Quote:
Originally posted by Joe Sixpack
Cults develop all the time. Look at the likes of Jim Jones, David Koresh and L. Ron Hubbard. Of course, starting up a cult these days is a lof harder. Science has, to a large extent, thrown a wet blanket on the fire of superstition. It still exists today, of course, but not to the same degree as it did in Jesus' day.
|
I am not sure about this assertion.
The key ingredients of any religion/religous type belief system was broken down by Prof. Mircea Eliades as roughly 1) explanation of the beginning/cause of things 2) explanation of why things are the way they are presently 3) explanation of what will come next.
If you use this structuralist approach, there are many modern philosophies that fit the religious mold which satisfies the same psychological/spiritual urges -- Marxism, Objectivism, you name it.
Traditional religion may seem weakened by "modern" science but modernity has definitely given rise to new belief systems that, while seemingly objective and "scientific", fill the same psychological/spiritual needs that religion traditionally filled.