8 /10 1 Votes
Language English Publication date 1973, 1974, 1975 Originally published 1973 Genre Non-fiction OCLC 863421 | 4/5 Goodreads Subject Cults, pseudoscience Media type Print (Paperback) Country United States of America Followed by Landscapes of the night | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cover artist Paul Agule (jacket design) Publisher Harrap,
Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
Delacorte Press Similar Scientology books, Non-fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cults of Unreason is a non-fiction book on atypical belief systems, written by Christopher Riche Evans, Ph.D., who was a noted computer scientist and an experimental psychologist. It was first published in the UK in 1973 by Harrap and in the United States in 1974 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, in paperback in 1975, by Delacorte Press, and in German, by Rowohlt, in 1976.
Evans discusses Scientology and Dianetics, UFO religions, believers in Atlantis, biofeedback, Yoga, Eastern religions, and black boxes. He points out that these systems and groups incorporate technological advances within a theological framework, and that part of their appeal is due to the failure of modern people to find strength, comfort, and community in traditional religion and in science.
In 2001 new religious movement specialist George Chryssides criticized the book's title by pointing out that most groups referred to as cults do have well-defined beliefs.