Dear Editor:
ABC’s 20/20 recently did a feature on Heaven’s Gate, the infamous Death Cult that encouraged its members to kill themselves for a greater reward – travelling the galaxy on Alien Ships!
The interviews were with some of the survivors as well as the loved ones of those that killed themselves, and as we can imagine all the talk was about how these Death Cults prey on & brainwash vulnerable people looking for hope, looking for something better than their current life, the founder of this Cult branded, rightly, as pure evil
But I can’t fail to ask, what is the difference between these Death Cults and the top Religions of the day?
BOTH promise a wonderful “life” AFTER Death! An endless “life” of pure joy & happiness, all waiting for them just after this crummy life!
NEITHER have any evidence! NONE! ZERO! All their cheap promises are based on belief! Which is why belief is stressed so much and why unbelievers are callously dumped into gas chambers in hell!
All the talk of signs – for Heaven’s gate it was a comet. For Religions it is “all the signs are there” and the creepy threats that the world is ending, we better hurry up and convert or else! If we convert, beg and pray, the knight in shining armor will come save us damsels in distress! Even uneducated sheep herders understood that the boy crying wolf was just playing with them, but even the best of educated keep being taken in by the promise of “He is coming any day now!”
For Heaven’s Gate, eternity would be spent in comfort, travelling the galaxy in Alien spaceships. For Religions it is living in comfort in Heaven. No one mentions any WORK being done, and more frightening no one even asks! Billions get to live the good retired life shamelessly sponging off God! Ah, the Grand Plan of God!
And these Religions are PRAISED for giving their followers hope for a better life! A life of endless joy, surrounded by their loved ones! No more talk of “Preying upon vulnerable people looking for a way out of their pain!”
And while Death Cults like Heaven’s Gate have harmed no one except their own members and their loved ones, we know very well the mass murders committed in the name of religion and continue to be committed! Try saying anything against religion or God in countries like Pakistan and one would fall under the sword of blasphemy laws with a mob gathering to kill and maim! From the likes of Giordano Bruno to Galileo to Native Americans to the Mayans to the present day Gays as well as Atheists have felt and continue to feel the threat of these Death Cults masquerading as Religions. Their death toll is in the Millions!
“Do not question our promises” and if we do, these Death Cults get to hide under, “Insulting Religious feelings”, to using brutal violence outright to suppress all free expression!
And so in this present day of ours, in the 21st century, cults like Heaven’s Gate get mocked, put down while those with billions of members get to OPENLY promote the very same cheap promises, with nary a dissent! Amazing!
The key, obviously, is the number of members! Too few in number, it is a Cult! Gain a lot of members, then it is a Respected Institution, a Religion!
Sometimes I have to pinch myself, am I really in the 21st century? Should we not be better than this? Even in this day and age, are our Morals and Values just a case of Might Makes Right?