Page Content (OCR)
method, it becomes crucial to know who is or is not likely to be telling the truth. Often, the only way to determine that is to evaluate what Georges Dumezil referred to as the “line of force”. When we have taken a particular text apart and have ascertained, as much as possible, the approximate legitimacy of each element, there still remains another question that actually constitutes the essence of the matter: What are the main trends of the whole? What are the lines of force running through the ideological field in which the details are placed? This is often where religion enters the picture, acting as the lens through which we view our past and the scale by which we judge the merits of testimony. Regarding religion, and most particularly the religions that hold sway over our world such as Christianity born of Judaism, we simply cannot overstress the importance of deep and serious study. We cannot ignore the question of whether or not Christianity and Judaism and Islam are “true”, and if they are not, then why have they spread and persisted? As many regular readers of our website know, almost from day one of the publication of the Cassiopaean material, we have been accused of being a “cult”. I've had a lot of trouble dealing with that accusation because every “claim” that we are a “cult” has been a lie, and all of the accusations have been made by individuals who clearly are members of The Oxford English dictionary entry for ‘cult’ states: 1. a system of religious worship, esp. as expressed in ritual. 2. A devotion or homage to a person or thing. 2b. A popular fashion esp. followed by a specific section of society 3. denoting a person or thing popularized in this way. It is clear that the above description could easily apply to any of the organized religions prevalent today. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism (and others) are replete and indeed founded on ritual and “devotion to a person or thing”. However, they are not generally referred to as ‘cults’. The term cult, in its modern and widely understood form, is reserved for any group formed under a hierarchical structure, where some form of coercion or manipulation of the group members exists. Generally there is also some focus of worship, be it the group leader(s) or some other outside personage or thing such as Jesus, Jehovah/Yahweh, Allah or the Tooth Fairy. The issue of justification for worship or allegiance - that is, the coercion and manipulation - is usually tied to the perceived or stated benefits or potential benefits to be derived from belief, worship or 29 High Strangeness And if they are not true, we need to evaluate a proper response to them. real cults- scary ones, too.