butswana

My brother-in-laws family(wifes half brother) gave all of thier money to Jim Jones. They didn't go to California with him because they couldn't afford the trip. Lucky bastards.

Gawdawful

Quakers are a cult? Well, if by cult you mean outside the mainstream Protestant religion, then yes, I guess they are.

Quaker: a member of a Christian sect that stresses Inner Light, rejects sacraments and an ordained ministry, and opposes war; often mistaken for the Shakers, a Quaker-offshoot cult which has pretty much died out because of their policy of celibacy.

Funny thing I heard once, the Quakers sit in their gatherings staring at each other until the "spirit" moves someone to talk; as a result, many services end up with nobody speaking up at all. I don't know if this is true or not, but it sure sounds like fun. Probably a lot better than the boring Southern Baptist preacher's exhausting droning I heard as a youth.

Quakers, or Friends, are also anti-war, another positive attribute IMHO.

Warren in OK

Virgil Tibbs

My personal take on religion is that it has less to do with intelligence than mental illness. The difference between members of mainstream religions and self-destructive cults is only in the degree of that illness.

Ordinary adherence to religion is something I'd consider to be like a minor personality disorder, since it doesn't interfere much with day to day life, only the ability to critically reason on subjects directly regarding the particular faith of the person (hence people who believe in God usually have no trouble dismissing Zeus or Odin or the IPU as silly).

There aren't really any sharp divisions in the insanity of religion, but more of a continuous spectrum. Over a "normal" religion one can gradually add more ceremonies that interfere with day-to-day life (like praying for extended periods or daily worship services), and/or stranger and more specific beliefs, and/or more intense cognitive dissonance (ID or even creationism), and/or more diversion from secular morality (religious intolerance, homophobia, jihads, suicide cults, and what have you).

Intelligence hardly provides safety against mental illness: the cleverer one is, the better one is at making specious arguments to support the delusion. OTOH I think learning how to reason critically and avoiding indoctrination at an early age are both helpful.

Of course, all this raises the uncomfortable question of why so many people are mentally ill. I can think of four reasons off the top of my head.

1) Parents indoctrinating children young when the children's minds are still highly malleable.

2) Society at large taking theism so very seriously (I bet if you were raised in an environment where people killed in the name of the invisible pink unicorn, the IPU would be much less humorous).

3) The inability of people to deal with major unanswered questions (Why I am I here? and also in more primitive times Why does the sun make things warmer? etc.). This is how I see supernaturalism as having started in the first place. In lieu of a real answer no one has yet, it is comforting to some to use goddidit to put questions out of their minds (even without actually answering those questions).

4) Fear of ceasing to exist (to paraphrase Ahnold in T3: "Your religion is good. It relieves tension, and the fear of death.")

Tibbs

Relative Newcomer

One day you’re walking down the street and you are approached by two charismatics. They ask you how you’re doing, where you’re from, etc. After chatting for a bit they mention to you that they think you’re cool and invite you to come to a party later. Handing you copied directions, they tell you they really like you and that you should come and meet their friends.
Later you decide, based on the fact that you don’t have many friends and with that no real plans that evening, to go to the party. When you arrive you are immediately greeted and welcomed by everyone there. The acceptance feels really good. You are taken to meet that “party host” – a very strong willed and charismatic person. He/she makes you feel tremendous. After spending some time getting to know everyone it’s time for you to go, but not until a group prayer is said. It feels odd to you but you don’t really care since everyone else is involved and because you had such a good time with your new friends. Before you leave you’re invited back, which you gladly accept.
Soon you find yourself spending a lot of time with your new friends and learn that most of those that you’ve met all live together with the “party host” – now the “home host”. The host invites you to move in with them, and all you have to do help out around the home, participate in group activities, and of course help out with the house bills.
Some figure this game out. They realize that all their time, money, and efforts go into the “home” – some of those that do figure it out can get out, but others can’t because they’re in too deep. Some of the weaker minded simply remain, spreading the disease to whomever will listen.
I believe there are many people out there who don't want to think for themselves. They feel a strong need for a sense of community with others. They need to feel acceptance in a group. They don't want to be alone and they want to believe in something. The cults and their leaders give these sheeple what they want. Most of these cults are smalltime, wannabe cults that don't last long. Others, like some that you mentioned, prosper and can get quite out of control.
“Religious” groups aren’t the only groups that can be considered cultish. Others include multi-level marketing businesses, etc. that just employ different tactics to get you sucked in.

Apocolips

Hola!


The Quakers comment was to invoke humor only. The Quakers is an interesting new-age liberal religion.

SENOR

crocodile deathroll

I notice there is an increasing tendency for religions to blur the line between science fiction and faith. This will be the pattern that will continue to emerge as uninformed people are more captivated by the science fiction imagery in movies with more spectacular special effects.

Heavens Gate, Solar Temple and Scientology and a long line of more to follow will continue to suck the gullible and the ignorant in.

Diadectes

This is exactly right. And it is one of the reasons the Quakers are among the very few Christians I respect. They don't need to be constantly reminded of dogma (because they don't have any); they don't need to babble meaningless gobbledegook (speaking in tongues), sway about, faint or endlessly mutter 'thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus' like so many charismatic/evangelical sects, because they are mostly intelligent people who realise that if you really want to listen to the 'voice of God' (rather, the prompting of the Spirit) you need peace and quiet to do it. They are, from what experience I have had of them, genuinely kind, inclusive, gentle people, who encourage THOUGHT and believe that each individual has 'that of God' inside them, and that it is no-one else's business to dictate to you how you develop your personal relationship with the big guy. If only all Christians could be as generous in spirit.

villainess

Humans evolved in groups, and "love" or at least acceptance and support from other humans is something that most people feel the need for very strongly, since troughout most of human history it was critical for survival. Successful cults develop a program for finding lonely, alienated people, giving them acceptance and warm fuzzy emotions until they are hooked, and then creating guilt and fear by withdrawing the acceptance if the recruit doesn't buy into the group's goofy beliefs.

Many cults also create mind-altering experiences which they try to pass off as "real" - either by use of actual narcotics, sleep and food deprivation, social/ sensory deprivation, marathon chanting and singing, or some combination. This gradually breaks down the recruit's rational defenses and creates a bond between members who have shared the experience.

People engage in the self-destructive behavior of cult membership, in short, for much the same reasons as they engage in the self-destructive behavior of drug addiction or staying in abusive relationships.

the.villainess

Vylo

I enjoy the fruit pun- GRAGGHUCHH!!!

Gawdawful

There were Mormons in Jonestown?

Warren in OK