Latest post of the previous page:
http://edinburgh.gumtree.com/edinburgh/50/19180450.htmlAnyone going? If so, why?
Latest post of the previous page:
http://edinburgh.gumtree.com/edinburgh/50/19180450.htmlSurely an oxymoron?Atheists4Jesus
At what point does a group go from cult to respectable religion?
I read it somewhere a long long time ago, can't remember where but it stuck.Atheists4Jesus wrote:heh yes it's bordering on that Alan.
Love the sig btw. One of yours or did you rip it off? Always on the lookout for gems like that.
Scientology and the Simpsons.Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson) has given $10 million to the Scientology church...Won't be able to look The Simpsons in the same way again, what happens when they have a dig at Tom Cruise or Scientology???
I don't respect any of these beliefs either but I don't agree that "essentially they are all the same". Scientologists believe in something very different from the Abrahamic religions. What's more it is a cult, whereas Islam and Christianity are not.Atheists4Jesus wrote:what would the reaction be if it were a protest against Islam? Or Christianity? I have no respect for any of these beliefs and essentially they are all the same.
What makes scientology such a dangerous brain washing money making cult worthy of mocking and ridicule when fundie christians run the white house, make millions through TV, brainwash kids from birth and fundie muslims blow themselves up?
Atheists4Jesus wrote: At what point does a group go from cult to respectable religion?
I'm sorry Maria, it's very rare I disagree with you, First of all can you point me to a "respectable religion." I don't think such a thing exists.Maria
A cult that was deliberately manufactured like Scientology never becomes a respectable religion.
Alan, I think we've already established that none of us participating in this thread regard any religion as respectable but note the wording of A4J's question. He didn't ask 'what makes a cult respectable enough to you personally to be called a religion'. He was using the word 'respectable' in the sense of 'regarded as mainstream and therefore acceptable to (to the population at large and policy makers in particular)'.Alan C. wrote:I'm sorry Maria, it's very rare I disagree with you, First of all can you point me to a "respectable religion." I don't think such a thing exists.
Again, I think there is a danger of using words too loosely and I possibly did use the word 'manufacture' too loosely but you certainly are doing the same. The early Christians did not come about because someone of knowledge and education sat down and invented an idea as a means to make money and nor did they have to brainwash people into buying it. It is understandable that in primitive times people looked to the supernatural for hope and explanations - almost everyone believed in gods, all religions were 'cults' and everyone made up want they wanted to believe as they went along. But Christian beliefs evolved over many centuries and gradually won the battle for hearts and minds over the more powerful Roman cults. There is no way that Scientology can ever do this because it, in common with all modern cults, it lacks the inspirational message that the main religions had in their formative years. It resorts to coercive brainwashing techniques and everyone outside it who is properly aware of it can see what its real purpose is.Surely they (religions) were all deliberately manufactured?
These are not cults and don't behave like them. The are sects i.e. groups that have split from a mainstream religion but nevertheless consider and promote themselves as Christian and are accepted as such - albeit reluctantly - by most liberal democracies.And they do gain acceptance! Mormonism was certainly "manufactured" in the mind of Joseph Smith. Who saw it as the quickest/easiest way to make millions of $. What about the Jehovah's witnesses? They are given "respect" as a "religion" bollocks!
Nobody is suggesting you should.No I'm sorry but I can't show respect to any cult/religion, not even the more "enlightened ones" such as Christianity.