Cult vs Religion

What is a cult, and what is a religion? What sets the two apart? Not an easy question.

• Some say that a religion has a clearly established set of dogmas and an established scripture or set of strictures, while a cult typically does not.

  • But plenty of religions - especially Paganism - are characterised specifically by the lack of a unified scripture or strict sense of orthodoxy. Meanwhile, cults are often based on the writings of someone.

• Some say that a real religion has hundreds or thousands of years of history and a relatively large following, while a cult is by definition new and has few followers.

  • Okay, but where do we specifically draw the line? When does a cult become a religion? How many followers does the cult need to gain, and how many years need to pass between the founder's death and the present day, for a cult to get recognition as a legitimate organized religion?

  • Also, there are several ethno-religious groups that are tiny, like the Samaritans and Mandeans, whose numbers are often dwarfed by those who join cults. Are the Samaritans and Mandeans cults now? Obviously not, since they are at least two thousand years old both, but still, the point stands. Where do we draw the line?

• Some say that a cult is bad and a religion is good. Again, this is highly subjective and thus wouldn't fly in a serious scholarly discussion, takes a very overgeneralized view of cults, but still: when you compare doomsday cults and death cults to established religions like Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, it's hard to argue against that.

  • Maybe we could argue, that cults tend to focus on one thing - often on one specific event that may or may not happen in the future - while a real religion has an actual set of values that it aims to propagate?

    • Just to demonstrate: if you have a list of things that you think lead to a good life (forgiveness, solidarity, kindness, diligence, mercy, compassion, team spirit, etc.), you have a religion. If you have a "religion" that preaches dressing up as a dinosaur and committing suicide on the New Year of 3000, you have a cult.

    • Okay, sure, but not every cult is like that. Not every cult is a Death Cult or Doomsday Cult. Some are just potheads trying to give their stoner communities a religious glamour.

Or, maybe, just maybe, the line between religion and cult isn't clear-cut. Some would describe a cult as a proto-religion, and I'd be partial to that explanation. Others say that a cult is just a social movement (with spiritual undertones), which may or may not evolve into a religion eventually. As it stands, more or less, the word "cult" is pejorative and derogatory, and effectively means "religion I don't like" (especially if said religion is new).

Secular Religions and Secular Cults

One might think that the a "secular religion" would be an oxymoron, as the very point of Secularism is to separate church and state, and make religion a personal matter - how could a religion be "secular"?! Well, according to Wikipedia, "a secular religion is a communal belief system that often rejects or neglects the metaphysical aspects of the supernatural, commonly associated with traditional religion, instead placing typical religious qualities in earthly entities" - the best example being the Cult of Reason of revolution-era France. Some people also describe Nationalism, Communism, Capitalism and Fascism as secular religions, however, I have a better example in mind that fits the bill, which I will mention later in this article.

So-called "secular religions" borrow heavily from the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), get rid of the theism, metaphysics and actual belief in God, but still keep their own version of biblical/quranic tropes like the original sin, salvation, apostasy, etc.

As a matter of fact, I could argue that Authoritarian political ideologies - whether on the left or right, but especially the right - are effectively secular versions of Zoroastrianism, a religion built on the idea of constant struggle between good and evil, while still borrowing the Abrahamic idea of the original sin tainting mankind, man being inherently sinful.

Libertarian (both right and left) and left-wing ideologies are more influenced by the teachings of Pelagius, a Christian scholar - condemned as a heretic by the church - who believed that man can overcome sin through his own free will, laying the groundwork for ideologies that do not view human nature as immutable, and at most extreme, transhumanism.

But if secular religions exist, what of secular cults? I am going all in, and yes, I am going to use "cult" in the pejorative sense, to describe commonly held secular beliefs that are almost objectively destructive to society. I'm going to admit: I am somewhat biased, as I'll be mainly showcasing secular cults that are attempting to replace my Christianity in society.

Secular Cults

The Cult of Statism

It is no exaggeration, that Statism is the most deadly ideology in the history of mankind. Throughout human history, more people have been killed by their own government than by foreign actors, such as foreign armies. In spite of this obvious fact, there are many who still insist on worshiping politicians and dictators, and insist that the government is always right, even when it's actually wrong.

We've all seen such people through the Covid-19 pandemic. They went out of their way to virtue-signal against people trying to just live their lives. They bullied people who decided against wearing masks, or against getting vaccinated. They snitched on their neighbours and looked with glee when the ones they disliked were arrested.

The negative effects of such religious devotion to the state cannot be overstated. When the Nazis carried out their genocides or the Soviets put millions of people into gulags, no one dared to resist. In fact, many cheered in the name of Statism.

Stalinism, Nazism and Fascism are all variants of the Cult of Statism. Even Mussolini himself said "Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state", justifying absolute Totalitarian state control over the lives of citizens. The individual is an ant, and all that matters is the will of the state.

