Valkie wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2016 at 3:58pm:


Indeed they do. You could say that the old Freemasonic orders are indeed a cult. They are certainly hierarchical and secretive.

A cult does not need to be hostile to the rest of society. The Red Cross, for example, is based on a Swiss order of knights. Their purpose was to do good work.

Valkie wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2016 at 3:58pm:

I was originally baptised into a Protestant religion.  I realised fairly soon that all of my friends were Episcopalian (urinating in a bucket is not part of this religion), so at the age of 11, I started going to the Episcopailan Church. My parents, who didn't go to church except for funerals and weddings didn't have any problem with it. I stayed with the Episcopalian church until I was about 14, and girls were more interesting to me than churches. At one stage, I was a choir boy. I found all the rituals very interesting, but that was about all. I was there through choice. I left through choice. One of the ministers asked me if I was coming back to services, and I said no. End of story.

In my later teens, I went to all kinds of religious services, not all of them Christian. Some were better than others (as were the girls). In one service, one of the congregation stood up and announced that there were those present who were not one of the brethren. I felt isolated, and didn't go back there.

I thought then, and I still think of any religion that freely allows people to make up their own mind and change their religion - to none eventually in my case. Any such religion is not a cult.

A cult needs to hold on to its people.  In Australia we have freedom of religion.  From the Muslims and ex-Muslims I have known, there is probably more resistance within Islam than the religious bodies I encountered, but I would stop short of calling it a cult. 

There may be the isolated case of murder for apostasy in Australia, but if it were the norm, there would be thousands of such murders each year.  Atheists flee persecution in places like Pakistan and have been granted asylum.

People like Joumana Haddad would not be safe in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan but she's a respected business leader in Lebanon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joumana_Haddad

Ashley wrote on Apr 27^th, 2016 at 9:10am:


You haven't read the Old Testament, Matty. Yehova wants you to get stoned to death for blasphemy, marry 3 year old girls and kill her if she takes off with another man.