© Roger M Tagg 2011
Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web" . This website is under continuing development.
I realize I've always been, up to now, rather dismissive of 'cults'. My excuse is that I feel that most of them are rich sources of bullshit. I recently (2010) acquired a book 'Cults: Secret Sects and Radical Religions' by Robert Schroëder (Carlton Books 2007, ISBN 978-1-7418-2699-9), which is an exposé on some of the more off-beat sects. Despite its rather 'shock, horror' style it made me reconsider a few old questions. For example, what is it that motivates anyone - especially seemingly intelligent people - to get involved in them? How come they are able to persuade members to donate considerable sums of money that enable leaders to live extravagant life styles? And how do they manage to appeal to young women destined to become part of the 'harem' of the cult leaders?
My dictionary (Chambers) says that a cult is "a system of religious belief: formal worship: a sect: an unorthodox or false religion: a great, often excessive, admiration for a person or idea: (with of) a fad". It comes from the Latin for 'worship' - the signs welcoming one to Swiss-French villages give the times of their church services under the heading cultes. Indeed, when we talk about cults, we primarily think of religious cults. But there are plenty that are totally non-religious or even anti-religious.
A 'sect', I think, is something that has some extra meaning; it carries the implication that it has split off from another cult, or represents a particular 'tendency' within a larger cult.
I think that, in order to qualify as a cult (or sect), most (or all) of the following characteristic features would be expected:
In the table below, I've put these into rough categories of my own.
| Offbeat Christian Sects | Christian Pressure Groups | Very Odd Oddballs | Satanic and Occult | Very Old and Awful |
| Quakers | Opus Dei | Aum Shinri Kyo | Church of Satan (La Vey) | Bull worship |
| Mormons | Blue Army of Mary | Branch Davidian | Druids | Cybele |
| Plymouth Brethren | Knights of Columbus | Chen Tao | Horse Whisperers | Diana of the Ephesians |
| Christian Scientists | Knights of St Columbia | Children of God (Berg) | OTO (Crowley) | Dionysiac |
| Jehovah's Witnesses | Knights Templar (historic) | Concerned Christians (Miller) | Voodoo | Eleusinian Mysteries |
| Rosicrucians and SRIA | Fundamentalist LDS (Jeffs) | Wicca | Mexican Sun God | |
| Modern Christian Movements | Hare Krishna (ISKCON) | Mithraism | ||
| Nine O'Clock Service | High Profile Oddballs | Heaven's Gate (Applewhite) | Old Jewish Sects | Osiris (Egypt) |
| Jesus Army (Jesus Fellowship Church) | Scientologists (Hubbard) | Manson Family | Essenes | Sacred Tree or Grove |
| Assemblies of God | Unification Church (Moonies) | Militia (US) | Gnostics | |
| Osho (Sri Rajneesh) | ||||
| Old Christian Heterodoxies | Islamic Fundamentalists | People's Temple (Jim Jones) | Semi Serious | |
| Waldensians | Ahl us Sunnah wal Jamaa'ah | Raëlians | Elvis | |
| Cathars | Tablighi Jamaat | Temple of the Sun |
One feature common to many cults is Millennialism. This is the belief that the 'world as we know it' is going to end fairly soon, and our only hope is to join the cult, and often to give over one's money - and/or - body to the cult leaders.
Some of these cults additionally believe in their right to over-ride normal human laws and rights, and to impose their ideas on all humanity. Some - especially in the middle column - have ended in mass suicides or murder sprees.
Humans, especially the ones who are susceptible to joining cults, are often unhappy with a totally scientific, materialist and "matter of fact", explanation for how the world (and the universe) works. In primitive times, science didn't have any answers anyhow. So human culture has become dependent on stories. By this I mean fanciful fictional explanations for what humans experience, tales which are essentially dreamed up by some insightful individuals, but are often tied in with the idea of 'magic' and supernatural forces - what one might call the 'Harry Potter sundrome'.
Such stories tend to be simpler, and hence potentially more unifying for a society, than the more accurate - but more complex - facts. Stories also appeal:
However, whether we like it or not most such stories are inevitably time-limited - in other words they effectively have a rather fuzzy 'use by' date. How soon that date arrives depends on the size of the 'credibility gap' that grows as people develop more knowledge about the world’s processes and possibilities. Also, the stories usually contain illogicalities which become apparent once they are taken beyond a certain point. It's very rash to pretend that they are "eternal truths".
A simple example of what I mean is what one might call "Father Xmas’s busy Christmas Eve" (see this web page). If one calculates how many good children worldwide Santa Claus has to visit in 24 hours, bringing his sleigh to a halt, climbing down each chimney and deliver presents, then climb up again and accelerate the sleigh for the next leg of his round, one is forced to the conclusion that the sleigh will have to travel at 3000 times the speed of sound. OK, children don't need to be concerned with the physics - it's just a nice story, as long as we don't confuse it with a scientific explanation. Similar comments could apply to the prophet Mohammad's night journey.
However many religions do have stories which they claim as 'God's Word', and which therefore override any scientific explanation of the same observations. An example is the idea of literal "6-day creation" of the world and the universe. While the Vatican has managed to move on from this position, some American Christian fundamentalists have not - see this page.
Many people give more attention to stories of one cult or another than they do to issues in their lives that need their attention. Many of us are absorbed with the goings-on in TV soaps, or the gossip about A-listers in magazines. We go to movies (which sometimes rewrite history to suit the marketing of the film), and we read fiction. This is not to say that these stories cannot have some educational, developmental, cathartic or just pleasure value. But sometimes our fascination with the stories overwhelms our practical priorities.
In my view, we are best off taking a humble view, realizing that no one story, not even science, not even our favourite political preference, and not even the religion we were brought up in, has all the answers to all the issues we face in our life here.
A quote I like here is “Grand narratives increase the scope for hubris, ulterior bias and political agenda – and marginalize other voices and views” - Cameron Woodhead, in the Australian Feb 19, 2011.
Adam Smith (the Scottish father of Economics) wrote about “The gullible majority of admirers and worshippers”. I take this to mean that many of us find it hard to avoid the temptation to look up to other people (living, dead or fictional) for examples of how to act, rather than to address issues ourselves. We are too easily swayed by people in the public eye, fictional characters - and of course people with vested interests in getting us to do what they say (like advertisers, politicians - and cult leaders).
Cults often start with an individual with big ambitions. It's been said that if one wants to make a packet of money and have lots of sexual experiences, don't try writing a best seller - start a religion. In other cases there are "two or three gathered together" with a common new idea. Hopefully, the message catches on with a few people (it's best if some of them have money or influence) and it becomes more widespread, sometimes quickly but sometimes over centuries.
Cults that have survived over several centuries have almost all been subject to adoption by powerful rulers regimes. This is not always a bad thing, since those ruling dynasties that survive are usually fairly pragmatic, so they are quite prepared to react to change. However empires and dynasties do eventually decline or fall.