Statism is a religion, in which the state is the God, the government officials are the angels and saints, the dictator's will is gospel, and people like me are apostates, as we refuse to accept the sacrifice of our personal liberties - such as Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expression - just to placate the ego of someone who clearly does not deserve it. In fact, Statism might be the deadliest Death Cult out there.

And it's not a particularly young cult either: its precursor was Despotism, which was already around in Ancient Egypt and Ancient China, two states ruled by God-Kings during Antiquity. One might be surprised to learn, that until 1945, the Emperor of Japan was worshiped as an actual deity.

I reject the Cult of Statism, because I consider human liberties - such as Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expression - to be sacred, and know for a fact, that throughout history, more people have been killed by their own governments, than by any foreign hostile agents.

The Cult of Numbers

Described in my older-article "Market Fundamentalism", there are many who essentially worship numbers like the GDP. Their irrational belief wouldn't be so harmful to society, if members of this cult weren't in positions of power within society. These are the people who put profits over people, who don't really care about actual human conditions, merely like to see numbers go up: that is, the GDP numbers to go up, unemployment to go down, etc. without any regard to what do these numbers even mean, and kind of sacrifices actual human beings have to make to make these numbers change.

Quite ironically, many faithful of this cult were already elderly when video games were popularized, so sadly, I can't really accuse them of treating life like a strategy game, when that's precisely what they're doing.

Market Fundamentalism is clearly a cult that puts profits over people, and I'm the apostate who refuses to accept this as rational.

I reject the Cult of Numbers, because I put people over profits, and see the lives of individuals, not just silly numbers.

The Cult of Work

Did you really think I was going to write an article about modern-day destructive secular cults without mentioning work? That's right, work is a cult - a Death Cult, to be specific, and I'm not exaggerating at all.

I already wrote plenty of articles (the most recent being "The Gift that Keeps On Giving") about why work - or more precisely, our insistence on shoehorning everyone into waged labour, wageslavery - is a outdated relic of a bygone era that belongs in a the museum, but it still needs repeating: workism is not a rational set of beliefs, but an irrational cult-like mish-mash of pseudo-morals, a desperate attempt to maintain the status quo via outdated moral arguments.

Besides the obvious (workplace accidents), plenty of people are sacrificed every day on the alter of work. When you die of a disease, there is a good chance that you caught it at work, or developed it through work stress. When you die in a car accident, the one driving the car that hits you (or crashes into your car) is most likely driven by someone en route to work or going home from work - and most likely you too. Martyred in the name of work. Clearly a Death Cult.

Workism is clearly the secular version of Calvinism, a religion that teaches that "idle hands are the devil's playground", and that hard work breeds dignity and wealth (when in reality, the hardest workers can barely even afford to pay rent).

When I point out, that with current levels of automation and labour-saving technology, we should have put forced wageslavery into the museum a long time ago, people get either confused or angry, calling me all sorts of colorful slurs for refusing to share their enthusiasm towards suffering until the day I die. What is this, if not a cult that people get indoctrinated into?

Work is the reason we hate Mondays and can't wait for the weekend; work is why we dread the weekday morning and bless the evening; mankind's hatred of work has compelled her scientists to tirelessly work on inventing new labour-saving and automation technology, to reduce the work that needs to be done. Yet at the same time, we insist, that a man is worth as much as he works, that "he who does not work shall not eat", etc. What is this, if not indoctrination into a cult, and failure to unlearn what the cult has brainwashed us into?

Work(ism) is clearly a cult or religion, where the original sin is laziness (which is to say: being human, since humans are inherently lazy), and salvation is gained through virtuous suffering - that is, pointless labour. And I am the apostate who refuses to be part of their irrational cult.

Unlike science, cults and religions are under no obligation to have consistency and be bereft of (self-)contradictions - which is why the Cult of Work can easily get away with blatant doublethink: at one turn, we as a society believe that work is dignifying, that work gives your life meaning, that everyone looooooves work, while at the same time, simultaneously, we also believe that everyone would just become lazy and cease all productive labour if we implemented Universal Basic Income. Clearly a huge contradiction.

Sadly, the Cult of Work has infected both sides of the political spectrum, people on the political left and right fetishize work, when in reality, work is the reason for all their woes. I could explain to the Leftist, to the Conservative and to the Nationalist, that 99% of what they're complaining about, is caused by work.

I reject the Cult of Work, because I believe that in a world with current levels of automation and labour-saving technology, survival and human dignity should not be tied to pointless labour.

The Cult of Race

Ho boy. This is a tough one, but we have to mention this, don't we? Basically, there are people out there, who openly and unironically proclaim, that their race is their god. No joke. These often claim to be "Neo-Pagans", but in reality, the Paganism is just a poor excuse to cloak their political views in spiritualism, as their gods conveniently seem to constantly agree with them and their worldviews (never mind that Ethno-Nationalism as a concrete political ideology a very recent invention, and not to be confused with pre-modern Tribalism).

