Cults
Billy Graham apparently has a newspaper column in which he answers letters (hat tip to PZ). One person writes:
DEAR BILLY GRAHAM: Why do people get involved in cults? My cousin has gotten involved in one, and no matter what we say to him, he refuses to listen. He says we are the ones who are in the dark, and he alone in our family has found the truth. — S. McM.
to which Graham replies,
DEAR S. McM: One characteristic of cults is that they strongly believe they alone are right in their beliefs and everyone else is wrong. Thus they reject the central truths of the Bible that Christians have held in common for almost 2,000 years and substitute their own beliefs for the clear teaching of Scripture.
What’s stunning about this is not merely the epistemic authoritarianism but that Graham seems to have never imagined that other epistemic methods might exist. How many science teachers so utterly failed in their charge to convey the essence of science to Graham and his fellow students?
Since the topic of cults has come up, I’ll take the opportunity to link to Eliezer Yudkowsky’s insightful posts on how cults arise, what “cultishness” is, and how to tell if you’re in a cult.
I’ll also note the somewhat obvious but entertaining fact that the “characteristic of cults” Mr. Graham focuses on in the quoted passage applies to many Christians, including, it seems, himself as shown later in the passage.