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Guest spartacus

Origins Of Cults

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Guest spartacus

We know the term Cults, and generally what they are, but where doe their origins lie ?

 

 

Maybe Greeks, Celts, Minoans some culture started them off, but who ?

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Guest Scanderbeg

I don't think ther really is an exact origin. They are world wide. I guess you could say they are just people who break off from the major religion and create their own following. Remember, Chrsitianity was once a cult.

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A "cult" in the strictest sense of the word was simply everything and anything connected to the worship of a particular deity - the myths of the deity, images, rituals, beliefs, festivals, sacred objects, temples, shrines, statues, a membership of adherents, etc.. Every deity thus had its own cult, and this word wasn't meant in a perjorative sense. The related cults of numerous deities - the culti deorum, or cults of the gods - thus constituted religion as a whole.

 

I'm not sure where the modern, derogatory meaning of cult originated. But in the ancient world there were cults of deities that were viewed with suspicion or even hostility. These renegade cults were confined to the fringes of society and were often targets of government prosecution. (for instance, the cult of Dionysus, or later the cult of Christ).

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yeah I think he was......

 

There are two types of "Cults" one is an ancient religious cult were people worshiped a deity and were really intune with it and were avtive members of a community.

In my opinions all religions are cults not just Polythestic ones!

 

The second types of cults....is the newly invetented concept of a "CULT" when most people think of cults they think of the ones that were invented in the 1970s....that are dangerous to soceity.....the "People's Temple" was a great example of a modern day dangerous non religious cult. It started out in 1959 by Jim Jones who was a Christian preacher at the time. In the begining it seemed like a normal happy, good, Christian thing....it helped people and provivded service for poor people in L.A. But then it began to become an accual cult, it used brainwashing teqniques to make its victims think they was heaven on Earth with the people's temple. It soon became so cultish that they didn't worship anybody but Jim Jones himself. Jim Jones did false miracles, and gained more converts by being really nice to everyone and love boming his members. Soon the U.S goverment found all about it's cult activities and Jim Jones was forced moved it in 1978.......they went to Guyana in South America and built

"JonesTown" out of scratch.....the cult began to lock people up and force people to work.....Jim Jones promised eternal bliss in the afterlife and began experimenting with ways to kill things.......that is a very bad sigh....

 

Then Jim Jones hired an army of South American Mercnaries to make sure no one tryed to escape from the cult.

A US senator by the name of Leo Ryan heard about this disturbing behavior and went down to South American to try to investigate......he found everyone "Pretending to be happy." The cult had gone beyond the extrme and Leo Ryan knew this so he trys to get some cult members out....but as he is boarding the plane with some of the people of the cult....Jims Jones's army opens fire and kills Leo and some of his family.

 

 

Knowing it is almost the end...and the Gyuanan army and U.S Special Forces are the closing in, the sucidcial Jim Jones makes every cult memeber in Jonestown commit sucidie....either by telling them to do so or FORCInG THEM.

On August 4th 1979......918 bodies were found at Jonestown all from a mass sucide using sinide fruitpunch or getting beaten to death by Jim's Jones army. Jim Jones himself is apprently killed by one of the last surving cultish members who was like the only woman to survive the horrying sucide.

 

That is an example of a non-religious cult that is verry dangerous......The Cult of Isis or Mithras are totattly different from the horrible sucidal cults that are still around today. There are hundreds of physcos like Jim Jones living in the U.S alone. I think Charles Manson was in one of those death cults.

 

I support cults that are of ancient religions...like Demeter or Mithras or something but I don't support ones where you all dress in white and worship

"Ms Jane" who makes the wonderful jam and is going to bring you to happy valley.....and my name isn't Zeke anymore its Craig that kinda crap lol.

 

Anyway that is my explmation between.....Anceint Religious CUlts and sucidal modern day ones.

 

Zeke

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Guest spartacus

I dont think here in England we have that many Cults thankfully, dont want another Waco here :)

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http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/...-button=summary

 

When the soldiers were members of a cult,would it be for life?

Or would they change there religion, if they came across a better one?

the link shows Roman crocodile armour from egypt,worn by romans who were members of a egyption cult.

Longbow :pimp:

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When the soldiers were members of a cult,would it be for life?

Or would they change there religion, if they came across a better one?

In polytheistic religions its quite possible to belong the several different cults at once. There is seldom a belief that honoring one god necessarily precludes you from honoring other gods.

 

 

Soldiers in pagan Rome would quite often be involved in several cults at once:

 

* the cult of the legion's standards

* the cult of the emperor (imperial genius)

* the cult of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva (the Capitoline Triad of Rome)

* the cult of local gods and spirits in the lands where they were stationed, your Egyptian link being a nice example.

 

The officers might also belong to the cult of Mithras, and the grunts might honor Isis (especially if they were in Egypt).

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Thanks Ursus,that explains it.

L

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