How Many Cults?

[paulpablo]

I was just thinking how many cults exist on the earth within the last two centuries?

I don't know the answer so no one wins a cake for guessing the right amount.

I was thinking the number must be around 100, 000 but I know it's difficult to guess this type of thing.


Bare in mind I've considered every religion to be a cult and every fractured piece of each religion to be a separate cult, for example the Sunni Muslims who believe god tells them suicide bombs are fine will be in a separate cult from the Sunni Muslims who don't believe in the use of suicide bombs, who will also be separate from the shia Muslims and the nation of Islam and so on and so on.

[ignoramus]

That many?
And all those billions of people over the centuries felt him and heard god talk to them!
But still no-one knows what he looks like, where he lives, or what his exact stance on human morality is.
He's a mysterious little bugger isn't he. I'd like to say to him:
Well your arseholiness, take a good look around you and tell us that this was your master plan, Oh mighty one!
We probably could have done much better if you didn't exist.

[KichigaiNeko]

I am thinking (generally speaking) that there are 7 billion people on the planet? ..... THAT is the number of cults on the planet now

[Anomalocaris]

I was just thinking how many cults exist on the earth within the last two centuries?

I don't know the answer so no one wins a cake for guessing the right amount.

I was thinking the number must be around 100, 000 but I know it's difficult to guess this type of thing.


Bare in mind I've considered every religion to be a cult and every fractured piece of each religion to be a separate cult, for example the Sunni Muslims who believe god tells them suicide bombs are fine will be in a separate cult from the Sunni Muslims who don't believe in the use of suicide bombs, who will also be separate from the shia Muslims and the nation of Islam and so on and so on.

Is Osama bin Ladin's Sunni Muslims, who believed god told them suicide bombers were fine, but who also believed that creating fear amongst infidels with suicide bombing should be balanced with cultivation of the image of relative moderation (no cutting off heads, etc) and paying lip services to reducing civilian casualties and expressing regret for dead women and children, especially but not limited to, if the victim were Muslims of either Sunni or Shiite faiths, a separate cult from ISIS Sunni Muslims, who seem to believe suicide bombing is okay, but it is good to go out of their way to cultivate the image of a particular relish for killing civilians, using methods like crucifixions to say nothing of be headings, and the relish is especially strong where the victims were Shiites?

[vorlon13]

Just LDS in less than 200 years has spawned over 100.

(assuming you take LDS as not a 'cult' and all the spinoffs as 'cults')


Joseph Smith birthed quite a mess, no doubt about it, and in over 100 instances, his followers felt things had mutated enough that they had to break away and perfect (or re-perfect) all the folderol Smith had translated off the gold plates. And some of the LDS spinoffs, have had spinoffs of their own. Remnant Church from RLDS springs to mind.

[Napoléon]

But still no-one knows what he looks like, where he lives, or what his exact stance on human morality is.

This is where you and the individual people of these cults obviously have a misunderstanding. They do know the answers to these questions. You just refuse to accept them.

[Minimalist]

How Many Cults?

All of them.

[paulpablo]

I was just thinking how many cults exist on the earth within the last two centuries?

I don't know the answer so no one wins a cake for guessing the right amount.

I was thinking the number must be around 100, 000 but I know it's difficult to guess this type of thing.


Bare in mind I've considered every religion to be a cult and every fractured piece of each religion to be a separate cult, for example the Sunni Muslims who believe god tells them suicide bombs are fine will be in a separate cult from the Sunni Muslims who don't believe in the use of suicide bombs, who will also be separate from the shia Muslims and the nation of Islam and so on and so on.

Is Osama bin Ladin's Sunni Muslims, who believed god told them suicide bombers were fine, but who also believed that creating fear amongst infidels with suicide bombing should be balanced with cultivation of the image of relative moderation (no cutting off heads, etc) and paying lip services to reducing civilian casualties and expressing regret for dead women and children, especially but not limited to, if the victim were Muslims of either Sunni or Shiite faiths, a separate cult from ISIS Sunni Muslims, who seem to believe suicide bombing is okay, but it is good to go out of their way to cultivate the image of a particular relish for killing civilians, using methods like crucifixions to say nothing of be headings, and the relish is especially strong where the victims were Shiites?

I don't know, I do know that both these groups argue about petty things such as the correct way to establish the caliphate, I was thinking of more clear cut things such as believing god is telling them terrorism is ok vs telling them terrorism is always wrong.

[ignoramus]

But still no-one knows what he looks like, where he lives, or what his exact stance on human morality is.

This is where you and the individual people of these cults obviously have a misunderstanding. They do know the answers to these questions. You just refuse to accept them.

Yes, I stand corrected!
What was I thinking?
I don't know, sometimes my stupid logic gets in the way of a good analysis.

[Zidneya]

There are so many official cults in the world as grains of sand in my hands.

---

As for the rest of the unofficial, individual and personal cults along with all the religious sects….

I'm gonna need bigger hands