TLDR - what’s the question mark in the following scale
Cult(-1)……………….Religion(0)……………….???(+1)
Long version (a.k.a my stupid mind’s question that is keeping me awake):
My understanding of cult is a group of people with an absurd or even possibly nefarious belief system. Like something negative.
By that definition I would put religion in the middle (though a majority of it leans towards the cult side). A group of people that is very serious about what they believe in, no matter how illogical it is.
So with this understanding what would you call the positive side ? A group of people coming together to have a tradition and belief system just for the fun of it ? Is there such thing ?
The opposite of an oppressing group believing in farytales is atheism. It’s weird there’s a name for not believing bullshit, but there it is. Every religion is a cult, they are just of different scales.
an atheistic commune
Not everything has an opposite. That is a trap of binary thinking.
Ska band?
Your scale is off there… it should probably be more like:
cult(-100)...religion(-80).................atheism(0).................?'A group of people that is very serious about what they believe in, no matter how illogical it is.
It’s pretty easy to invert that statement: a group of people that is very unserious about what they believe in? That would be folks like DIscordians, the Church of the SubGenius, Pastafarians, etc.
Philosophy or science?
I don’t think this is smth that is to be put on a scale.
You can force the matter by choosing a narrative.
I mean you could argue for self deification, science, totalitarianism. Anything could be forced to make sense.
Now from your angle, where a groups beliefs offer predominantly positive benefits, eco restoration groups, foss folks, creative commons collective etc.
Bowling league
Philosophy debate club with no membership
I was made treasurer of the philosophy club by emailing the list at college to join. We met one time because the president and VP were excited someone joined.
There were no funds to manage.
Sounds like a cushy gig 🤣
There were no funds to manage.
Or so you kept claiming
I’d never want to be part of any club that’d have me as a member
I have a good mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it.
I actually think you’ve nailed the task with this
Yeah they were probably the only one in their philosophy debate club
Normal society
Religion and cult is basically the same thing with different connotative subtext.
This is reductive at best.
I would love to see a good faith discussion on this because I’ve thought about it for a while.
On religion vs cult? I can expand as a religious studies scholar
Yes please
Cults to Consciousness has an episode with Andrew Gold on this topic.
The only difference between religions and cults is the size.
The only difference is the person using the word.
The difference is the likelihood any given person overhearing could be offended.
Depending on whether offense is intended.
In practice it doesn’t matter
Nah, cults have other characteristics too, like a particularly charismatic leader, a tendency to have an extreme us-vs-them mentality, a desire for isolation rather than spreading the ‘good word’ far and wide, etc. There are definitely things that distinguish a cult of 100 people from a religion of 100 people, for example.
And age!
I was told it’s time.
Scientology is pretty new, and pretty big.
~3/4 century.
Not much relatively but they’re getting there.
On the age scale, they’re barely a blip. On the size scale, they’re massive enough to disappear people with zero accountability.
They’re a full-blown religion.
Do they still have the abulity to do that? they seem to have been way more quite recently or they could just seem less crazy compared to the general state of the world.
Pretty sure they do. They still own Clearwater, Florida (including the police department) and have a significant presence in East Grinstead, England, plus at least one mega-yacht in international waters. All they need to do is relocate you there then ‘handle’ the investigation when you come up missing.
Shelly is still missing to this day.
e: they may have toned down the crazy publicly because they were attracting too much attention, but I don’t think their power has diminished.
At the far end of the spectrum, with no judging and only help, is a food bank.
Freedom.
A community in which everyone has equal power and acts in solidarity with one another
A cult is a system of worship or veneration organized around a central person, character, symbol, or object. There’s nothing inherently good or bad about it.
