• Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      That’s not how cults work. They are made up of ordinary people. The leader abuses human nature and gets people to do crazy things. The fun thing about being in a cult is that you don’t know your in a cult.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    “I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don’t have as many people who believe it.”

    • George Carlin.

    Cults are built on the power of belief and the more people who believe in a movement the more powerful it becomes.

    If ten thousand cult worshipers claimed their leader walked on water, how would you go about convincing them otherwise, even if you had proof.

    Look at Islam or Christianity or Judaism, they influence the world but they’re all only built on the power of belief.

    And you can equate religions and cults because the only difference between the two is time.

    • Isoprenoid@programming.devEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      And you can equate religions and cults because the only difference between the two is time.

      There is more difference than time. Cults require a charismatic, authoritarian leader, religions do not. One can be religious and autonomous in practice.

      Religions can be open source and decentralised, cults cannot.

      • Magiilaro@feddit.org
        0·
        11 days ago

        At least both Christianity and Islamic religions started as cults and became religions. Christianity was even a sect of people believing in the coming of the end times, that’s what the revelation in the new testament is for.

        A sect or a cult is always the root of any new religion and often new sects or cults are the offspring of an older religion. Religion, cults and sects are as concepts interconnected.

        • Isoprenoid@programming.devEnglish
          0·
          11 days ago

          Religion, cults and sects are as concepts interconnected.

          Oh, for sure. These ideas are related, but to claim that they are only separable by time is disingenuous.

          • Magiilaro@feddit.org
            0·
            11 days ago

            Oh no, I never said that they are only separable by time but that one is the predecessor or root of the other and that religions can spawn new cults of their own.

            It can’t only be time that transforms the one into the other, because otherwise we would have 100th of religions right now from all the sects and cults that have existed in the past.

            • Isoprenoid@programming.devEnglish
              0·
              10 days ago

              Oh no, I never said that they are only separable by time

              You may not have said it, but you typed it. Lets look at the replay:

              And you can equate religions and cults because the only difference between the two is time.

              It can’t only be time that transforms the one into the other

              I agree with you here.

              • Magiilaro@feddit.org
                0·
                10 days ago

                Oh I see where this misunderstanding comes from. I am not IninewCrow, I just thing the general concept of this idea is correct and gave it my own spin.

                So he/she said the thing with the time, I said everything in the posts below it :D

      • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        When discussing American furniture, I like to refer to the Shakers as a “sect” and not a “cult” because as far as I can tell they didn’t commit any atrocities.

  • Ioughttamow@fedia.io
    0·
    11 days ago

    Well you see I expend all of my powers holding the darkness at bay. Notice how it gets dark when I get tired and fall asleep?

    • Magiilaro@feddit.org
      0·
      11 days ago

      Not if “believe” from the followers is some kind of cosmic energy that powers the gods or defines their hierarchy, a pandimensional twitter subscription counter of sorts. In that case the last thing you want is to prove your existence as a god, because as soon as your existence is proven all believe will pop out of existence and will be replaced with knowledge of the existence.

      Believe is only possible when the thing to believe in is vague and unknowable, you can’t by definition ever believe in the existence of anything that you are sure of.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    11 days ago

    This is why claiming to be a “prophet” (by any of a multitude of definitions) is so popular for cult leaders.

    You can say you have information from a deity, one way or another, or even that you get special treatment from a deity. No special powers needed. If people believe in the deity and they believe you were chosen by that deity, to counteract that would mean counteracting the belief in the deity itself.

  • P_P@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    All this hullabaloo about a guy who never existed. Jesus buttfucking Christ.

    • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
      0·
      11 days ago

      I think we have archeological evidence for Jesus. Just not for the miracles obviously.