?

2. How do they mix their kool aid?

fando

So what's the "higher" form of a cult, if the colloquial meaning of cult has negative connotations? Religion?

I'm with Shermer on this one. Religion is just the next evolutionary step of a cult. Case in point: Habad--Genesis of a new Christianity. It's an essay straight from the secweb agora.

Shake

Or you could just say what this says:



PS. Thanks to EvolveFish !

NightWatchman

Religion is the biggest cult on the earth






night watchman