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Remember: all religions start out as "cults" to the vast majority of the population. Christianity started out as a "cult" in Pagan dominated Rome.
* followers of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices
* fad: an interest followed with exaggerated zeal;
* followers of an unorthodox, extremist, or false religion or sect who often live outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader
* a religion or sect that is generally considered to be unorthodox, extremist, or false.
Originally posted by Paul_Richard
Technically, any group that adheres to beliefs different than the more popular and established "churches" are often labelled a cult. However, with some objective investigation one realizes that there are benign or benevolent cults and malevolent or destructive cults.
Originally posted by Paul_Richard
Examples of benign or benevolent cults would be: the Bahá'í, the Hare Krishnas (ISKCON), Scientology, and Eckankar.
Examples of malevolent or destructive cults would be: the cult of Charles Manson, the cult of Jim Jones, and NAMBLA.
"It is a thinking universe, a living universe, an exquisite universe!" Castaneda said, exuberantly kicking off the seminar. "We have to balance the linearity of the known universe with the nonlinearity of the unknown universe." The charismatic Castaneda proved amazingly convincing when describing life among inorganic beings, with whom he apparently spends a great deal of time; the assemblage point, a place about an arm's length behind our shoulder blades that can be shifted to visit other realms; and a predatory universe in which "flyers" incessantly feed on mankind's awareness, taking the sheen off our luminous eggs and leaving only a rubble of self-absorption and egomania.
He invents none of this, he insists. I'm not insane, you know. Well, maybe a little insane. But not ridiculously insane!"
He is also charming, energetic, fit, and funny. And at the conclusion of his opening talk, Castaneda responded to a request for an interview by unexpectedly inviting the writer to lunch.
Interview with Castaneda
Originally posted by 5thElement
Christianity=organized belief.
They ALWAYS need more numbers. News flash : recruiting in progress for last 2000 years
Look up the word 'cult' in the dictionary, and you will see that it is used to describe any religious group. The way it is defined in Christianity is the way it is being defined here; a non-biblical or illegitimate twist. It is also popular in modern Xianity to believe that all Xians are supposed to recruit. That is NOT what the Bible teaches. We are to be WITNESSES. Big difference. GOD chooses who HE will call, not us. We are to just live our lives by His game plan, and accept others, love others. We are told to forgive IF they ask. IF they do not, even refuse or attempt to repeat their evil, we are not called to forgive and forget. That is heresy. God promises to do vengence. Does that sound like a push-over God? Push over is what the modern church is attempting to breed. Personally, I have fled the organized church, and just try my best to keep the Sabbath, at home. I believe that we are not under any covenants now, and no direction is given until the two prophets appear, hopefully soon. When our twin star arrives, possibly in 2019.
Originally posted by headlightone
I would love to hear from any ex cult, or society members or even some current members .
information from both sides of the fence would be great.
Originally posted by DangerDeath
Of course, spiritual essence of personality does not look for unity in formal relationship, which basically splits personality.
Personality, being an expression of force, is one and same for everyone (like the symbol of Christ or Buddha).
Force, as the metaphysical, cannot be discerned.
So, this archetype is probably the most important of all, because it tells us that compromise is not possible between these two forms of existence.
One is either a Personality, or is a split-personality - incomplete.
We know that we cannot really unite with each other as long as we perceive as separate beings.
So the true unity must be attained on a different level of existence. It can be attained through our experience of both realities and then discarding the one reality in which we are separated by the particular point of perception - normally called EGO.
Of course, similar to the T'Pol archetype is the archetype of Eros and Psyche - which cannot, shouldn't, be "perceived" by senses - that is, it has to be experienced as unity.
Originally posted by darcon
Definitions of cult on the Web:
* followers of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices
* fad: an interest followed with exaggerated zeal;
* followers of an unorthodox, extremist, or false religion or sect who often live outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader
* a religion or sect that is generally considered to be unorthodox, extremist, or false.
So, now that we know the definition, we can definitely say, that all religions, at one point in time, were labeled cults. followers of an unorthodox, extremist, or false religion or sect who often live outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader. At the time when Christianity surfaced, it was exactly what is defined in bold.
Actually, we can label everyone's beliefs as cultish, since everyone's beliefs usually vary from one and other.
Originally posted by Paul_Richard
Technically, any group that adheres to beliefs different than the more popular and established "churches" are often labeled a cult. However, with some objective investigation one realizes that there are benign or benevolent cults and malevolent or destructive cults.
Originally posted by darcon
True, there are opposite sides of the spectrum(And in between), just like most things in life.
Originally posted by Paul_Richard
Examples of benign or benevolent cults would be: the Bahá'í, the Hare Krishnas (ISKCON), Scientology, and Eckankar.
Examples of malevolent or destructive cults would be: the cult of Charles Manson, the cult of Jim Jones, and NAMBLA.
Good examples
Originally posted by DangerDeath
Basic concept of early Christianity was spiritual unity of all individuals, realized and shown in the symbol of Christ (the anointed one, the savior, true self, personality).