Now, I'm not going to deny the fact, that there is a lot of variation within the human species. Unless you are literally blinded by political correctness, you'll recognize someone indigenous to Central Europe, someone indigenous to West Africa, someone indigenous to Northern India, etc. and can pinpoint their origins with a certain level of accuracy - which is to say, that race is real. However, these races all bleed into each other, they exist on a spectrum, on a continuum, and the lines we have drawn are 100% man-made. Apparently, my Hungarian people are considered "white people", but you can still find plenty of Hungarians with Eastern features. The lines are blurred.

So yes, it is real, but should you make a religion out of it? Absolutely not! Especially not, if you are going to turn it into a purity-cult that'll just alienate everyone and attempt to cover up the actual history of your nation.

My Hungarian people originated in Central Asia, so my ancestors 1200 years ago probably didn't look like me. Ever since the Middle Ages, Hungarian people claimed descent from Attila's Huns, had a lot of common history with various Turkic peoples, etc. Fast forward 1200 years later - due to all our racemixing with Germanic and Slavic peoples - I look white, and now White Nationalists are telling me to forget about my nation's history (such as our Hunnic connections and cultural affinity with Turkic peoples, our mythology) in the name of "white unity" - uhm.... no? Bugger off?

When the British were intentionally starving the Irish people into submission, the Ottoman Turks sent food to Ireland; likewise, when the Russians were oppressing the Polish people, the Ottoman Empire accepted plenty of Polish refugees - yet according to White Nationalist Cultists, this is all irrelevant, and Irish and Polish people ought to hate the Turks in the name of "white unity". What the ****?!

What's next, pretending that Russians have more in common with Irish people and Spaniards, than the Tatars they've been living side-by-side with for centuries?!

As someone who is very proud of his nation and its history, you can see why I don't like the Cult of Race - just like various other cults and violent, over-dogmatic religions, it seeks to erase cultural differences and history, guilt-tripping people into rejecting their own history, their own identity, in favour of, what, some pan-X or pan-Y identity?

I reject the Cult of Race, because I cannot condone blatant fraud (historical revisionism), and cannot condone the erasure of my national identity, history and historical connections in the name of race.

The Cult of Woke

Ho boy, now I'm risking being demonetized for good, but so be it. If I punch right, I have to punch left too - it's only fair that way. I don't think I need to waste too many words on explaining what the Cult of Woke - or "Social Justice Activism" - is all about. Unless you've been living under a rock in the last eleven years, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Social Justice Activism is a religion. And a particularly dogmatic one at that - which is ironic, since the dogma is constantly changing, yet it keeps being rigorously enforced.

The original sin is "privilege" ("White Privilege", "Male Privilege", "Cis Privilege", "Straight Privilege", "Thin Privilege", etc.), and the only way towards salvation is to either be unprivileged, or to compensate for your "privilege" with endless self-flagellation and Social Justice Activism. The Cis-White Male is Satan himself, witchburnings have become digital (cancel culture), etc.

J. K. Rowling - the author of the Harry Potter books, and an outspoken feminist - was once the darling of the Woke Left. Not anymore. Her specific brand of feminism - which excludes transwomen - alienated orthodox followers of the Cult of Woke, and she became public enemy #1. Do I need to mention the fact, that Rowling agrees with them in everything - such as immigration policy and open borders -, except the trans issue? This is how obsessed they are about ideological purity.

The political right tends to overestimate the strength of the Woke Cult, so let me tell you: despite all the pandering by big corporations and mainstream media, despite all the indoctrination by western colleges, the Cult of Woke is a paper tiger. Their obsession with purity will inevitably lead them towards self-cannibalization, which is sad, because some of their woes with modern society are very real, and I could easily get behind some of their causes: people shouldn't be persecuted for traits they have no control over, people shouldn't be persecuted for lifestyle choices that don't affect others, bullying is bad, etc. It's rather tragic, that such noble goals get distorted into a cult-like justification for relentless bullying, the so-called "cancel culture".

I reject the Cult of Woke, because it is an inherently divisive and over-puritannical ideology that expects complete immaculate conformity, and is clearly a top-down attempt by big capital to divert attention away from more important issues, such as high rent, healthcare costs, the nature of employer-employee relationship, etc. There are a ton of issues that affect everyone negatively - not just a small minority of people -, so why not focus on those?

Lessons to be learned?

It is often said, that a real religion offers guidance, while a cult seeks control. We could say the same about these political ideologies. Just like religious cults, these extremist ideologies, these cults use the same tactics: get 'em while they're young, get 'em while they're vulernable, force them to ditch their old friends, etc. Some of these cults have such a strong influence in our societies, that most people don't even realize that they have been indoctrinated into a cult since childhood, and just like a good indoctrinated cultist, they react irrationally to anything that offends the orthodoxy of their cult - the cult's influence is so strong, and these people mistake the cult's unholy doctrines for "common decency".

In order to liberate mankind from the mental prisons they are in, one must bring attention to the existence of these secular cults.