RE: Witness/insight claims of the authors of the Bible
January 12, 2017 at 3:28 pm
(This post was last modified: January 12, 2017 at 3:30 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(January 12, 2017 at 3:08 pm)Emjay Wrote: That's fascinating... I'd never thought of it like that. So true... starts with a small group of people following one person... a self-proclaimed prophet... and I guess morphs from cult to religion the more widespread it gets, and thus less directly reliant on the original prophet?Not necessarily, and it's important to note that it's not a ladder style classification, some cults form out of religions. Typically, designation as a cult has centered around the adherents attitude toward the outside world, or the outside worlds attitude toward the adherents. If they can overcome that attitude (whether outward or inward) we cease to call them cults and use other designations. That they get bigger is seen as consequence of a successful recruiting and normalizing strategy, it's not the reason that they become schisms or sects, it's an effect of their having become schisms or sects. Still a ways to go to be a religion, though.
Typically, the earliest stage of development, and particularly in the case of cults, is some form of mysticism, not religion.
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