Are the people who create cults atheists?

[JohnB445]

Cults such as JW, Unification Church world mission society, or Churches that completely have a different Bible and claims to have secret special knowledge of eternal life that nobody else knows about.

When you look deep into them you see a lot of money and power involved. I'm sure the leaders know the Bible well but are they just deceived to the point they think they are doing God's will or are they just atheists abusing people?

 

[“Paisios”]

Cults such as JW, Unification Church world mission society, or Churches that completely have a different Bible and claims to have secret special knowledge of eternal life that nobody else knows about.

When you look deep into them you see a lot of money and power involved. I'm sure the leaders know the Bible well but are they just deceived to the point they think they are doing God's will or are they just atheists abusing people?

I suspect that there is not one answer to this, and it depends on the cult involved. Some are likely run by con men out for their own interests, others by those believing they are truly a messianic figure (deceived by their own failings or demonic influence), and others by other motivations.

 

[tampasteve]

I believe that mostly they are sincere but completely misguided in their beliefs, but not atheists. That said, some organizations such as Scientology would lean towards a money making scheme more than a belief system - at least to the people at the top as there are thousands of sincere believers in that system.

 

[Ken Rank]

Cults such as JW, Unification Church world mission society, or Churches that completely have a different Bible and claims to have secret special knowledge of eternal life that nobody else knows about.

When you look deep into them you see a lot of money and power involved. I'm sure the leaders know the Bible well but are they just deceived to the point they think they are doing God's will or are they just atheists abusing people?

I think some of them are narcissistic, and I think some are probably sincere and just wrong on their facts. But I would caution all... be careful how we use the term cult. Anymore it has become a word we use for a group that doesn't have OUR view. But traditionally a cult has a leader who controls the group. People like to call Mormons a cult, but they come and go and are free to interact within society. So the word that would be best used, as it is defined today, is heresy. The Jehovah Witnesses are a little more controlled. While they work within society they also are somewhat controlled in how they interact spiritually. When confronted with a fact they have no answer for, for example, they will leave and report that back to their elders. If they have an answer they give it, and if they don't they pass it on the their grand pooh bahs and they research it and provide and answer for all.

 

[Tolworth John]

they just deceived to the point they think they are doing God's will

They in their pride and arogance think they are doing Gods will.

 

[Basil the Great]

Sorry... I misread your post. No, I doubt that the man who started Jehovah's Witnesses was an atheist. That faith certainly professes a belief in God. As for some other groups, like Scientology, maybe? I do not know.

 

[Ken Rank]

Mostly, it's just megalomania and narcissism. You have to believe in yourself to get others to believe in you, and so I think that a bluffing atheist would have a harder time convincing anyone.

I know this was to somebody else, but well said.

A cult is just a deviant religious group. It isn't necessarily controlling. If a Christian cult got big enough, they could get away with praying to idols, communicating with the dead and honoring a maternal goddess without being labeled as a cult. Then we would call it a heresy instead of a cult (and they would get their own section in this forum).

I don't really disagree... my point was simply that we sometimes throw that word around too loosely. To attribute it to any group that doesn't hold our beliefs (which many people do, I have seen it on this forum many times) is wrong. And heck... who said WE are 100% correct on every point anyway?

 

[Albion]

Cults such as JW, Unification Church world mission society, or Churches that completely have a different Bible and claims to have secret special knowledge of eternal life that nobody else knows about.

When you look deep into them you see a lot of money and power involved. I'm sure the leaders know the Bible well but are they just deceived to the point they think they are doing God's will or are they just atheists abusing people?

I don't think they were atheists, although we are speaking of a wide range of religious organizations here, and so we need to be cautious about generalizing.

The founder of the JWs, for example, seems to me entirely serious, and he basically recombined the thinking of several existing churches into his own points of emphasis...and did not claim any new scriptures or revelations, etc. It was his successors who gave the church/society the character it currently is known for.

But if we turn to Joseph Smith or Sun Myung Moon, we have more of what you are wondering about.

 

[StarTemple]

Cults such as JW, Unification Church world mission society, or Churches that completely have a different Bible and claims to have secret special knowledge of eternal life that nobody else knows about.

When you look deep into them you see a lot of money and power involved. I'm sure the leaders know the Bible well but are they just deceived to the point they think they are doing God's will or are they just atheists abusing people?

They are iamtheists. They think they are God. Most religions sort of devolve into homo-theism, as in humans treated as gods as God vacates the building, imo.