Professor Kim Kyung-il KBS Interview
"Pseudo-religions sneak in through loneliness"
"Freely surrender liberty and willingly become confined"
The Netflix documentary "I Am God: The People Betrayed by God (I Am God)" has shed new light on the reality of cult religions.
Composed of eight episodes, "I Am God" deals with incidents that occurred in five groups, including the Christian Gospel Mission (JMS).
Although these cult religions have different characteristics, they share the commonality of venerating a single leader who mentally and physically exploits and controls the followers.
The followers refer to the leader as the Messiah, Father, etc., and regard the leader's words as absolute laws that must be obeyed. It is difficult for people outside the group to understand why followers become involved in cult religions.
Why do they blindly believe and praise the leader's words, which are neither scientific nor even well-founded? Experts explain that the underlying reason for people falling into cult religions is 'loneliness.'
On the 10th, Professor Kim Kyung-il of the Department of Psychology at Ajou University explained in an interview with KBS Radio's "Choi Kyung-young's Strongest Current Affairs," "The more a society creates loneliness, and the more members feel strong loneliness, the more cult religions sneak into that loneliness," adding, "A common phrase in psychology is 'Loneliness becomes unbearable, so people escape into bad relationships.'"
He added, "Although people seem to like and want to enjoy freedom, in painful loneliness, they sacrifice their freedom and look for what they can gain," and "Lonely people and groups willingly accept strong bonds that actually take away their freedom."
Do the leaders recognize their abusive behavior? Professor Kim said, "In the early stages, they seem to be aware of their actions, but later they definitely idolize themselves and mostly believe they are gods," explaining, "Humans tend to believe what they say themselves."
He also mentioned that even highly educated people fall into cult religions because the 'ideal' differs for each individual. Professor Kim explained, "The ideal is not for everyone to live beautifully and peacefully. It is a place where instincts are freely expressed and justified," adding, "Surprisingly, the leaders are people true to their instincts, and because they practice those instincts, people get drawn in."
He pointed out that environments where many cult religions arise include "societies where success and achievement are measured by a single standard" and "societies that divide people dichotomously into winners and losers, good and evil."
Professor Kim advised, "A good society is one that recognizes diversity while effectively filtering out the violent and exploitative parts hidden within diversity," and "Although it is a textbook explanation, a society that willingly reflects whenever problems arise can reduce social issues like cult religions."
He emphasized, "While punishment is important, rather than moving toward blaming and criticizing cult religions, our society should find lessons to learn from them."
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