Once there are 'mainstream' cults, there tends to be a series of schisms. These arise when there are arguments over what is orthodox, especially if new issues arise in peoples' life environment. Often one finds a bundle of 'parallel' cults with relatively minor differences, often caused only by the founders' or leaders' personalities. This is even true with present day 'millennialist' or Satanist cults.
As a rule, cults don't like to admit that they have ever said or done anything wrong. So when there is a challenge, they tend to claim that their stories are 'eternal' or 'transcendent'. They find justifications for all their earlier sillinesses and idiocies, and claim that what the cult says is true for all time, and is beyond the trivialities of our earthly existence. However this increases the risk of an eventual big credibility gap, and hence encourages breakaway groups or 'necessary' mergers.
Another tendency is for cults to indulge in the practice of 'holier than thou' - in other words, a progression into more extreme and separate rules for living. Examples are the biblical Pharisees, the English Puritans, Exclusive Brethren, and many modern fundamentalist Moslems and Christians. Taken too far, this spirit may end up causing wars (e.g. the crusades, major jihads) or a general breakdown of trust between people.
Otherwise, apart from those that end with some mass suicide pact, it seems quite hard for many cults to actually stop. The wackier ones may have their leaders killed or convicted, but there usually seems to be someone else able to step up and take over. After all, if it was a success before, it's probably still got something going for it, there's probably still money in the coffers and a Adam Smith's "gullible majority of admirers and worshippers" are out there ready to commit themselves to a cause.
Personally, I think not. This means that religions like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism - as well as secular philosophies like Marxism, and even Democracy and Academic Freedom - are in effect just cults that have expanded successfully. This may well be because they are 'good' cults - good not because they have some 'unique universal and eternal truth' but because they lead, pragmatically, to better lives and human progress. How they came to expand has often been a matter of chance; strong tribal and national leaders saw them as a unifying influence, one more likely to lead to their preferred world views - particularly ones where they and their successors would be 'top dogs'.
The difference with things today (i.e. in the 21st century) is that many people in the world, especially the West, no longer live in a mono-cultural background. Over history, missionary religions such as Christianity, Islam and Buddhism have taken their messages and stories to parts of the world which their adopting regimes have colonized. In a reverse process in more recent times, people brought up in various religions or cults have migrated (as refugees or workers) to other countries where they now form sizeable minorities.
Where practices of living differ between cults, there may be conflicts. Some governments have advocated 'Multiculturalism' - i.e. to let all the different cultures continue to exist side by side - as a possible solution. Others - recently including Angela Merkel, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy - have asserted that "Multiculturalism is dead". I see some arguments for both these views, but I think a third approach is better. As many people have pointed out, 'multiculturalism' can mean at least two different things. The version that I don't think is sensible is the idea of maintaining separate sub-cultures. I think instead that individuals should be driving a process of gradual convergence, looking for what is best in each tradition, and downplaying those things that are really less important, such as rituals, fixed world-views, exclusive practices and claims of unique revelation.
I like this quote from Julia Kristeva: "political assertion of sexual, ethnic and religious identities eventually erodes democracy". Mind you, I'm not so keen on her Maths.
A cult often brings benefits to humanity (and maybe the world), generally by encouraging more thoughtfulness - for other people, or for the consequences of one's actions. If there is something called God, in my opinion this is what it is all about.
Being a member of a cult, engaging with it, or subscribing to its ideas, also usually brings practical advantages to an individual in their everyday life. Some examples are listed below.
| Benefit | Comments |
| Providing a common standard for desirable (and maybe moral) behaviour | Although many people have a natural feeling for what's right or wrong, good or bad, most societies have a large minority of ratbags that drift into an attitude of not caring about other people or about what constitutes a 'good life', and just grabbing what they can. Having a cult that carries some reward/punishment structure often helps to increase the proportion of people who do behave well. |
| Providing a common culture that keeps a group, society, nation or region together and stable | There are plenty of examples from history where having an 'official' cult helped a country or movement to waste less time arguing and to become more effective. The only problem is, as people gain more knowledge and understanding, a credibility gap between 'common consensus' and the cult's orthodoxy appears and widens. There's also a problem with hierarchies that become corrupt. |
| Encouraging a society along a path of improvement | Such improvement might be in cooperative behaviour, in re-examining traditional ideas that have become outdated, in automating (or otherwise streamlining) routine parts of living to give people more time for the things they would choose to do, etc. |
| Encouraging the practice of thought for the interests of other people | One big issue is, should we consider just the interests of those in the same cult, or everyone - and what about animals, or the planet? |
| A social organization for otherwise lonely people | This is a benefit with most cults, although for the leaders with an agenda, it may be a diversionary side issue . From the participants viewpoint, they may not care much what the doctrine is, they are happy to go along with it if it brings improved social contact. |
| A mutual help network for members by members | Much the same comments as in the two benefits above also apply here. |
| A safety net when the official social services can't help | This is certainly true of religions that incorporate a duty to be charitable, as in Christianity and Islam. |
There are a few other things, which at first one might at first be tempted to put into the 'silly' section, but on reflection appear to have some merit
| Feature | Why it might be silly, and why it might be good |
| Adult baptism | It makes sense for joining a church to be a decision taken at a sufficiently mature age. Baptizing children seems more about what the parents want, rather than the child. |
| Confession | Realizing where one has gone wrong is an important part of knowing yourself. A transaction where one can unload one's guilt to a disinterested but sympathetic other person seems sensible, as long as a) it is accompanied by a genuine resolve to improve in future and b) it is not just a perfunctory ritual. |
| Stories, parables and myths | Humans naturally like stories, and they can illustrate good ideas and thinking. When they are not good is if we confuse them with history or science. Sometimes, stories can lead us astray, either because we don't interpret them in the same way any more, or because they are in fact genuinely silly. |
| Avatars and icons |
Sometimes, having a picture to look at reminds us, brings us back on course, when we are beset by day-to-day struggles and occupied with the excitements of the moment. However we have to avoid the temptation to 'worship' the picture. And we also ought to ask ourselves if what the picture represents is a 'good' reminder. Examples of icons we may encounter include Jesus, Virgin Mary, figures in stained glass windows, statues, pictures of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Manson, Bambi etc. |
| Religious music | Originally, the aim was probably to encourage people into contemplative thought. Later, the purpose has been to "get people singing from the same hymn book", thereby cementing the group feeling. From a personal viewpoint, I still like a lot of religious music, but not for these reasons - either I just like it as music (I have sung in lots of choirs), or it gives me nostalgia value (for the years of my youth when I attended churches regularly). |
| Rosaries, prayer beads, worry beads and stone eggs | I do think using beads to count repeated Hail Marys is silly. However if individual beads were to represent other people one should think charitably about, or issues that one should be facing etc, that would be good. This might require some electronics to identify what each bead represents. Some people use fingering of string of beads, or fondling a stone egg in one's pocket, as a stress relief mechanism. For my stress relief, I used to set my watch to bleep on each hour, and then close my eyes and think of something different for half a minute. |
| Covenants and pledges | Many cults invite members to make some personal statement of commitment to the ideas of the cult. That seems good especially if it is said in front of other people. This helps provide motivation to stick with those ideas. However things in life do change, and it may be unwise to pretend that a single pledge at one time makes sense for all of an individual's life. |
| Defined levels of personal development |
In spite of the association with degrees of Masonry, or Scientology's 'steps on the ladder' to becoming an Operating Thetan, I think there's a germ of a good idea here. However judgment should be made on actual behaviour in the real world as well as what a person professes. I think there are several different dimensions, not just one linear scale. A person could be good in one aspect but poor in others, so one needs what some schools allow, i.e. students to be in different 'sets' for different subjects, e.g. top set for Maths, 2nd for French, 3rd for English. |
Finally, there are a few 'supposed' good things that are claimed to be available through cults, although I reckon such claims are very doubtful.
