Reply #3: Dude, this is a cult... [View All]

Any religious group that "reveres" an individual is more likely than not a cult.



# Year Founded: In 1927 the Institute of Religious Science and School of Philosophy was founded by Ernest Holmes. This institute was the foundation of what would become the United Church of Religious Science.

# History: Ernest Holmes was born into a large, lower class family in rural Maine, headed by parents who emphasized religion in the family's life. Due to financial hardship, none of the boys recieved a high level of education. Holmes moved to Boston in his early twenties, where he read extensively and studied public speaking at a school affiliated with the New Thought Movement. He concentrated especially on the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mary Baker Eddy (the founder of Church of Christ, Scientist), W.W. Atkinson, Ralph Waldo Trine, and Christian D. Larson, all key figures in the development of New Thought ideology (Melton, 1996:637).

<snip>

In 1912 Ernest Holmes moved to California, where his brother Fenwicke was a Congregational Minister. It was at this time that he became familiar with the work of Thomas Troward, a New Thought practitioner whose revolutionary ideas about the mind were the primary influence of Holmes' beliefs, which were later synthesized into Religious Science. More specifically, Troward interpreted New Thought ideas in a less religious manner, leading to his assertion that "livingness is ultimately to be measured by its intelligence" (Braden: 421). His focus on cosmic intelligence, science, conscious and subconsciousness, and his form of synergy (source:http://www.new-thought.org/trowd.html) are all departures from mainstream New Thought ideas.

More:
http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/ucrs.html

Dude, steer clear of this stuff.

I don't have time to get into it. I have to tend to my family right now.