Analysis Of Heaven's Gate

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The third religious group to be discussed will be Heaven’s Gate, Heaven’s Gate was a religious group in which it’s members killed themselves in March 1997, (Davis, 2000). This act was seen by the group as a way for them to reach salvation, which they called, “… the literal heavens,” (Davis, 2000, pg 241). The act of killing oneself as a way to reach salvation is something that is not seen in mainstream religions, in fact death is viewed as something to be feared by the majority of society. But wanting to reach salvation is something that is seen in most religions, and it is also something that is seen in most fundamental religions such as Gloriavale. But each religion seems to have their own way in which they believe they will reach salvation. …show more content…

This belief of salvation through transcending is not only seen in groups like Heaven’s Gate it is also seen in mainstream religions like Christianity. The body is the means through which we experience this world (Raine, 2005), but there is a soul within the material body that is with it until death, (Weber, 1965 pg 4-6). Often, it is seen in religions that the body is worldly and bad and that the soul and salvation is all that matters, “Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat and they draw near unto the gates of death,” (Psalms 107:18 KJB). This shows that there are some underlying parallels between these groups, they just seem to have different interpretations. It is important to note that while Heaven’s Gate killed themselves as an act to trancend many religions in the mainstream believe that suicide goes against their beliefs, (Cook, 2014). In some religious scriptures suicide is singled out as something that is not to be done, while in others like the King James Bible, “Thou shalt not kill,” (Exodus 20:13, KJB), is one of the primary portions of text regarding killing and murder. It is important to note that the text does not state what someone should not kill, therefore it is open to interpretation, (Cook, …show more content…

In fact, many scholars and scholarly works nolonger use the word cult when referencing a group that could be considered a religion not of the norm, therefore, would be considered a cult, (Olson, 2006). Instead academics are looking for alternative words to use such as, “alternative religious movements … marginal religious movements … new religious movements,” (Olson, 2006), and others. A study done by Olson shows that members of the public have given the word cult a negative meaning. Therefore, any group that is labelled as a cult is seen as something that is dangerous and different and people would be uncomfortable with neighbours joining cult groups, (Olson, 2006). Olson’s study found that the term New Religious Movement is percieved in a more positive manner than a group labelled as a Cult, (Olson, 2006). Therefore, the use of the word cult in the media may not be fair, because there are obviously these preconceptions about what a cult does and whether a cult is good or bad, when labelling a group as a cult the media is setting them up to be disliked by the general

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