| Supposed benefit | Why it might or might not be good |
| An explanation for - and philosophy for enduring - suffering (one's own or of those around one) |
I think the claims of most religious cults here are very dubious. Saying "it's God's Will" is of little comfort to sufferers. Saying "it's bad karma", "you must have brought this on yourself" or "it's payback for sins in a previous life" seems even worse. As regards the line "if you endure this suffering now, you'll be rewarded in the next life", this relies on belief in an afterlife (see next entry). Some secular cults (e.g. Communism or Army Discipline) might say that one should be prepared to suffer for the good of the State1 or one's home country. To me, Existentialism (i.e. we just have to learn to face the dread of the possible pointlessness of existence) seems as good an approach as any, but that hardly qualifies as a cult. Most non-religious cults don't address this point at all. |
| A relief from the horrors of death | Many religious cults require belief in an afterlife, according to some particular doctrine. This allows one to say, for example, that the deceased person will be joining relatives and friends that have died previously. This sounds like wishful thinking, or fooling oneself - but that's not to say it doesn't bring benefit to some people. |
| A 'carrot and stick' mechanism for encouraging good behaviour |
Those cults that incorporate belief in an afterlife usually say that if one behaves well one will have a nice afterlife (or lives), otherwise a nasty one. However the ratbags, scumbags and so-called 'free spirits' don't believe in this anyhow, so it doesn't work with them. Some of the descriptions of the 'nice' afterlife seem of questionable value for motivating people today. Examples: sitting on clouds with winged angels playing harps, "soft couches, arranged in rows, with thick brocade and jewels" (depends on one's taste in furniture), "ginger-flavoured water", "drink of pure wine" (this from a religion requiring total abstinence), "high-bosomed maidens for companions" and "you will be with your spouses" (these last two - from the same religion - sound like a recipe for strife!). |
1 I prefer what CEM Joad once said: "The State is not worth the suffering of a single individual".
Something that can fall into either the 'Good' or 'Bad' category is 'Hi-jacking of a cult by a larger group' (e.g. a nation or empire). The classic 'good' case was when the Roman Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity and set up the council of Nicaea to thrash out an orthodoxy to preclude a lot of in-fighting. Even though some silly things got into this orthodoxy and better ones lost out (something that often happens with committees), the pragmatic result over the longer term - at least for Europe - was generally good. Similarly, Chinese governments (e.g. Ming and post-Mao) embraced Confucianism, and the Iranian Safavids embraced Shi'a Islam as a unifying state religion. However there are many other cases where things went bad, sometimes really bad as with Nazi Germany. Even today, one suspects that religion is somewhat hijacked by various parties in the USA to push their politics (e.g. the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition and, recently, the Tea Party). Similarly, one suspects that Islam is also being hijacked by those who envy the West's rather arrogant lead in material progress and would like to bring the West down a peg before the Middle East loses its trump card of oil.
In my view, there is one bad aspect of cults that outranks all others, and that is ... Hate. Many cults play on non-thinkers' instinctive animal-like fears; these can easily be worked up into hate. Hate can become a big motivator for action, more often than not bad action. In an amusing recent (early 2011) controversy, sports coaches have been reported as trying to work up a wave of team hate of the opposition they are about to play in some ball game.
Hate has a few variations.
| Hate-related practice | Comments |
| General hate of people recognizable as outsiders | With racist cults, it's skin colour, or facial features. Outsiders might also be recognized by hairstyle, clothing, footwear, football team colours, churches/mosques/temples attended, speech (foreign language or accent), body language etc. |
| Scapegoating, and sometimes mass murder, of identifiable minorities | When a cult gets adopted by a majority, any identifiable minority can become a convenient repository of blame for the inevitable mishaps or perceived disadvantages suffered by the majority. The classic example was anti-semitism in Nazi Germany. Envy may have been the problem - too many Jews doing well. |
| Persecution or bullying | This can arise because of scapegoating or envy, or - as in the case of school bullying - a need to "take it out on someone who can't fight back". |
| Justification of murder or execution for thinking, saying or writing something | This practice is maybe not so common today, but has been a stain on the record of the human race over history. Examples are Socrates, Seneca, Jan Hus, Giordano Bruno, Michael Servetus, Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr etc |
| 'Honour killings' | Killing (mainly of women) for perceived slights to a group's reputation, without any process of justice, and often regardless of where the real fault lies. |
Other bad tendencies include the following:
| Bad cult practice | Why it's bad, and comments |
| Ecclesiastical and theocratic justice systems |
This covers ecclesiastical courts, and therefore includes concepts like 'Shari'a Law'. The Spanish Inquisition was a proverbial example from European history. Typically, some people with very restricted experience of life and width of views set themselves up as judges of other peoples' behaviour. The result is often that quite good people get condemned because they offend the oligarchy or are seen as threats, and not because they intentionally committed some crime against other people or society. |
| Self-perpetuating hierarchies |
It seems inevitable that any cult (that grows beyond a few like minds who meet when they feel like it) has to have leaders - and an organization that is usually hierarchical. It becomes a bit like a business, even to the extent of having financial accounts. Cynics might say that this is now what many religious organizations are about, rather than any message or philosophy. My personal challenge for such situations is to regularly propose a 'winding-up' motion. By this I mean asking what justification there is for keeping the thing going rather than stopping it (and dividing up the assets) - or merging with a similar group. I suspect that in many cases the motivation to keep going is "what about our status, and what would we do instead?" rather than "what would be the loss for the general members and adherents?". |
| Assumption that everyone else is wrong, or 'not saved' | This seems a universal assumption of cults.
