Importance of cult and occult for today?

Answer 1

This is an extremely subjective question but I'll try to be as inclusive as I can in my answer, while still staying under a thousand pages.

'Cult' literally means religion. The only thing that differentiates the two is popular conception. We tend to grant Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the other 'big' spiritual belief systems the label of 'religion' while cults are generally small groups, anywhere from a handful to a fwe thousand people.

Occult means hidden, and specifically refers to the idea of secret wisdom. This can be anything from a secret passed down from master to disciple, generation to generation, to people looking for numerological codes in the text of The Bible (or Green Eggs and Ham).

These can be a blessing and a curse in modern society. They can be a curse, because there is a tendency in the the cult/occult circles, to just believe what you want and not think critically about what you believe, why you believe, and degenerate into (often violent) dogmatism and petty elitism.

However, they can also give us insight into who we are as people, give us alternative avenues to pursue and attempt to understand, causing us to grow intellectually and spiritually. They can also provide good mental exercise, keeping the faculties sharp. Also, because of the ever growing variety of belief systems, I think they can potentially help us all to become more tolerant of eachother, letting us reach a point where while we may disagree, we can at least cohabit in relative peace. Though, that might just be wishful thinking.