I’ve never, even among fundamentalists of various stripes, heard extreme atheism described as a cult, nor seen atheists subjected to treatment appropriate to cult members. I’ve heard it characterized as a religion, but that always seems to be more an attempt at leveling (i.e. “well, you have unjustified beliefs too”) than a serious try at thinking of atheism in terms of a cultus.
(A lot of the Christian fundamentalist community’s more extreme approaches to homosexuality do have a lot in common with deprogramming methods, incidentally—so this doesn’t just reflect a general distrust of the concept.)
Same goes for broader senses of transhumanism. I have heard singularitarianism described as a cult, but I’m not sure that necessarily indicates anything other than the absurdity heuristic throwing up positive results. The Overton window, or your slider bar, are pretty coarse metaphors; they don’t necessarily imply specific approaches (i.e. cult deprogramming) to worldviews on their fringes.
I’ve never, even among fundamentalists of various stripes, heard extreme atheism described as a cult, nor seen atheists subjected to treatment appropriate to cult members.
I have heard this accusation, though I have not seen any actions from those espousing atheism/transhumanism that could reasonably fall under the category ‘cult’. My only point was that in an environment where the majority holds at least some tenant of major religious belief, a person attempting deprogramming or exit counseling might appear to the majority as the one in need of help.
I’ve never, even among fundamentalists of various stripes, heard extreme atheism described as a cult, nor seen atheists subjected to treatment appropriate to cult members. I’ve heard it characterized as a religion, but that always seems to be more an attempt at leveling (i.e. “well, you have unjustified beliefs too”) than a serious try at thinking of atheism in terms of a cultus.
(A lot of the Christian fundamentalist community’s more extreme approaches to homosexuality do have a lot in common with deprogramming methods, incidentally—so this doesn’t just reflect a general distrust of the concept.)
Same goes for broader senses of transhumanism. I have heard singularitarianism described as a cult, but I’m not sure that necessarily indicates anything other than the absurdity heuristic throwing up positive results. The Overton window, or your slider bar, are pretty coarse metaphors; they don’t necessarily imply specific approaches (i.e. cult deprogramming) to worldviews on their fringes.
I have heard this accusation, though I have not seen any actions from those espousing atheism/transhumanism that could reasonably fall under the category ‘cult’. My only point was that in an environment where the majority holds at least some tenant of major religious belief, a person attempting deprogramming or exit counseling might appear to the majority as the one in need of help.
“Are you guys some sort of cult?” “Yes indeed, but we only accept donations in Bitcoins.”