Atheism

This was one of my issues when I was a Christian. There is no external authority that the Bible was the inherent word of God and no way to ensure that the words within it were transcribed or even translated within the Authority of God.

There is a whole study of Bible hermeneutics that is about finding authority within the Bible.

You know how in the show Community Abed was always trying to meta the show? Imagine that, but really not funny and it's taken seriously.

the Bible is real. like you can go buy it at Walmart.

Cults are small. Christianity is big. And it was Christians who, during the satanic panic, created a false association in pop culture between cults and abuse. See, back in the 60s, the hippie movement was turning young people away from Christianity and towards new age spiritualities like wicca and thelema. The christians had to put a stop to these cults, so they created a myth that cult=abuse.