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FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2009

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Top 10 Crazy Cults

(Newser Summary) – Experts are debating whether the polygamist sect raided in Texas last week is a cult. Meanwhile, LiveScience has cooked up a list of bona fide cults—the top 10 craziest of them all:

  1. Raëlians: Followers believe that UFOs spawned most religions and cloning can lead to reincarnation.

  1. Order of the Solar Temple: Founded by a neo-Nazi, this group is said to have sacrificed a child they think is the antichrist.
  2. Branch Davidians: This cult believed the apocalypse was imminent; it all but died off after a 1993 FBI raid left 76 dead.
  3. Manson Family: Charles Manson's "family" believed a race war would spark the apocalypse; when it didn't, Manson sent them to kill those who had failed to help his music career.
For the full list, click the link below.
Source: LiveScience

elsewhere: Why do people join cults? About.com • Two cult members die in cave CNN • Texas raid on polygamy sect is over Salt Lake Tribune

More about:  list • religion • polygamy • Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints • FLDS • cult • Charles Manson • Jim Jones • Jonestown massacre

Flames engulf the Branch Davidian compound in this...
Flames engulf the Branch Davidian compound in this April 19, 1993 file photo, in Waco, Texas.   (AP Photo/FILE/Susan Weems)
Raelian leader Claude Vorilhon talks to a reporter...
Raelian leader Claude Vorilhon talks to a reporter in Miami, Florida, on December 29, 2002 to explain the relationship between Clonaid and the Raelians, his personal background and his beliefs.   (KRT Photos)
Charles Manson was denied parole Wednesday May 23,...
Charles Manson was denied parole Wednesday May 23, 2007, the 11th time since 1978 that the cult leader was ordered to continue serving life sentences for a murderous rampage in 1969.   (AP Photo)
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