On Cults

Stefan Molyneux’s Freedomain Radio site is worth checking out. Today I watched his video on cults. You can read the transcript here.

Molyneux identifies the army, the government, state schools, and religion (specifically Christianity) as cults. Of course, it is fashionable these days to label all of religion a cult, and in Western societies, Christianity is a particular target. I would argue that the state and its offshoots (the military and state schools) are the primary threats, as they rely on coercion. Christianity and other religions often team up with state power, regrettably, but there is at least the freedom for grown adults to reject their doctrines; they are at least nominally voluntary.

Much of what passes for contemporary secular humanism exhibits some aspects of cultism as defined by Molyneux. On issues such as man-made global warming and population control, all too many secular humanists are willing to enlist state coercion to obtain their goals; in fact, most of them probably see legislation as the only way to rein in consumption and reproduction.

To use Molyneux’s own template in the example of anthropogenic global warming:

1. People are put in physically or emotionally distressing situations (hellfire in the form of an overheated Earth, social ostracism for not recycling or taking other visible conservation measures, taxation intended to push up the price of resources such as gasoline…)

2. Their problems are reduced to one simple explanation, which is repeatedly emphasized (Humans are destroying the Earth’s lands, seas, air and climate through overconsumption of her resources)

3. They receive unconditional love, acceptance, and attention from the leader (“Gaia will thank you!”)

4. They get a new identity based on the group (“Environmentalist,” “tree-hugger”)

5. They are subject to entrapment and their access to information is severely controlled. (Insistence on “scientific consensus,” dissenters smeared as “deniers” akin to Holocaust deniers, contrary studies unpublished by major media)

This is not to imply that I wholly disagree with Molyneux on the subject of Christianity as cultish indoctrination. A few years ago I happened to be walking through a Sunday School classroom and was struck by how simple the objects of indoctrination were: a few colorful wall hangings proclaiming God’s love for the pupils, and so forth. I would just like to add that fads such as environmentalism often resemble cults in their methods and intensity.