I love figs, and look sort of like David Koresh (at least before I cut my hair). I’m sure that I could start a cult and get lots of followers (girls). I guess we just have to decide what kind of cult we want to start – make everyone drink the kool-aid someday, or just sell flowers at the airport. I’m more in favor of the ‘have everyone sit in a room while I preach cult’ – give me their money so I can have a nice house / robes/ investments and blindly obey me.
Despite seeing the ‘Bad Seed’ when I was a kid – I would think that anyone within 2 standard deviations of the norm would probably be 100% finally influenced by the people around them. It’s kind of funny that I had great parents who gave me great lessons in life (without religion) and I turned out ok, but folks who also get a good foundation (with religion) seem to think that that is what did the trick. I’ve got two great kids who care for others, are sensitive, and are all around great kids – we do this without religion (actually by explaining to them our distrust and dislike of religion) – to help them evolve to the kind of people I would love to see in our society.
If religion gives people who have had bad times something to cling to – I understand. If people like the traditions and the social network – also seems to be a nice thing (if they can avoid being insular and tolerant of others). But, the belief in something which has no foundation or anchor in reality seems to always cause problems, grief and a huge amount of time wasting to the rest of society.
p.s. I’ve never really understood how 5 billion people can each belong to a different cult or splinter of the same cult – each absolutely convinced that they are in the right one (the other cults are such idiots aren’t they?) and most of them feeling that they hold the moral high ground while every day we see it’s not so. This isn’t the lessons we should be teaching to young impressionable minds.
