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I dunno. These are cracking me up for some reason and even though this article is a bit shallow, I think a decent point was made at the end: power charging religious buildings is kinda bad taste I think - even if Scientology is full of complete asshole weirdos.
Scientology is not a religion
Sounds like something a religious person would say to feel like their religion is more sensible.
It's absolutely a cult. Ex enforcer Mike Rinder himself called Scientology an intelligence gathering organisation.
Religion, cult, intelligence gathering… none mutually exclusive.
Give it a few more generations, and it’ll look like Mormonism (originally an obviously scammy personality cult with a problematic founder, but now a respectable pillar of conservative society). Another century or two and it’ll be like Lutheranism or Episcopalianism: so much part of the background that people don’t even notice the weird stuff in its doctrines.
Scientology isn't based on an already accepted mainstream religion and they're losing membership. History rhymes, it doesn't always repeat.
That should have had an “if it survives long enough”; most weird cults/sects don’t.
I mean, I get that but isn't LDS considered still a cult? It certainly fits a lot of the criteria.
By who? Other Christian’s or religious people? Typical of them to accuse everyone else of being a cult.
Legally, no.
If you ask anyone sane, all religion is a cult.
By people that study cults and other high control groups, I mean.
All religions are cults.
Yea. What do you think confession is?
It's pretty well documented that L. Ron Hubbard founded Scientology to serve as a financial tool. Hence the financial controversies and the IRS battles from the 70s-90s
I agree, but that doesn’t prevent a social club from being a religion, does it?
There's a clear difference between an organisation intentionally created as a cult in living memory and one which, as far as we all know, arose organically from the sincere beliefs of people.
It doesn't make the beliefs of one more true or something, it's just a useful categorisation.
You just said the difference is time and the fact no one can remember the religions founding. Which is no clear difference at all.
Time tends to sand off the rough edges of any organization that wants to keep pulling in new members and that doesn't need a framework of total control to protect itself from fizzling out early. It's an evolutionary process, not just historical whitewashing. Though it's also historical whitewashing.
Well that's not quite what I said. But either way, I think it's pretty clear. What are some examples you think lie in the grey area?
Mentally ill people have sincere beliefs too.
Well the thing is, it's a cult.
They all are though tbf
Well yes, especially given that the Catholic church is basically (for a given value of 'basically') a continuation of the Roman empire, a financial instrument clothed in religion. Same as Scientology.
There's different types of names for a group depending on certain variables. Not all cults are religions.
The difference between a cult and a religion is that in a cult the person at the top of the pyramid scheme knows it’s all a bullshit grift and everyone else is a true believer, it’s a religion when that person dies.
I didn't say that though did I? I said all religions are cults.
True. I'm not sure what my point was, honestly.
What's the difference between a religion and a cult? Its size and follower numbers?
It’s whether the person you’re talking to just happens to be a part of that religion or not, typically.
They are all cults to me. Some just have better pr.
Fuck em they're an organization built on kidnapping and abuse.
On the other hand, all religions are complete weirdos and not a single one of them deserves special status or protections.
calling exploitative cult a religion is quite bad taste imo
Which religion isn't though?
They're all exploitive and cult-like in my opinion.
There's a difference, aside from size and social recognition?
Control. Generally speaking a religion and a cult are differentiated by how much they demand or control in members lives. Scientology, Mormons, and even a lot of Southern Baptists are generally cults or really cult like. For comparison Anglicans, Quakers, and progressive Neo-Pagans are on average not cults even if they are insane and playing with the dynamics at times.
The hallmarks of cults is: separation from friends or family, a person or ruling body that delivers the one and true version, punishment for rule breaking, and a difficulty separating. Also, it almost always devolves into sex slavery and/or arranged unions.
Those things give you control of course, but they are the basic guidelines of cult like behaviour.
Yeah there are probably dozens of definitions of cult with tonnes of overlap but without complete agreement. Just a notable example is there are some cults which pop up wherein they don't necessarily have a ruling body since it's basically a cavalcade of idiots feeding into each other.
So christianity was more of a cult in medieval times?
Depended on region and what period of the medieval era, for example Iceland around 1000 absolutely not, but in France during the crusades absolutely was. Remember the medieval era lasted about a thousand years and was spread across Europe so there's lots of nuance.
Plenty of sects cut you off still. Like Catholics.
reminder: scientology is not a religion.
Reminder: all religions are made up and mental illness adajcent.
Yeah sorry this one is actually a cult and not a religion.
Fuck all religions/cults.
Leave the pastafaria a alone, ok?
It is, for tax purposes.
No. No it’s not at all.
Religion is in bad taste. And before you come at me, go witness a few religious atrocities first. Like Gaza.
I won’t come at you at all with that statement friend.