How can they make such a drastic move and then change their minds about it? Could this be considered rational behavior? Where do we draw the line between religion and cults? Many people commit inappropriate or unacceptable acts in the name of religion, but how can you justify something like murder on the basis of your belief system. Religion often inspires people to do great things yet it also often causes a lot of grief and sometimes fighting. Is religion a good thing or a bad thing for our society?
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
end of world cancelled- due to lack of interest
People often do strange things because of religion. I read an article about a group of people in Russia who had barricaded themselves in a bunker with enough supplies to last them until the end of the world, which according to them is coming up in May. Attempts were made to negotiate with them and failed. They threatened to blow themselves up if anyone made an attempt to remove them using force. Yet local residents recently reported a lot of movement in the area, and have reason to believe that some of the members may have left.
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With every religion, there are people that do awful things that make it appear as if religion corrupts society. However, these cases are small or else the human population would not be as high as it is today. Media likes to put interesting stories in the news, and they like to mostly cover the flaws of soceity and the people that are a part of it. For example, over the past two weeks, the main event that news has been covering is the New York Governor that had to resign because of his prostitution scandal. They haven't been covering all the amazing things that people do for others around the world. Thus, it makes sense that people have a negative view of religions, because the news only covers that bad, or crazy things, such as locking yourself up waiting for the end of the world. How often do you see in the news all the wonderful things that religions do for others. When you do, it is not very often, and it usually does not make front page news. For the most part, I believe that religion does not hurt the world, except for the small extreme cases. I also think that we can agree that some people in the world are utterly lost at certain points in their lives, and they can be easily convinced by the first person they come across if it means they will be able to define themselves and they fit in with someone. I believe that is how some cults grow in size, because people are looking for something to believe, and that idea, which we consider to be a cult, is the first thing that they came across.
In my opinion, religion is good for society. But, society is corrupt and at times, it does insane things as the one you spoke of. And, no, I wouldn't consider this to be "rational" behavior, as you mentioned. It makes me wonder what exactly makes people even join cults in the first place, especially those like this one...
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