Belongingness is the human emotional need to be an accepted member of a group. Whether it is family, friends, co-workers, a religion, or something else, people tend to have an 'inherent' desire to belong and be an important part of something greater than themselves. A need for this belongingness has existed ever since the dawn of mankind, and it still exists today. We accept this inherent need, because we see it as socially acceptable in society, however we dare to ask if the need becomes obsessive. What if the need to belong influences your choices, reforms your mind, and redirects your actions? What if the need consumes your body until your life is deviated to a new agenda all in the name of belongingness. Just like the need to belong, cults have been a part of human history ever since it began. The term cult comes from the world “cultest” which is greek describing someone that is obsessive. Cults are not just a religion. A cult can be a society that is social, philosophical, or political, like we will discover in the journey of cults. Most people get cults and …show more content…
Zoroastrianism is a cult of the king. Much like Japanese Shintoism, Zoroastrianism encampasses the divine right to the leader of a civilization. During the height of the Roman conquest of the mediterranean and the persecution of early christians. The first heretic religion was born out of christianity in Alexandria, Egypt in 189 AD. Gnostics were a group of cultist christians that believed that the virgin mother mary was the true successor to god, and that god rained invisible seeds onto the earth which were the souls of the saved. With the rise Islam in the east, multiple religious movements started to pop up. One of the major political and social cults in the middle ages. The assassins were a sect of Sunni Islam that had there focus on murdering high ranking leaders, crusaders and noyan which were high ranking Mongolian
A cult is a system of religious belief and devotion directed towards a particular object. The Branch davidians are a group of people that is devoted to one particular person and Religion. David Koresh is the main leader of the group and is located in Waco Texas. In the documentary Waco The Inside Story the police went to talk to the group due to safety issues regarding the children. The group had many weapons and ammunition located where they were living.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT A cult, according to Merriam Webster, is a small religious group that is not part of a larger and more accepted religion and that has beliefs regarded by many people as extreme or dangerous. The Branch Davidians was a cult. It was a spinoff of the Seventh-Day Adventists. The Seventh-Day Adventist church is a church that believes Jesus will come back to earth one day, and they use Saturday as the Sabbath day.
A sense of belonging comes from a sense of identity and that is shaped by one’s personal, social, cultural and historical context. Belonging is also dependant on connections made with ones surrounding, which enhances or limits their sense of inclusion. Tony Birch’s “Refuge of Sinners” from his shortstory collection “The promise” and Peter Skrzynecki’s poem memoirs “St Patrick's College and Felkis Skrzynecki” consider an individual's surrounding to be important, as seen with the use of their language features and contextual background. An individual’s sense of belonging relies on those around him or her.
The Influence of Belonging Having and needing a sense of belonging is a facet of human nature. In this context, belonging refers to the acceptance of an individual as a member or a part (Hall 1). In Perry Moore’s Hero, Thom is faced with many barriers to attaining a sense of belonging with nearly every group that he encounters. His largest barrier would be the fact that he is homosexual in a world that seemingly doesn’t accept homosexuality for what it is. In Alan Moore’s
The transient process of Belonging emerges from connections made by individuals with people, places and the larger social world. It is these connections that influence our identity and the search for meaning in our lives, ultimately determining our course of action. A sense of belonging can be hindered through the lack of relationships and experiences, negatively resulting in alienation and disconnection. Peter Skryznecki's eloquent poems Migrant Hostel and Feliks Skryznecki accentuate how the urge to be affiliated with a family, culture or place can only be cultivated through positive connections and familiarities, yet when these factors are lacking, we are left with the feelings of oppression and the need for assimilation.
Ex-members of numerous cults report not only physical abuse, but also psychological. Mental abuse of these innocent cult members has been proven to be just as harmful as physical abuse. A researcher acknowledges that cult leaders feed off their followers wish to fit in and their capacity to believe; that is what makes them professionals in psychological manipulation (Tamm). The author realizes that the religious cult leaders take advantage of the young growing minds of their followers. The leaders deceive the members into believing that they belong and give them that feeling of being wanted.
The Christians believed that the pagans and Satanists sacrificed and took part in blood rituals and this is how the term cults came to be recognized as being associated with satanic
Beginning in the mind of a troubled and delusional science fiction author, Scientology has grown to become one of the most controversial body of beliefs since the dawn of its creation in 1960. The Church of Scientology uses marketing technics to lure men and women into its cult-like sector and, while doing so, ruins the lives of everyone in its wake. Although the Church of Scientology claims to help the human condition by ridding the minds of its followers of terrible past life experiences so that they may reach their untapped potential, the Church of Scientology is a profit-making cult driven by greed, power, and gaining a worldwide following and ultimately ruins the lives of its followers. Science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard created Scientology
Therefore, Dawe shows how an individual’s sense of belonging is largely influence by moving
The Vulnerability of Belonging We have all felt a sense of belonging, we have also all felt the feeling of being extremely alone, we are all human, and we all have those emotions. But why? According to Brene Brown presenter of a TED Talk entitled “The Power of Vulnerability” it is just that. Vulnerability.
Have you ever wondered how people seen on the news involved in a cult, ended up in one in the first place. Cults can develop from religious or social movements, often times involving; brainwashing, control, and kidnapping. In many cases social influence can leave an imprint on a person’s actions, personality, and growth. When people interact with others on a daily basis they tend to change their own behavior in order to conform with the what is relevant. Often times group thinking overrides a person’s a rational reasoning and can lead to the joining of a cult.
Through partaking in interaction rituals, individuals become members of something greater than themselves. This feeling of being apart of something greater than oneself provides a moral community for the individuals, which then guides individuals in their beliefs and behaviors. It is similar to a never-ending circle; as individuals see the emotionally charged environment that this religion provides, they want to be a part of it, so they partake in unusual rituals, which furthers their engagement and emotional connectedness to their community. It almost reminds me a bit of an addiction. This community turns objects, such as poison and snakes as sacred, which in turn creates a sacred and profane world.
Zoroastrians’ belief and view of God came from the revelations of Zoroastrian and Judaist view developed from God’s communication to Moses. Similarly, Christians’ view of God is shaped and defined by the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. In respect to a coming Savior, Judaists waited for the Messiah, Christians wait for Jesus, and Zoroastrians expected the Saoshyant. Even further, all the religions view the world to be in a constant battle between good and evil, and between God and the devil. From the Zoroastrians’ point of view, the Universe is literally a battlefield between Ahura Mazda, the one good God, and Ahriman, the separate spirit of Evil.
We have a driving need to be a part of the group and to belong. Even if the group is wrong, we will conform to
In general, Christians believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ, Satan, and the idea of life after death in Heaven or Hell. According to the World Scriptures text, Christianity was a missionary religion that quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire. Around 500 B.C.E the Zoroastrian Persian Empire spread from the Arabian sea to Mediterranean sea, which overlapped with Christianity at the time (Van Voorst 265). Christianity was heavily surrounding the Mediterranean and with the importance of trade routes at the time there was bound to be influencing ideas between the two. One may argue that Christianity was the mission religion that influenced Zoroastrianism.