Leibniz
pointed out that a similar criticism applied to philosophers - their
fault was to believe that everyone else must be wrong. |
| Unjustifiable wishful thinking |
Cults often indulge in what is more like fantasy than a helpful model of the world and our experiences. We tend to think that things should be like how we want them to be. I don't think all fantasies are bad - I indulge in a lot myself - but the problem comes when we confuse our wishful thinking with 'reality' - or at least with the statistics. |
| Believing one's own bullshit | This follows from the above. One subscribes to, or generates, a model or fantasy of how things can be seen, and then one assumes that it is unquestionably right, and ignores any evidence to the contrary. This leads to the "we were never wrong" syndrome. |
| Ignoring credibility gaps | This also follows; one eventually reaches a point where a lot of people (including oneself) simply can't believe it all any more. The problem is how to manage the loss of face. Growing credibility gaps are often the trigger for schisms and breakaway sects. |
| 'By birth' caste systems |
I'm not altogether against judging oneself or others on a scale or scales (as long as the assessment is realistic ). But I think belief in rank according to birth is never justifiable - and never has been; if there were differences, they were mainly due to environment. True, one can be born retarded in some way, and separate evolution of races in the past may have developed some abilities better in some races and other abilities in others, but I don't think any cult can justifiably stigmatize anyone by birth alone. |
| Slavery of one group by another | It's usually unfair on those enslaved, but it's also bad for the slave owners, who often lose their sense of self-reliance and responsibility. Even the 'democratic' ancient Greeks (Athenians) had slaves. |
| Animal and human sacrifices | Animal or human sacrifice may have been an OK concept hundreds of years ago, it isn't generally acceptable now. In fact it never was any use in changing what happens on earth, and someone or something is always being unfairly taken advantage of. |
| Forced recantations | Galileo is the best example from history. More recently the USSR and Maoist China used to headline peoples' 'confessions', not for crimes, but for 'wrong thinking'. |
| Attempts at mind control, censorship |
Some cults attempt this with their members. In mediaeval times, the leaders of the Assassins used to drug their agents, and the Catholic church didn't want ordinary individuals to think for themselves. Many cults still close themselves off and don't allow information in that is not sanctioned by the leaders - this even applies to the Chinese government and the Internet. |
| Threatening or per-secuting
apostates |
Unless the cult prevents it, peoples' life situations change, the environment changes, and we learn new things. We don't always think the same way about things. We all have the right to 'move on'. If a cult thinks it has the 'eternal' right answer, it's almost certainly deluding itself. |
| Amassing vast cult funds, leaders with extravagant lifestyle | Analysis of many of the more wacky cults and sects seems to reveal this sort of thing. The Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh ran over 90 Rolls Royces and four private planes. Some sects have funds of billions of dollars, which they have prised out of adherents. The money never seems to benefit the needy, or the people who contributed it. |
| Taking children away for indoctrination | This includes both removing them from families and separating them
from their local schools and potential playmates. This can damage the
children's whole life. It is likely to arise
from believing that the cult's path is the only right one and that
everything outside is sinful. |
| Eremitism: extreme asceticism and withdrawal | I'm not against retreats and quiet reflection, but I am against long-term asceticism (such people are foregoing their opportunities in their life here on earth, often at working peoples' expense). Anyhow, if the ascetics do gain some insights when they withdraw, they ought to return to society and tell the rest of us about it). See this article. |
| 'Holier than thou' ramps | This means people trying to outdo others in the extremeness of their enthusiasm for cult doctrine. Puritanism in Britain in the 1600s was a good - but unfortunately not unique - example. |
| The 'Onward Christian Soldiers' or Jihad syndrome | This is used to persuade non-thinkers that they should be prepared to fight to the death for the cult's values, and not regard the life of outsiders as as valuable as those of their own cult. It's usually a case of a gang of self-appointed leaders trying to get ordinary people to do their dirty work. |
| Fanaticism, hysteria | Leads to mental imbalance. Even a 'fan' is just an abbreviation of 'fanatic'. It's maybe OK in small doses but many folks don't know when or how to stop. |
Consulting my dictionary again, meanings of the word 'silly' (that are not archaic or to do with cricket) include 'feeble-minded', 'foolish', 'senseless' and 'witless'; but also (applied to sheep) 'harmless'. I've also included here things that:
Beliefs are what cult leaders (and maybe members) say that they believe as a 'given'. In other words, it's true regardless of any observed evidence (if available); but often it's not something that can be proved or disproved, and just has to be taken as an assumption or axiom.
| Beliefs | Why it's silly |
| Karma | It relies on too simple a model of cause and effect, and ignores many other factors that contribute to what happens. But it's a convenient 'carrot and stick' to persuade people to live a good life. It also depends on one believing that one has a series of lives. |
| Creeds, catechisms | These are statements, which members are expected to recite, of the official positions of the sect they belong to. However many of the statements are very esoterically theological and few members fully understand them. Few people expect those who recite creeds to believe them all literally. So why do we bother? |
| Dogma, doctrine | Some general principles must be a good idea for any cult, but many things in dogma or doctrine, as in creeds, are things that not only do most people not understand, but they may prove to be incorrect (e.g. the earth being the centre of the universe). |
| Papal infallibility | It seems nonsense to believe any human is infallible, even on limited topics like morality. However good a man the pope is, he still has to consider what has been said previously, and also the vested interests of the Catholic church. He is probably not that open to some of the angles seen by people outside his cult. |
| Once-off revelation | This is my favourite silliness - it implies that all the knowledge we need to live good lives was written into one book at one particular time (usually long ago). It implies a type of God who is a house builder who does no maintenance. It also ignores our ability to find things out for ourselves. It also forgets that the books are often chosen by committees - of people with a vested interest in maintaining their cult. |
| Transubstantiation | This means the view that sacramental bread and wine physically become part of Christ's body and blood. This seems like an attempt to add influence by invoking magic. It makes much more sense if one regards it as simply symbolic. |
| Original sin | 'Sin' seems to be a concept hyped up in order to make us all feel we need external help to be saved from it. Sure, we often fail, make mistakes and indulge in selfish or hateful behaviour. But we have conscience, and we can resolve to improve. And what about new born babies? More sensibly, we are just highly evolved animals, but still with animal instincts. So why the fuss? |
| Limited number of the 'elect' | Some sects say that there can only ever be a fixed number of 'chosen' people - typically 144,000 (based on taking certain phrases in the bible literally). So assuming some people have been chosen all through history, our chances (pretty slim already with a world population of over 5 billion) are getting even slimmer. So unless one is going to be a saint, why bother? |
| Immaculate conception | A traditional belief that an earlier pope declared was optional, but a later one decided was dogma. Like the Trinity, it seems rather like something invented to fill a theological hole, and something one can manage just as well without. |
| Reincarnation, past lives | This isn't something there's any evidence for, and one suspects it is either wishful thinking or a mechanism (an alternative to that of Heaven and Hell) for motivating people to live a good life. |
| Physical afterlife | If we are talking about literal "resurrection of the body", I think it's delusion that the body will ever return to how it was when alive, whether it's rotted in a grave or burnt. In any case, at what age of our life would we be restored? |
