I started separate threads about the Unification Church and the Urantia book. I also had an earlier thread about reading 4 religious texts. I decided to combine my chains of thought and merge them to this one thread because I have more to say and many smaller threads might annoy people. So as I stated, I've been reading several religious texts including the Bible and the Qur'an. While searching for more reading material, besides the traditional major world religions with their scriptures, I'm surprised at how many New Religious Movements have their own scriptures. Some like the Jehovah's Witnesses are boring and only use the Bible though they do have a unique interpretation of it. But others like the Latter Day Saint movement have their own book: The Book of Mormon. It is these NRMs and cults that catch my attention. I've read 2 NRM holy books so far: the Baha'i faith's Kitab I Aqdas and the LDS Book of Mormon. But there are more (I intend to read all of these): The Urantia Book the Unification Church (the moonies): Exposition of the Divine Principle Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures L Ron Hubbard's Scientology: Dianetics Here is what I would say to anyone starting a cult and calling themselves prophets: 'Where is your new scriptures?' JW's and another cult from the Philippines called Iglesia ni Cristo only re-interpret the Bible and are not worth my attention. I've recently printed out a pdf file of the Divine Priniciple and am reading it. It's a fascinating read. The book is actually very well written. It's not vague and does not use King James Bible English. It's very detailed and raises some interesting points. But the conclusions are very objectionable. So what's your favorite NRM holy book (cue atheists mocking me here even though I practically am one myself)? Are there any I should know about?
It would be interesting to see a debate between the 3 NRMs (some would call them cults) with companion holy books to the Bible. They are given time to make their cases for their expanded scripture and then debate each other over who's expanded scripture is correct. Each would be given a Bible and a copy of their respective companion books. The 3 NRMs are: a Mormon with a copy of the Book of Mormon, a Moonie with a copy of the Divine Principle, and a member of the Christian Science church (do they have a nickname?) with a copy of Science and Health.
There is a Chinese cult called Eastern Lightning that have their own holy book called 'The word appears in the flesh'. This book apparently will be very hard to obtain as it is not available on amazon or ebay. I found a pdf file but it appears to be a followup of the original book or a fragment of a much larger book. This cult is super fascinating as it uses flirty fishing to win converts like Family International used to do. It is also a major thorn in the foot of the Chinese government who have labeled them a terrorist organization.
