This is a masterful summary of ways in which cults operate, and how they gain sovereignty over their memberships, but I beg to differ on one point. Sooner or later we have to concede that all religions structures are actually cults because those that don't become cults die off. They die off because they cannot maintain the minimum number of adherents to support the system.
Every organization, including non-religious ones, have standards of behavior to which members must conform, even if those standards are simply those of good taste....but these organizations rarely extend aid and comfort to members who need such succor.
I simply cannot aceept the idea that there are transformative, liberating religious traditions that help people free themselves from oppressive thought control. For example, every meditation technique can actually be broken down to its basic core of a hypnotic induction, which is why Sufi teahers, when asked how to achieve enlightment, will often reply, "Think of Nothing."
Brilliantly laid out! There are two or three critical insights you share here. The gist is the fact that fundamentalism is a way of thinking about any set of beliefs; and the invitation you leave for further inquiry about whether there are deeper, broader reasons in psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, which account for fundamentalism in human approaches to ideas.
This is a masterful summary of ways in which cults operate, and how they gain sovereignty over their memberships, but I beg to differ on one point. Sooner or later we have to concede that all religions structures are actually cults because those that don't become cults die off. They die off because they cannot maintain the minimum number of adherents to support the system.
Every organization, including non-religious ones, have standards of behavior to which members must conform, even if those standards are simply those of good taste....but these organizations rarely extend aid and comfort to members who need such succor.
I simply cannot aceept the idea that there are transformative, liberating religious traditions that help people free themselves from oppressive thought control. For example, every meditation technique can actually be broken down to its basic core of a hypnotic induction, which is why Sufi teahers, when asked how to achieve enlightment, will often reply, "Think of Nothing."
Brilliantly laid out! There are two or three critical insights you share here. The gist is the fact that fundamentalism is a way of thinking about any set of beliefs; and the invitation you leave for further inquiry about whether there are deeper, broader reasons in psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, which account for fundamentalism in human approaches to ideas.
You have made my day. Again. Let's talk soon.