| God is a man|woman|animal|plant|thing | I don't think that thinking of God in any of these forms is good enough for "what we think is most important in this world". It's too limiting and leads into a poor attitude to living our life (e.g. slavish submission, fetish-like attachment). |
| Satan is a man|woman|goat | I think this is 'fairy tale' stuff. |
| Engrams from Xenu | It may make good sense to try and clear ourselves from our hang-ups, but linking this to a sci-fi fable of an invasion by extraterrestrials 75 million years ago seems pointless and spoils any credibility. If it's a myth, it doesn't seem a very good one. |
| Literal truth of scripture | Worldwide we have a number of holy books from different religions and cults. First, they are not all going to agree; and second, they have all had to be written down by humans, leaving the chances of error, invention and baseless predictions. |
| Apostolic succession | This means that for a Christian priest to have guaranteed authority, there has to have been a direct line of laying on of hands from the 12 apostles (or whatever). I think this is just a device to deter breakaways from the existing cult, implying some magical power has to be passed on. |
| The Holy Trinity | This seems to me like a patched up solution in Christianity to an old theological impasse. We have both "being of one substance with the Father" and "sitting at the right hand of God". It seems confusing, and irrelevant from both physical and psychological viewpoints. |
| Pope is antichrist, and is Satan's prophet | Most recent popes seem to have been not bad guys, but fallible like the rest of us. I can't think of many that have gone outright against Christ's message, although a few may have been forced into corners by political circumstances. It's just an incitement to hate. |
| Unearthed inscribed gold plates | We should include 'tablets of stone' here as well. Maybe credulous folks of the past might be impressed by a 'magic' origin of scriptures, but not nowadays. Anyway, if they were really all gold, metal detectors would have found them by now. |
| Chosen people | Some races (e.g. Chinese, Jews) have a head start in developing religious and cultural thought, but claiming 'chosen people' status suggests always looking down on all outsiders - not a good idea in today's global village. |
| Purgatory | This is an assumed period of discomfort after death while we are purged of our sins before we can be admitted to the afterlife. It's all bound up with an accounting-style view of 'sin', inherited from early Christian thinkers and fitting in with an authoritarian model of society. |
| Elvis lives | Really just delusion and wishful thinking - and a bit of a joke. |
| Justification by faith alone | The theological issues here seem complex and confusing to the normal person. This belief implies that someone who does good things and leads a good life might still be 'unjustified', unlike a ratbag who has 'faith' to believe everything the bible says. |
| Total depravity of man | This sounds particularly silly when applied to new born babies. Sure, we are just highly evolved animals, and we have the potential to do both good and bad. |
| Limited atonement | This says that one can't obtain 'salvation' by choice - one has to be one of those chosen (the 'elect') by God. If one doesn't know whether one is elect or not, why bother to make any effort in life? |
| Irresistible grace | If one is of those chosen (the 'elect') by God, His irresistible grace will get you to salvation. Again, what if one happens to be a ratbag, or (like most people) oscillates between goodness and badness? |
| The idea of 'final' prophets | What past prophets could usefully contribute was limited by the environment and times they lived in. If there is a God, he would not be 'great' if He wouldn't reveal any more advice after so many centuries of change. |
Theories are what a cult might use to explain how the world works.
| Theories | Why it's silly |
| Total predestination - there's no free will | People don't like the idea that things are unpredictable and appear 'random'; having a God who is claimed to be omnipotent and all-knowing doesn't tally with this, so we have to assume everything is planned. |
| Exact prophecy | The processes - and especially the interactions - that result in events happening are too complex to predict; we are always going to miss several contributing factors. The theory that everything in the universe is pre-ordained and the 'script' can be read from man-made books is not credible to most people. |
| Numerology | As above, assumes there's a 'script' for the world which can be read by juggling with numbers that appear to us. Systematic comparison with actual events would quickly discredit it. |
| Astrology | Also relies on existence of a script, revealed by reading relative positions of planets and stars. As one wit said, "Watch Uranus". Outcomes can be selectively edited to make predictions appear accurate, but the idea that all people born under the same configuration will experience similar things cannot seriously hold water. I usually read the predictions for all 12 signs and reckon there might be some truth for me in many - or even all - of them. |
| Oracles | Like the one at Delphi (Greece), they eventually fell out of favour as being somewhat ridiculous. They were operated by hidden women, who might have had good intuition (maybe 'second sight') but they tended to give (seemingly deliberately) ambiguous answers. That's not so different from some Astrology columns. |
| Augury, divination, omens | More of the same. Entrails and tea leaves can't be taken too seriously. Some omens might, however, have some sensible scientific explanation, like "red sky at night". |
| Apocalypse soon | Many things might wipe out the human race (meteorite, global environment change), but reading of man-made holy books won't be able to predict it. |
| Science fiction - based millennialism | Bringing extraterrestrials into it seems like sci-fi delusion. |
| Armageddon | How it's described in books is just imagination. That's not to say there might not be another global war, but avoiding it is very much in our hands. We can't even reliably predict who it'll be between. |
| 'New Jerusalem' | A product of too much meditation on a very limited set of books, and little experience of what goes on in the world. |
| Creationism (esp. 6-day or 'young world') | It just doesn't tally with what humanity now knows about the history of the universe and this planet. |
| Ptolemy's spheres | A very primitive, earth-at-the-centre, model of the universe; one that does not tally with what we can now observe. |
| Flat earth, hollow earth | Simple experiments can disprove these theories. |
| Mediaeval bestiaries | Unscientific pseudo-science about the world's animals, devised in the middle ages to control the minds of the less educated. |
| Alchemy | Mediaeval pseudo-science, with lots of jargon; easy to disprove nowadays, and long out of fashion anyway. |
| Holocaust denial | Is refutable from analysis of the evidence and reliable testimonies, but a good 'game' for some disaffected people |
| Revived lost tribes of Israel | E.g. 'British Israelites', Mormon belief for native Americans. Like "New Jerusalem', the result of too much concentration on a very limited reading list. |
| Rituals improve human fertility | A ritual might, for some people, help overcome hang-ups that are preventing conception. But there are probably many alternative rituals that could have just as much effect as the one proposed, and many people for whom the rituals will give no improvement. |
| The 'life is a trial run' philosophy | This claims that earthly life is just a trial run for the big show (the afterlife) later. This seems like a myth peddled by leaders who have no other answer to give to other people who are suffering hardship or bad fortune. |
| Extra-terrestrial influences | Supposing that these exist, through 'faith' instead of any discussable evidence, suggests a person is in a psychological state that needs an explanation for things - at any price. |
| Permanent revolution | The idea that a society should be always changing things eventually runs into "initiative fatigue". Expecting everyone to be keen to change all the time is unrealistic - eventually they will drag their feet and say no. |
| Astral planes | This appears to be a 'pseudo-science' - a mixture of outdated astronomy, wishful thinking and jargon. There may be a good myth here, but if it gets confused with observable events it can lead to unhelpful illusions. |
| Psychic vortexes | Another pseudo-scientific invention. Sure, we may pick up vibes from places and historical memories. And who is to say that our 5 senses cover all inter-human communication? |
| Ley lines | Great fun, but largely wishful thinking. Relies on things like psychic vortexes. Sure, fiery beacons on tops of hills are a communications medium, but ... |
Philosophies cover what we can reliably say we know, and what is 'real'
| Philosophies | Why it's silly |
| Logical positivism | Loosely, this is the idea that if you can't offer a way of proving or disproving something, then it's meaningless, and not worth talking about. However it doesn't seem to take account of probability, nor the usefulness of hypotheses - or just 'stories' - for human psychological needs. |
