• fkn@lemmy.worldM
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    8 months ago

    This happens regularly… They are called cults today… Their members also believe their Messiah is a messenger from (or literally is) god… And they get much more than 12.

      • fkn@lemmy.worldM
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        8 months ago

        Jim Jones started his church in 1954 and had enough followers to buy his own church building by 1955.

        I don’t know the exact timeline on it but his faith healing garbage was a conscious effort to engender faith in his teachings and has been written about as being effective in less than a year.

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Sorry. Did he die 6 months after he started his church? I didn’t ask if he had enough money to buy a building, tax free at the absurd cost of owning a building in the 50s. Really people making minimum wage could afford a house back then.

          Worth mentioning that he ran the church for another 24 years and now it is gone. The historical Jesus claim is that he started the church, got people to join, six months later they were willing to do a suicide attack, and 20 centuries later they are still around.

          You are welcome to back off on this. You are not going to find a single time in history, of the thousands of documented religions, where this happened.

          Founder, suicidal cult, dead, and still around all in the span of half a year.

          Occum’s razor. Every other religion that had any success had a founder who spent multiple decades keep it going building up the institutions needed. So what is more likely that Christianity is the one odd one out of thousands or it is the same? James was running a mystery cult centered around a fictional heavenly figure.

          • fkn@lemmy.worldM
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            8 months ago

            Look. You need to stop moving the goalposts. The post I replied to was about “could a person be charismatic enough to gain 12 followers.” The answer is yes.

            Could a person do it in a short period of time? Yes.

            Why do you insist on being insufferable?

            • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              12 followers in six months and they continue the work after he died.

              Look, I apologize if I didn’t communicate properly you can believe me or not but I did have that in mind when I wrote it.