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Cults for fun and profit.

I am always wondering why people follow religious cults and find their absolute wackiness kind of fascinating. I will probably upset most people with some of the questions if they have no sense of humor. What do you think?

1) Why do people follow cults?

60% (33) 1) They feel their lives are empty
45% (25) 2) They are lost
34% (19) 3) They are stupid
3% (2) 4) They are making a great decision. Cults are cool
52% (29) 5) They like following charismatic authority figures
21% (12) 6) Other
7% (4) 7) Not sure

55 voters have answered this question.

2) Which cults are completely ridiculous. You may choose multiple responses.

60% (36) 1) Scientology
48% (29) 2) The Moonies
40% (24) 3) Christianity
35% (21) 4) Mormons
11% (7) 5) Atheists
58% (35) 6) The 700 club
38% (23) 7) The Peoples Temple
45% (27) 8) Brittany Spears
33% (20) 9) Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
28% (17) 10) Church of the Subgenius
33% (20) 11) Freemasons
45% (27) 12) Jehovah's Witnesses
30% (18) 13) Falun Gong
26% (16) 14) The Grateful Dead
35% (21) 15) Oprah
30% (18) 16) Campus Crusade for Cthulhu
33% (20) 17) The Holy order of the Lemon
33% (20) 18) Lyndon LaRouche
46% (28) 19) Satanism
40% (24) 20) All religions are cults and are ridiculous
28% (17) 21) Other
6% (4) 22) Not sure
23% (14) 23) How dare you include my religion on this list!!!!!!

60 voters have answered this question.

3) If you could write bad science fiction and make a multi-level marketing scheme disquised as a religion around it and buy up a large chunk of L.A. and other major cities in the process, would you?

30% (16) 1) Yes
52% (28) 2) No
7% (4) 3) No. I would just follow such a cult
3% (2) 4) Other
5% (3) 5) Not sure

53 voters have answered this question.

4) Are you offended by some of my possible choices of cults?

18% (10) 1) Yes. (Please feel free to chew me out in the message area)
40% (22) 2) No.
25% (14) 3) Yes. But I have a good sense of humor and I understand that you are just being silly.
11% (6) 4) No, but some of those choices are ridiculous
1% (1) 5) Other
1% (1) 6) Not sure

54 voters have answered this question.

5) So what is the differance between a cult and a religion?

25% (14) 1) Cults are based on strong authoritarian personalities
29% (16) 2) Cults have no tolerance for other perspectives
46% (25) 3) Cults brainwash people and expect them to hold very narrow belief systems
29% (16) 4) Cults merely seek power
12% (7) 5) Cults are evil. Religion is good
31% (17) 6) There is no differance
29% (16) 7) Cults kidnap people and turn them against their families
20% (11) 8) Other
3% (2) 9) Not sure

54 voters have answered this question.

6) Have you ever been part of a cult?

18% (10) 1) Yes
74% (41) 2) No
7% (4) 3) Not sure

55 voters have answered this question.

7) Picking on Scientology for a second, why in the world do people become Scientologists?

37% (21) 1) They like bad science fiction and can't seperate it from real life
44% (25) 2) Their favorite movie stars belong to it
51% (29) 3) They have lots of money to throw at a multi-level marketing cult
21% (12) 4) They enjoy being threatened if they question the program
48% (27) 5) They are just plain stupid
7% (4) 6) How dare you ask such a question. You need to be audited and cleared after paying us a few thousand dollars
19% (11) 7) Other
12% (7) 8) Not sure

56 voters have answered this question.

8) Finally, what are your religious beliefs?

6% (4) 1) Christianity-Evangelical
8% (5) 2) Christianity-Protestant
3% (2) 3) Christianity-Catholic
5% (3) 4) Mormon
5% (3) 5) Christianity-Other
1% (1) 6) Jewish
0% (0) 7) Muslim/Islamic
1% (1) 8) Hindu
0% (0) 9) Buddhist
1% (1) 10) Shinto
0% (0) 11) Taoist
10% (6) 12) Pagan/Wiccan
0% (0) 13) Native American spirituality
0% (0) 14) Kali worshiper
27% (16) 15) Atheist
8% (5) 16) Agnostic
1% (1) 17) Mixed spirituality
3% (2) 18) Spiritual but not religious
0% (0) 19) Scientologist
0% (0) 20) Moonie
3% (2) 21) Church of the Subgenius
3% (2) 22) Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
0% (0) 23) Voodoo
1% (1) 24) Other (I tried to include as many as possible, but I know that I missed some)
6% (4) 25) Not sure

59 voters have answered this question.

This poll was created on 2008-01-27 08:26:29 by totoro
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