| Berkeley's extreme empiricism | The idea here is that all we can be sure about is that we are experiencing things through our senses, and that the things we talk about are not necessarily physically 'there'. Dr Johnson famously claimed to refute by striking his foot against a large stone. It seems to me to be much more helpful to adopt the consensus that physical matter does exist. The same goes even if quantum physicists tell us it's all energy, or sparse atoms with electrons orbiting nucleii. |
| Mind-matter
'Cartesian' dualism |
As discussed above, this may be a useful practical simplification, but it has limits in its usefulness in modern times. Some cults go further and separate spirit, intuition etc from conscious mind. From a biological point of view, our thoughts and feelings are electrical or chemical impulses, and hence part of matter. And of course we can only talk about matter on the basis of what we experience through our senses. |
| Hegel's dialectic | This says that we are all in a historical process where 'thesis' always gives rise to 'antithesis' and this inevitably leads to 'synthesis'. It's just an attempt to force observable reality into a structure of Hegel's own design. There are too many variables for this to be reliable. |
| Leibniz's monads | This was an ingenious attempt to reduce all events to a mathematical basis, but what's the point? And however much detail one would go into, there would - for real-world events rather than mathematical abstractions - always be more things that one hadn't considered. |
| Simple, single causes |
Since our languages contain the concept of 'cause', there's a tendency to oversimplify the cause-effect process. People struggle if one tells them that an event happened because ... and then one gives 10 or more possible contributing factors. They are happier with just one, or at the most 2 or 3. In modern times, examples are the outbursts from people like Jerry Falwell and the Rev Pat Robertson. They select the point they want to make, choose the cause that supports their point, and then ignore all the other factors that might influence outcomes. |
| Pure hedonism | This assumes we can always take our pleasure without inconveniencing anyone else; this is unrealistic, as the limits to other peoples' tolerance will eventually kick in and we invite strife that outweighs the pleasure. |
| Quietism | It's a copout - life isn't quiet - we are better off facing it, not hiding away. |
| Antinomianism | This claims that if we follow the right faith, we don't have to respect man-made laws - just the religious ones from 'our' cult. This can only work in a totally cut-off society. Another form of this is that it's OK (the bible tells us) to sin strongly, so that God's grace can have something to work on. |
| Anarchy | This assumes that an unstructured society without any laws, differences, leaders, role specialization etc would be sustainable for any length of time. Again, it would only work in an isolated group that never contained any ratbags or freeloaders. |
Practices covers what cult leaders and members may actually do as an expression of their beliefs.
| Practices | Why it's silly |
| Odd handshakes | Embarrassing to those who aren't in the tribe, condones separatism for those who are in. |
| Rituals, processions | Although they may be fun, they are often diversions from the main game of living life well. |
| Initiation rites | Unless it's clear that the symbolism makes sense - and in today's world - they have the flavour of magic potions. |
| Veneration of relics, images | In small doses, it may remind us of some useful point, but often the ritual becomes of prime importance for its own sake. |
| Happy-clappy, charismatics | It's often done because it's felt it's expected, not because we naturally feel we want to. |
| Mariolatry, and favourite saints | The way some devotees practice, it is nearly back to multiple gods; it's certainly not biblical. |
| Repeated chanting, mantras or Hail Marys | Repeating a set of words, however 'sacred', isn't going to solve anything practically. Surely it would be better to reflect about what one is going to do about the situation, and about the effects on other people or things. |
| Exclusive languages and symbols, or magic incantations (not much different!) | This is a form of elitism, dazzling the majority with man-made abstract concepts and long words that they will have difficulty understanding. The hope is that people will accept that the speaker or writer knows something that they don't. It often works if people aren't smart enough, but on the whole it's pretty silly. |
| Speaking in tongues | What's the point if no-one else can understand it? |
| Self-mortification, flagellation | It's a form of turning away from the world; this leads to narrow ideas and bad judgments. And it can cause harm. |
| Drug induced visions | Same as the above. |
| Puritanical rules, e.g. on eating and drinking, dress, social relations | Breeds 'holier than thou' tribalism and exclusion of others; doesn't encourage individuals to work out their own values and appropriate behaviour. |
| Extreme meekness or plainness | Also tending to 'holier than thou'; denies the value of colour, individuality, spirit, outgoing cooperation and friendship etc. |
| Anti church music | Trying to extend the above to religious ritual, thus losing the possible joy and emotional uplift. |
| Closed sects (can't mix outside) | Narrow-minded turning away from the world again. |
| Lists of banned books and films | Also a form of turning away from the world, leading to narrow ideas and bad judgments. |
| Cult leaders' harems | It's a bad model for any society in the longer term, and it may give rise to jealousies and excessive pre-occupation with sex. |
| Enrolling dead people as cult members | Even if we are to believe in a last judgment, how is this going to make a difference for those dead people? |
| Celibate male priests | Limiting the chance for priests to become better experienced in living as everyone else has to, for constructed theological reasons. |
| Anti women priests | Hanging on to old male supremacy ideas, trying to keep out new competitors however good they may be at the job. |
| A woman's share is half a man's (and similar ideas) | Represents primitive tribal custom; inappropriate for the modern age. Could be regarded today as part of an embittered old men's conspiracy to keep women down. |
| Bans on contraception | Very one-sided view on values; ignores too many issues. Can also be seen as suppression of women - "keep them as child-rearers only", "children for the church" etc. |
| Prostration | It's a step back into old-style totalitarian society, and doesn't mirror a world where there is respect for each other as equals. |
| Personality cults | It diverts people from important issues, and runs the risk of a sudden let down when the personalities concerned disappear or run into trouble. |
| Elitism | It tends to introduce and preserve caste-like levels which discourage movement up (and down, if deserved). |
| Confession as a routine | The ritual becomes larger than the genuine remorse and resolve to do better, and encourages people to go on "sinning strongly". |
| Sale of indulgences | An old silliness; making a fast buck out of the 'invented' concept of purgatory. |
| Fortune telling | See first 6 items in silly Theories above. It's just a mix of pretence and wishful thinking. |
| Aura of mystery | By appealing to a natural human fascination with mysteries, it diverts attention from the more immediate and important issues that need facing. |
| Occult practices | Usually involves bringing back discredited old practices, as if "it's mystic so it must be good". |
| Invoking powers of evil | Evil is by nature almost always a "dog eat dog" "free for all", so is unlikely to maintain a campaign for achieving things. |
| Glorification of death in war | A carrot for getting people to put their life at risk for what the leaders think is needed to achieve their aims. |
| Theocracies | Putting men (usually) with narrow minds and limited world experience in charge of diverse societies (borders on the 'Bad' category). |
| Book burning | Throwing away the legacy of what people have thought, whether good or bad - it could all be of potential value. |
| Veils, burqas, etc | It limits the communication channels with other people; it can be taken to be an "in your face" statement of "I'm holier than thou". |
| 'Established' churches | It causes a drag both by church on state and vice versa. |
| Asceticism | It's pointless - ascetics are often just trying to prove a point to themselves or others. It's only of value if they gain some insight that is useful to us all. |
At the moment, I have left Heaven and Hell out of this table. However, as with the concept of God, while they can be seen as having some valuable meaning, many descriptions of them are pretty silly. For example, the Koran and Dante have given graphic descriptions, but these don't resonate with many people today.