Originally posted by DangerDeath
The concept of "Son of God" is a novelty and radically opposed to patriarchal hierarchy. It is a revolutionary concept, and quite similar to Buddha's discarding the caste system in India, equaling men and women in all respects.
This idea was unacceptable to the orthodox, hence their insistence that Jesus had always been God and was entirely different for all created beings...The Arian position had the potential to erode the authority of the Church since it implied that the soul did not need the Church to achieve salvation....The Church had nearly split over the issue when the controversy reached the ears of the Roman emperor Constantine. He decided to resolve it himself in a move that permanently changed the course of Christianity.
47. This God alone is the primary unity, or the original simple substance, which produces all created or derivative monads. To speak figuratively, they are born from one moment to the next by continual flashes of lightening from the divinity; and they are limited by the receptivity of that which is created, which is essentially bounded.
48. In God there is power, which is the source of everything; then there is knowledge, which contains the detailed system of ideas; and finally will, which changes or produces things in accordance with the principle of the best. These correspond to what there is in created monads: the subject or basis, the faculty of perception, and the faculty of appetition. But in God these attributes are absolutely infinite, or perfect; whereas in created monads or entelechies (or ‘perfection-havers’, as Ermolao Barbaro translated this word) they are only imitations, which are closer the more perfection they have.
49. Created beings are said to act externally in so far as they have perfection, and to be acted upon by another in so far as they are imperfect. Thus activity is attributed to monads in so far as their perceptions are distinct, and passivity in so far as their perceptions are confused.
50. One created being is more perfect than another in that it contains what is used to explain apriori what happens in the other; and this is why it is said to act on the other.
53. Now, since there is an infinity of possible universes among God’s ideas, and only one of them can exist, there must be a sufficient reason for God’s choice, which determines him to the one rather than to the other.
54. This reason can be found only in harmony, or the degrees of perfection which these worlds contain, since each possible world has the right to claim existence in proportion to the perfection it includes. Thus nothing is entirely arbitrary.
60. Besides, what I have just said provides the apriori reasons why things could not happen in any other way. In organising the whole, God paid attention to each part, and in particular to each monad. Since the nature of monads is to represent things, nothing could restrict them to representing only a selection from things. It is true that this representation is merely a confused representation as far as the details of the universe as a whole is concerned, and that it can be distinct only over a very limited range of things. In other words, monads have distinct representations only of the things which are closest to them, or relatively large. If this were not the case, each monad would be a divinity. Monads are not limited with respect to the objects of their knowledge, but with respect to the modes of their knowledge of their objects. All of them penetrate to infinity, or to the whole — but confusedly. What makes them finite, and distinguishes one from another, is the variation in their distinct perceptions.
63. The monad to which a body belongs is either an entelechy or a soul. If it belongs to an entelechy, the combination can be called a living being; and if it belongs to a soul, the combination can be called an animal. Now this body of a living being or of an animal is always organic. The reason is that, since each monad is a mirror of the universe in its own unique way, and since the universe is arranged with a perfect orderliness, there must be the same orderliness in that which represents it — in other words, in the perceptions of the soul, and consequently in the body, since the representation of the universe in the soul follows that which is in the body.
Originally posted by headlightone
Come on folks open up release that tension.
What are the incentives on controlling peoples beliefs why is it done.
A truth is known or discovered by person or persons.
Originally posted by DangerDeath
Of course, stating that Jesus evolved to the status of being Son of God allows everyone to evolve to the same state.
This is directly opposed to the idea of authority. Church as an institution is "intermediary" between humans and God, and must certify one's appropriateness.
Originally posted by DangerDeath
But nowadays there are many Christian sects which disagree on this question.
About Man-God and God-Man.
Originally posted by DangerDeath
The old Greek idea of man joining gods (like heroes being ascended to the Olympus after death) is not the same as the idea of Man-God, as Alexander believed of himself. Or Augustus, or Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, etc.
Originally posted by DangerDeath
In that respect, the old idea of hero is reflected in the concept of God-Man, and this is probably the reason for the discussion you quoted, the idea of evolving, through resolving tasks or quests, and becoming like god.
Originally posted by DangerDeath
One of the oldest concepts is found in the philosophy (or religion) of Jains. Jain basically means hero (jina, djin, djinny, giant). Jains are ethical giants who ascend above lowly passions and perfect themselves through ascetic and ethical practice.
en.wikipedia.org...
Originally posted by DangerDeath
Jainism is deemed to have largely affected Buddha's philosophical approach.
Specifically in Christianity, God-Man is created, in my opinion, as obvious opposition to the prevalent concept of Cesar as Divinity, a symbol of secular power equaled with the power of the divine. Augustus Cesar proclaimed himself to be God.
This concept certainly was a finger into the eye of the authorities.
Also, would they not be thought of as a "cult" by the other sects who believe that only Jesus and the Father can be divine?