{"id":3377,"date":"2010-11-24T15:30:45","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T19:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/2010\/11\/17\/"},"modified":"2010-11-24T15:30:45","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T19:30:45","slug":"10-questions-with-benjamin-e-zeller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=3377","title":{"rendered":"10 Questions with Benjamin E. Zeller"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. To start my readers off on level ground, can you tell them what you mean when you say \u201cnew religious movement\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Generally, a new religious movement (abbreviated as \u201cNRM\u201d) is a religion that has formed in the past 50-60 years. That is a moving target, which means that some groups that were NRMs when scholars first coined the term in the 1970s are really stretching the limits of the word \u201cnew\u201d by now. The Nation of Islam, for example, is often considered a NRM, but it was founded in 1931!<\/p>\n

Scholars tend to use the term \u201cnew religious movement\u201d where many other people would say \u201ccult.\u201d That\u2019s because cult is a pejorative and subjective term. Who says they belong to a cult? Southern Baptists consider Mormons a cult. (But some people consider Southern Baptists a cult too!) The Hare Krishnas, who I study, are often called a cult here in America, but in India they are seen as a traditional religious denomination.<\/p>\n

2. How did you end up focusing on these new religious movements instead of more established religions like Judaism and Christianity?<\/strong><\/p>\n

New religions are bellwethers\u2014they are fast-changing and usually led by self-proclaimed prophets or seers who claim to speak directly for the divine. This means that they can respond quickly and straightforwardly to the big issues of the day. Established religions take a longer time to do the same. The vast majority of sociological studies of the past 40 years have shown that the people who join NRMs are normal people. What appeals to them and drives their religious questioning are the same issues that percolate through wider culture. NRMs are the cutting edge, so to speak.
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\n3. What made you decide to examine new religious movements with regards to their relationships with science?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think that science (and its daughter, technology) is one of the most powerful forces in the modern world, along with religion. Everyone today needs to deal with science, whether they want to or not. And when I looked at NRMs, I found that they all talked about science, often making science a central issue in their theologies.<\/p>\n

More personally, I\u2019ve always been interested in both the study of science and religion. I\u2019ve been a science geek since I was a child, and obviously religion is something I\u2019ve decided to study professionally. For me, it was an obvious choice.<\/p>\n

4. What can we learn about religion and science from what you discovered in researching these new religious movements\u2019 thoughts on the subject?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was just teaching a class recently on science and religion, and I started the class by asking the students what came to mind when they heard the phrase \u201creligion and science.\u201d Most of the students said that they thought of controversies and conflicts. But that isn\u2019t the reality on the ground. From my study of new religious movements, what I found was creative tension, not conflict. This creative tension leads to a number of very inventive ways to rectify science and religion in those NRMs. Oftentimes (but not always), creative people and groups have found ways to deal with even sticky issues like evolution or the age of the earth. That\u2019s not to say that there aren\u2019t heated disagreements and conflicts over particular issues. But it\u2019s much more complex than what we might expect from listening to sound bites.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>5. The three new religious movements you discussed in your book \u201cProphets and Protons\u201d were The International Society of Krishna Consciousness, Human Individual Metamorphosis (Total Overcomers Anonymous), and Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity; better known by most as Hare Krishnas, Heaven\u2019s Gate, and the Moonies. Many label these organizations as cults, do you find some people become confrontational or offended by your study of these groups?<\/strong><\/p>\n