Silliness is not necessarily a bad thing - silliness can help us get through. Psychoanalysts confirm that having a few unjustified illusions and a bit of wishful thinking can help many people to achieve more. I don't say we should disrespect people who follow these sillinesses. If it helps them live a better life, there's no problem, as long as they don't expect that other people should embrace the same ideas and practices.
A problem does arise if people confuse fantasy with 'what is likely to actually be the case', and over-ride well-researched and informed judgments by those based on 'silly' principles such as the above. Even then, it's mostly the silly folk that suffer as a result, but they may cause 'collateral damage' to some people around them.
We have seen that mainstream religions are not really that different from some cults. Usually, because they have been going longer and have needed to evolve with the ever-advancing knowledge of humans about their observations of - and experiences in - the world, they have pulled back from the more extreme and fanatical corners that their 'stories' box them into. That is not always the popular impression - the media seems to like beating up any signs of fanaticism and extremism, as this carries 'shock horror' value. For example, we are given the impression that all Moslems wish to terrorize us into submission, and that the USA is run by a gaggle of fervent evangelical zealots.
But what about those elements of our culture that are not of a religious nature, like democracy, capitalism or socialism? Aren't these just as much cults based on stories? In the table below, I give my reasons for suggesting that some things that we - especially in the West - may take for granted as elements of good society and inter-personal relationships, leave some questions to be answered, including that of "why isn't this just as silly?".
| Secular cultural notion | What's the 'story'? | Why some people could say it's silly |
| Capitalism | Dissolution of English monasteries created a new middle class; Adam Smith formulated its ideas in the Industrial Revolution, which led to the the heyday of the West. | Without checks and balances, it tends to transfer wealth and influence into fewer and fewer hands by creaming off the assets of the majority. |
| Socialism | Marx and Engels started it with their manifesto and Marx's Das Kapital. Lenin, Mao and many early 20th century philosophers had this great vision of a fairer future. | It leaves out the 'motivation' dimension; most people need to be galvanized into putting in extra effort to realize their ambitions and make their life more fulfilling. Otherwise the psychology becomes "why should I bother?". |
| Democracy | The glories of classical Greece (they relied on slaves) and the heroics of the forming of the USA, the French Revolution and the UK's Reform Bills. | As has often been said, it replaces a self-perpetuating oligarchy of the privileged few by "election by the incompetent many". This renders it liable to be hijacked by candidates and parties with big election funds and by those who can appeal to the electorate's baser instincts by offering glib marketing slogans - rather than pragmatic policies. |
| Autocracy, authoritarianism, absolutism, totalitarianism | The great empires of history didn't build up through wide consultation, they grew because one strong leader dragged society forward, aided by a definite hierarchy and ability to enforce policies, and they were backed up by a succession of other strong rulers. | People are motivated more to keep out of trouble, and satisfy the person above them in the hierarchy that is ordering them about, rather than take some responsibility for improving their life. It leads to caste and class systems where there is little mobility, and society stagnates. Eventually one gets bad rulers who have lost direction, and things collapse. |
| Academic relativism | Post-modernism - another person's view on things may be just as good as ours. | Tends to deny any evolving consensus of what is good, or how we can discuss notions of 'quality' and 'value', leading to reluctance to express any opinions or judgments. |
| Academic independence, ivory tower, disinterested | Advances in human knowledge won't come if thinkers are too bogged down in everyday practical concerns, especially their job future. | Can lead to a society having a stratum of people it cannot afford to support, and who are not involved enough with the rest of the world to make balanced decisions about what is good, right - or worth studying. |
| Professions and academic specialities | The history and development of 'our' profession or special topic of study | Like minds tend to form 'islands' of expertise, which tend to look down on other specialties, fail to appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of most aspects of life, and charge the rest of us special fees for their services. |
| Scientific materialism | If one can't determine how one could logically decide whether what is being said is true or false, it's probably a waste of time talking about it. | Tends to forget that what keeps most of us going in life is things like hope, ambition, love for others etc |
| Green politics | The world is destroying itself fast, so we need to impose radical changes - a sort of 'eco-millennialism'. | These usually ignore the limitation that is placed by the majority of peoples' ability to change lifestyle and to accept a possible worsening of their standard of living. |
| Adversarial practices, e.g. law, politics | It's a case of we versus they, our team against their team. | While having more than one view about events is valuable, the motivation to "win" for the adversaries can sometimes outweigh the objective of finding the best resolution. |
Having said all this, there is probably some value in all of these things, as long as one doesn't exclude other useful views. And maybe that's what we should think about cults overall.
This is a rather long list - and surely only covers a fraction of all the cults that exist or are remembered historically. I guess those included here are the ones easiest to find out about through news and the web. I've divided them into a number of categories - but I realize these are pretty arbitrary.
