It is with some trepidation that I present to you the 5 Most Ridiculous Cults and Religions of the world. Not because I think that the God of the Tree People or the divine Deity that is, er, Prince Philip will strike me down. It’s more because I suspect there are some even more bizarre cults out there that I haven’t even heard of yet. So, without further ado:
5. The Cosmic People Of Light Powers
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the Velvet Revolution and the split with Slovakia, you’d have thought that the Czech Republic is a place of hard-headed pragmatists.
Apparently not. The Cosmic People of Light Powers – otherwise known as the Universe People – are a cult that believes extra terrestrials are in contact with certain key people in their movement: mainly leader Ivo A. Benda.
Quite why super-intelligent extra terrestrials have chosen to communicate with a small Central European country with a population less than that of London is unclear. However, you’ll be pleased to know that, if you are good person and a believer, you are eligible to be transported to another dimension. Which is nice.
4. Prince Philip
Most people know of Prince Philip as the husband of Queen Elizabeth II and a man who is fond of making inappropriate, borderline racist, remarks every time he leaves the United Kingdom.
However, it turns out that the Yaohnanen tribe on the southern island of Tanna in Vanuatu believe he is a divine being, descended from a mountain spirit, who would one day return to Vanuatu in triumph.
What Prince Philip himself thinks of this is unknown. However, considering that arch-conspiracy theorist David Icke believes that the Prince is actually an alien lizard in disguise, personally I think that the Yaohnanen have probably got closer to the truth.
3. The Druids
Apparently, there are 10,000 practising Druids in Britain today. Like most neo-pagan religions, the Druids like to claim a heritage that goes back thousands of years.
They also like to claim pretty much any Stone Age monument – Stonehenge being an obvious example – as some kind of Druidic temple. The only problem is: there is literally no physical archaeological evidence for the existence of ancient Druids or Druidic religion in Britain. Oops!
2. The Church Of All Worlds
Have you read Robert A. Heinlein’s science fiction classic ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’? No? Well, you should.
What you shouldn’t do, however, is to take it literally and set up a religion that is named after the clearly made-up religion in that particular book. This is exactly what Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and his equally strangely named wife, Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart, did. Worryingly enough ‘The Church Of All Worlds’ has been in existence for over 40 years and shows no signs of disappearing.
What’s next: a wizarding school based on J.K Rowling’s ‘Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’? Well, it’s funny you should mention that because Oberon Zell-Ravenheart recently founded The Grey School of Wizardry. You can’t make this stuff up. Well, you can. But then some crazy comes along and makes a religion out of it.
1. Wicca
This is another of those neo-pagan religions that likes to claim thousands of years of history that they don’t really possess.
The simple fact is this: Wicca was invented in the mid-1950s by a civil servant called Gerald. I don’t know about you, but for me, believing in anything created by a civil servant; let alone one called Gerald, is pretty much impossible.