Hi, I’m a South Korean university student, but I’ve only spent about six years of my life actually living in Korea. I grew up mostly in countries where Christianity or Islam were the dominant religions, so I never really encountered the idea of cults. In some of the Muslim-majority countries I lived in, cult-like groups are taken extremely seriously and can be punished very harshly, so it just wasn’t something I ever saw growing up. Because of that, I was pretty surprised the first time I came across something like it. For example, I once ran into a Scientology recruiter near Birmingham. I didn’t really understand what was going on at the time, but my friend immediately told them to go away. Afterwards, he explained they were recruiters and mentioned that there are actually quite a lot of similar groups in places like Korea. That honestly shocked me, since I’d barely lived there and had never personally seen anything like that. When I asked my dad about it, he said that back when he was younger—around the time leading up to the year 2000—there were a lot of end-of-the-world beliefs going around, and that led to the rise of many cults.
If that’s true, then why do these groups still exist today? Do people genuinely believe in them, or is it more about pressure from family or the group itself?
submitted by /u/Broad-Trifle-6657
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