@QuirkyProfessor explains Why We're Obsessed with #Cults | @Bing @Wikipedia

on
What I show here is 'the group of words' that couch "that word" (below hyperlinked to Professor Bainbridge's report on our fascination with the mind-pirates) into your vocabulary ... deeper meanings that 'firm the foundations' upon which our lexicon stands ...
The word “Cult” is built on ancient words that mean "to Till" (Colony ... originally referring to |Ancient- or |Primitive-Religion or -Worship, with 'those kinds of |Rites or |Ceremonies' (the kind involving Human-Sacrifice & other Inappropriate Rituals)).

I'm not sure if there's a list of all the cults in the world, but looking for such a list brought up:
Children of God, The Unification Church, Scientology (parodied in THE BOYS as The Church of the Collective), Manson Family, Heaven's Gate, Rajneeshpuram, Aum Shinrikyo, Order of the Solar Temple, Branch Davidians, The Russian Cult of Gadget Hackwrench, The Ku Klux Klan, Raëlism, Bavarian Illuminati, The People's temple, The church of euthanasia, Happy Science, The Brethren (Jim Roberts group a.k.a. The Garbage Eaters), Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, Twelve Tribes, Nuwaubian Nation (United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors), Congregation for the Light, Builders Of The Adytum, Supreme Master Ching Hai, Eckankar, Church Universal and Triumphant, Apostles of Infinite Love, House of Yahweh, Church of Bible Understanding, 

In describing the factors that make 'a cult' different from "a religion," the main difference Professor Bainbridge pointed out was 'the size of the congregation'---making most 'new religious movements' essentially "cults." Movements like

3HO, Adidam (Free Daist Communion, Dawn House Fellowship, etc.), Adonai-Shomo, Adonism; Adventures in Enlightenment, A Foundation; Aetherius Society, The African Church, African initiated churches, African Theological Archministry (Order of Damballah Hwedo Ancestor Priests, Shango Temple, Yoruba Temple), Agasha Temple of Wisdom, Agni Yoga (Roerichism), Ahmadiyya, Aladura ...

And a lot more (at the Wikipedia-page).

That makes me think of 'what makes people think The Bible is "God's Word" (which it is not ... well, it is; in the same way that STAR WARS is a documentary)---because 'God's True Word' is mostly "little bits of Truth sprinkled across the universe," and The Bible is a collection of those facts.

I think that's my main strategy in writing this blog---I start by writing about 'a word' & listing 'that word's roots' (and then doing entries for 'those words & their roots,' and then ... so-on), and then going back to certain words when I have more to write about them.

The writing that's there is then 'all in one place,' tho the posts there can have up to 30 sources of inspiration behind them ... just like most passages of The Bible--tho they're all together in one place--are actually collections & amalgamations of thousands of years of tradition taken down in ancient papyri and translated & re-translated over the millennia.

Comments

Post a Comment

I appreciate your comment, and I'll probably approve it & publish it soon (give me about a week before you try to post it again when it doesn't publish immediately ... thanks)