Cults tend to have devotion without critical thinking, debate. Cults are the religious/spiritual version of political dictatorship. Questioning God, the messiah, e.g. Christ, God's gender or sex, and all part of the game of a healthy religion. A religion rejecting questions, is a cult even if it has 10 billion members. Any open religion asks questions and seeks answers regarding homosexuality, any sexuality, any marriage.

I have had graduate professors who kept telling us and me...."keep your mouth shut....do not question." They are right, the student is wrong. And this was not even a church or clergy.

Michael M. Kazanjian

On Thursday, May 5, 2022, 10:03:50 AM CDT, Aydan Connor <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of JMU. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

I was thinking about how reverence could be seen as the proper frame for the religion that is not a religion, as opposed to devotion in traditional style society. It seems intuitive to me that devotion is when we cross a line towards traditional religion as opposed to a meta modern religion that is not a religion. The relationship is different, but the quality remains. I think cults tend to contain devotion without a heart of reverence, and that this points towards some lack of ontological quality there that makes this form inherently dangerous.

Thoughts?

############################

To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask] or click the following link: http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1