How many grains of sand does it take to make a heap?
While doing my daily blog readings of the few blogs that I do go through, I came across this post:
http://singabloodypore.blogspot.com/2006/07/nine-linked-to-falun-gong-group.html
Now, while I am not sure about what exactly the Falun Gong group is and what it's doctrine in the whole religious circle is, though am curious to look into it but at the moment am going to head to bed so can't do the searching now, the one thing that caught my eye that kindled a thougth I had long long ago was the one line that stated that the religion was banned in China as an 'evil cult'. This got me thinking of the thought I had long ago when someone brought up the topic of Mormon and Christinity. What makes a belief a religion over a cult?
When we were simple humanoids, learning to walk upright and discovering tools, it is believed that we had multiple gods. There were gods for water, sun, sky, earth, rock..Hell, even the greeks and romans had a whole army of gods that dominated everything with one big powerful god ruling all the other gods. The aboriginal (First Nation) people of Canada had many different spirits and gods that ruled over the world and were paid homage to and were told of in stories as to how the world was created and run. I bet during this time, when Christianity was first thought of and there was only a small handful of them surrounded by thousands of the polytheistic believers, then Christianity was probably thought of as a cult. Isn't there stories of the Christians being tossed to the lions of their religious beliefs?
So what makes a belief a religion over a cult? How many grains of sand make a heap? If you had 1 grain and added one grain, is it a heap? two grains and add a grain, is it a heap? how many grains of sand does it take to add before you have a heap? and, once you have a heap, if you remove one grain of sand, is it no longer a heap? In that train of thought, is it the number of believers, in which case how many believers does it take to turn a cult to a religion? or what about age? how long does a belief have to be present before it turns from a cult to a religion? 10 years? 100 years? 1000 years? is there a secret hand shake or something tangible that has to exist for the cult to turn religion? I mean, you worship a man in Texas, give him all your money, cut off your nuts, drink poisoned Kool-Aid so that you can go to a UFO in the sky that will take you to the Eden/Heaven, then that could be a cult. You worship a man that died thousands of years ago, born from a virgin female, walked on water, was killed and rose from the dead and appeared to his 12 followers in a beam of light and give the preachers that tell of this person 10% of your wages, is that a religion? You have to have a book or an organization that classes you above a cult to religion?
I think that what it takes to turn a cult to a religion is what the powerful people of the land say. I believe I heard once that the greeks and romans were polytheistic but then an emporer came into power and felt that he liked Christianity better than Pagan worship and therefore, Paganism went out the door and became the cult and Christianity took hold and became the religion. So, I guess that means, intrinsically all beliefs are just that, beliefs and thoughts but what they are classed as is simply a manner of what the ruling people say they are.
Guess that means that if that was the case then people should have 'freedom of belief' instead of 'freedom of religion' since belief encompasses both cults and religion, whereas freedom of religion, in its very wording, means to imply that people are free to worship the religion that the ruling class says is a religion but excludes the beliefs that the ruling class does not accept making it a cult.
http://singabloodypore.blogspot.com/2006/07/nine-linked-to-falun-gong-group.html
Now, while I am not sure about what exactly the Falun Gong group is and what it's doctrine in the whole religious circle is, though am curious to look into it but at the moment am going to head to bed so can't do the searching now, the one thing that caught my eye that kindled a thougth I had long long ago was the one line that stated that the religion was banned in China as an 'evil cult'. This got me thinking of the thought I had long ago when someone brought up the topic of Mormon and Christinity. What makes a belief a religion over a cult?
When we were simple humanoids, learning to walk upright and discovering tools, it is believed that we had multiple gods. There were gods for water, sun, sky, earth, rock..Hell, even the greeks and romans had a whole army of gods that dominated everything with one big powerful god ruling all the other gods. The aboriginal (First Nation) people of Canada had many different spirits and gods that ruled over the world and were paid homage to and were told of in stories as to how the world was created and run. I bet during this time, when Christianity was first thought of and there was only a small handful of them surrounded by thousands of the polytheistic believers, then Christianity was probably thought of as a cult. Isn't there stories of the Christians being tossed to the lions of their religious beliefs?
So what makes a belief a religion over a cult? How many grains of sand make a heap? If you had 1 grain and added one grain, is it a heap? two grains and add a grain, is it a heap? how many grains of sand does it take to add before you have a heap? and, once you have a heap, if you remove one grain of sand, is it no longer a heap? In that train of thought, is it the number of believers, in which case how many believers does it take to turn a cult to a religion? or what about age? how long does a belief have to be present before it turns from a cult to a religion? 10 years? 100 years? 1000 years? is there a secret hand shake or something tangible that has to exist for the cult to turn religion? I mean, you worship a man in Texas, give him all your money, cut off your nuts, drink poisoned Kool-Aid so that you can go to a UFO in the sky that will take you to the Eden/Heaven, then that could be a cult. You worship a man that died thousands of years ago, born from a virgin female, walked on water, was killed and rose from the dead and appeared to his 12 followers in a beam of light and give the preachers that tell of this person 10% of your wages, is that a religion? You have to have a book or an organization that classes you above a cult to religion?
I think that what it takes to turn a cult to a religion is what the powerful people of the land say. I believe I heard once that the greeks and romans were polytheistic but then an emporer came into power and felt that he liked Christianity better than Pagan worship and therefore, Paganism went out the door and became the cult and Christianity took hold and became the religion. So, I guess that means, intrinsically all beliefs are just that, beliefs and thoughts but what they are classed as is simply a manner of what the ruling people say they are.
Guess that means that if that was the case then people should have 'freedom of belief' instead of 'freedom of religion' since belief encompasses both cults and religion, whereas freedom of religion, in its very wording, means to imply that people are free to worship the religion that the ruling class says is a religion but excludes the beliefs that the ruling class does not accept making it a cult.
posted by Capt_Canuck at 9:39 PM
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