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NEW RELIGIONS AS A SPECIFIC VARIANT OF HUMAN PARTNERSHIP
HOLÁ, Michaela
Among with many changes brought to us by the modern times, we may also find changes in current understanding of religions. In spite of the strong deconsecration trend the experts agreed on growing popularity of new forms of religions and divergence from the traditional religions on the other side. Many alternative religions occur. Groups are diversified by their confession, establishment, methods of finding new members, behaviour models and relationship to the traditional religions. The phenomenon of new religions establishment itself can not be overlooked anymore and to me it seems interesting to learn more about possible reasons, why individuals choose this way. The objective of my research was to identify what motivates people to join alternative religious groups. The research includes a quantitative and a qualitative section. In order to collect adequate data for the quantitative research method of e-mail inquiries was applied as well as questionnaires. The questionnaire was designed for the determined objective of the research and was intended for experts in organisations involved in religious issues both in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. Specifically responses were received from employee of the Association for Study of Sects and New Religions in Prague, the Centre for Prevention in the Area of Religious Sects (CPoNS) in Olomouc and from o.z. INTEGRA - Centre for Prevention in the Area of Religious Sects, based in Banská Bystrica. I had three hypothesis determined for this part of my work: the Hypothesis I (Phenomenon of new religions popularity is related mainly to younger population, which is more sensitive to era changes), the Hypothesis II (Decision of an individual to join a new religious group is subject to expected satisfaction of currently unsatisfied needs) and the Hypothesis III (Psychological methods misused by the alternative religious groups play a significant role in individual´s decision to joint a sect). The above hypothesis has been confirmed upon analysis of collected data. In addition I used a quantitative method as well, consisting of semi-standardized interviews with former members of some of the alternative religious groups. The research group included three individuals, who shared their experience with a specific religious group. Considering the small number of respondents it was more a complementary type of method in addition to the quantitative research. The subject bachelor work may be used for more detail research of the given subject and extension of knowledge related to the phenomenon of the alternative religions. The work may be also used for description of processes taking place in the current society and affecting distrust to the traditional religions. Results of this research may be also considered when searching for an effective solution for prevention of sect impact.
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