Early Naturistic, Orgiastic and Fertility Cults
Mainstream Religions
| Christian (Oriental Orthodox) | Christian (Eastern Orthodox) | Christian (Roman Catholic) | Christian (Protestant) | Christian (Assyrian) |
| Judaism | Islam (Sunni) | Islam (Shi'i) | Zoroastrianism (Parsee) | Hinduism |
| Shinto (Kami) | Sikhism | |||
| Buddhism (Mahayana, Theravada) | Jainism | Confucianism | Daoism (Taoism) | <-- non-theistic |
Old Breakaways from Mainstream
Newer Breakaways from Mainstream (mostly Christianity)
Millennialist, Sci-Fi and various wacky para-religious Cults
Islamic Sufi Groups
| Naqshbandi | Chishti (Ajmer, India) | Qadiriyyah | Sarwari Qadiri | Shadhliyya |
| Suhrawardiyya | Mevlevi (Whirling Dervishes) | Nematollahi | Idries Shah school | Universal Sufism |
| International Association of Sufism | Sufism Reoriented (Meher Baba) | Qalandar | Bektashi | |
| Sufi Foundation of America | Golden Sufi Center (see also Irina Tweedie) |
Religious Pressure Groups
| Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima (see also this) | Knights of Columbus (US) | Knights of St Columba (UK) | Opus Dei | Jesuits |
| Wahhabis (Saudi) | Salafis | Senussis |
'Uniting' Movements
| Theosophical Society (Mme Blavatsky) | Anthroposophical Society (R Steiner) | Universal Sufism | Sathya Sai Baba | Astara |
| Rosicrucians | Illuminati (Bavarian) | Unitarian Universalism | Baha'is | |
| Uniting Church (Australia) | Church of South India | New Acropolis |
Eremitic Groups (Hermits)
| Community of the Resurrection (Anglican) | Cistercians | Benedictines | Carthusian | Camaldolese |
| Community of the Glorious Ascension (Anglican) | Trappists |
Satanic and Occult
| Voodoo (Haiti) | Santeria (Cuba) | Wicca | Celtic Druids | OTO (Aleister Crowley) |
| Bambini di Satana (Marco Dimitri) | I Spiriti Liberi | Church of Satan (Anton LaVey) |
Secular Fraternities and Sororities
| Freemasonry | Rotary | Round Table | Lions | Jaycees |
| Zonta | Soroptimists | Probus | Oddfellows and IOOF | Regnal League |
American College Fraternities and Sororities
| Phi Beta Kappa Society (oldest) | Kappa Delta | Pi Kappa Phi | Phi Sigma Alpha | Delta Delta Delta |
| Alpha Delta Pi | Alpha Omicron Pi | Gamma Phi Beta | Alpha Sigma Phi | Chi Omega |
| Zeta Tau Alpha | Sigma Sigma Sigma | Theta Phi Alpha | Phi Sigma Sigma | Phi Mu |
| Tau Omega Mu | Sigma Chi | Alpha Epsilon Pi (Jewish) | Zeta Beta Tau (Jewish) | Sigma Alpha Mu (ex-Jewish) |
| Alpha Phi (women) | Alpha Gamma Delta (women) | Alpha Phi Omega (mixed) | Phi Sigma Pi (mixed) | Alpha Delta Phi (mixed) |
| Kappa Kappa Psi (mixed) | Mu Phi Epsilon (mixed) | Tau Beta Sigma (mixed) | Alpha Chi Rho (Christian) | Alpha Phi Alpha (Afro) |
| Kappa Alpha Psi (Afro) | Sigma Iota (Latino) | Phi Iota Alpha (Latino) | Phi Sigma Alpha (Puerto Rico) | |
| Acacia | FarmHouse | Pershing Rifles (Military) | Triangle | Skull and Bones (Yale) |
Materialist Philosophies
| Epicureanism | Stoicism | Utilitarianism | Pragmatism | Existentialism |
| Laissez-faire | Communism | Fascism | Black Panthers | Creflo Dollar |
Informal Social Cults
| Vegetarianism | Hippie culture, the Beat generation | Anarchism | Gambling and gaming culture | Sex and porno |
| Welfare dependency | Living vicariously on gossip, soap etc | Pop culture (including social networking) | Grab what you can culture |
Hero Worship and Film Cults
| Church of Elvis | Chinese Emperor Worship | Japanese Emperor Worship | Roman Emperor Worship | Egyptian Emperor Worship |
| The Matrix (Wachowskis) | Jediism (Star Wars) | Trekkie Culture (Star Trek) |
Political Pressure Groups
Political Paramilitary Groups
| Provisional IRA | Ulster Volunteer Force | Shield Society (Japan) | Militia movement (US) | Knights Templar |
| Stern Gang (Israel) | United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia | Mujahideen | UNITA (Angola) | Zapatistas |
| ETA (Basques) | Contras (Nicaragua) | Sandinistas (Nicaragua) | Tupamaros (Uruguay) | Hezbollah |
| PKK (Kurds) | PFLP (Palestine) | Taliban | Tamil Tigers | Baader-Meinhof |
Secret Paramilitaries (historic)
| Zealots (ancient Judah) | Sicarii (ancient Judah) | Assassins (Iran, Turkey) | Ninjas (Japan) | Murder, Inc. (US) |
| Garduňa (Spain) | SS (Nazi Germany) |
Bikie Gangs (often with criminal connections)
| Hells Angels | Gypsy Jokers | Comancheros | Bandidos | Coffin Cheaters |
| Outlaws | Nomads | Notorious | Rebels | New Boys (Adelaide) |
| Warlocks | Ulysses (older bikers, non-criminal) | Sons of Silence | (full Wikipedia list) |
Street Gangs
| Billy Boys | Current Glasgow Gangs | More Glasgow Gangs | Yellow Klique Melbourne) | 5T (Sydney Vietnamese) |
| Bloods (LA) | 18th Street gang (LA) | Sureňos (S. Cal Mexicans) | (general Wikipedia article) |
Fighting Football Fan 'Firms'
| Bad Blue Boys (Dinamo Zagreb) | Torcida (Hadjuk Split) | Grobari (Partizan Belgrade) | Capital City Service (Hibernian) | Soul Crew (Cardiff City) |
Organized Criminals
| Mafia (Sicily) | Camorra (Naples) | 'Ndrangheta (Calabria) | Sacra Corona Unita (Apulia) | Stidda (North Italy) |
| Mala del Brenta (Venice) | Mafiya (Russia) | Union Corse (Corsica) | Black Eagles (Colombia) | Norte del Valle (Colombia) |
| Triads (China) | Tongs (US Chinese) | Yakuza (Japan) | The Outfit (Chicago) | UK Gangs |
| Gang des Tractions Avant (Paris) | 36 Boys (Berlin) | Latin Kings (Chicago) | Thugs (India) |
Racist and Hate Groups
| Ku Klux Klan (US) | White Aryan Resistance (US) | Aryan Brotherhood (US) | Aryan Nations (US) | Volksfront (US) |
| Nation of Islam (US) | Nation of Yahweh (US) | Manson Family (US) | Hammerskins (US) | Christian Identity (US) |
| Watchmen on the Walls | Westboro Baptist Church (US) | Blood and Honour | Génération Kémi Séba | |
| Jewish Defense League | British Israelites | |||
| Salafi Jihadism | Al-Firqat un-Naajiyah (The Saved Sect) | Tablighi Jamaat (India) | Al-Ghurabaa | Al-Muhijaroun (UK) |
There's no denying that many people want to join cults, or even start them. Even if the majority of us don't get involved, the cults - by virtue of their concentration of thought and action - can often get things to happen. A few may be adopted as part of mainstream culture. The problem, it seems to me, is that the cults don't find it easy to update themselves when conditions and their members' environment changes, let alone close themselves down. I guess that's because no-one likes to admit that a credibility gap has grown up, and the leaders don't like to give up whatever influence they may have.
I'm all for compulsory 'winding-up motions' - or at least mergers. Now that there is so much interaction between people from different cultures, maybe it would be best if we stepped back a bit from the traditions we have been brought up in, and look at the ideas of other groups. And we should always be guided by what is best for all - individuals, groups, the human race, all animals, all living things, and the planet (I guess we can't do much beyond that for now!).
Index to more of these diatribes
Some of these links may be under construction – or re-construction.
This version updated on 20th April 2011
If you have constructive suggestions or comments, please contact the author rogertag@tpg.com.au .