One of the most sketchy parts of the whole Silent Hill world in my opinion. Because of this sketchyness I hate them! So in the spirit of setting the record straight could someone please explain the following,

Are they like an evil devil worshiping cult or more of an alternative witchcraft type cult?
Is it the cult that makes "evil silent hill", or does it already exist and they are trying to control it?
Are the cult members regular human people or are they posessed or somthing?
If they are regular human people why do they want nasty creepy monsters everywhere?
Do they reside in "evil silent hill" or do they have homes in the real world?
When in evil silent hill what do they have for dinner? I mean they gotta eat!?

The Order is seperate completely from Christianity. It is monotheistic, with a goddess (oddly enough called 'God'). The original cult's ideas, it is sugested, were inspired by the local Indian folkore in Silent Hill although this is normaly only hinted at. There are different sects of the order worshiping different gods (For example: The Valtiel sect which worships the 'Red God' while other sects worship the 'Yellow God'. A good example would be Muslum worshipers who are divided about the issue of the Imams) and different 'saints'.

As evidenced above with the 'saints' remark, much of the current incarnation of The Order is laden with Christian influence (use of 'Saints' that represent certian aspects of life and living. Their origin story is also very similar to that of Jesus, the Resurection and Armageddon) due to several members being Old Europe imigrants.

The Members of The Order are in fact, by and large, pretty level headed. Just as in any religon, there are radical elements. Claudia and Dahlia are examples of this radical rogue element, though it is hinted there are several others within the order. Vincent is a good example of your 'typical' member, who keeps the faith but is not exactly going to go about slaughtering non-belivers.

The 'Alternate' Silent Hills are psychic projections of the subconsious of certian individuals (Alessa in SH1 and, in part, SH3. The 'Unborn God' also in SH3, James in SH2 and I beileve Walter in SH4. Though I am not 100 percent sure on this point). These individuals are very rarely working at the sugestion of the Order, but there is always a signifigant influence by them onto these alternate realms. For instance, Walter needed to read and complete the 21 sacrements and Dahila tried to hasten the arival of "God" by burning Alessa.

Just as Silent Hill is a psychic projection, so are the monsters. These are manefestations of the subconsious fears or anxieties of the projector or, in the case of Walter, more supernatural with origins in the people he killed. The only exceptions known so far are the 'Scrappers' and the Missionary of Silent Hill 3, which evidence sugests are not monsters, but only seen as monsters and are in fact members of Claudia's radical off-shoot of The Order.

They live in real homes and have real jobs. As stated before, Silent Hill as we (the player) see it does not exist.

The people of Silent Hill still exist in the reality we know it and so do the cult members. So they eat just fine. As for the monsters, evidence sugeststs that they are Carnivorus and Cannibalistic, not to mention oprotunistic. There are several bloody corpses in the alley that appear to have been eaten in the begining of Silent Hill 1 and, a more stronger peice of evidence, the Dogs of Silent Hill 4 have been seen canibalizing on their own using their tongues in the manner a mosquito uses it's needle-like mouth, drawing fluids from the corpse.

Hope that helps.

To Anyone else: Feel Free to Correct any mistakes. I would hate to leave someone ill-informed.

Nice, that cleared a few things up for sure. See if the whole history was made a bit clearer that would help, cause all the vagueness surrounding its beginnings and stuff leaves a lot of loose ends. Maybe Origins might sort that out.

No Ape, I think you pretty much covered all of the bases in an accurate manner. But Breaka, the history is intenionally vague, so more SH games can be made to tell more of the story, and to get us, the consumers, hooked. It's just like RE in that matter: Reveal the story in bits and pieces, and let the player make judgements based on actions taken.

I love the cult, because they bring some mystery and depth to the story, and maybe they just seems to be evil eventhough they just wants to make the world better. But since they are so desperate about it they delluid themselves... Oh never mind im not very good at theories...

ilove whole silent hill it means that i lvoe cults monsters and everyting in sh ^_^

I hate them, like I hate any stupid fuck religion who uses their beliefs to inflict harm upon someone else.

Keep your religion to yourself.

I just hate cults in general. Especially cults that dismiss known facts and science. By that, I mean the scam that is Scientology. Fuck the cults! And I do include The Order in that sentiment!

No, I don't like the cult.
The religion itself is interesting, however.

I like the cult: for one reason.

Without them, none of us would be here.

^Well put, AD, in both your posts. I'm with you- no cult, no game, so love the cult.

Thank God for the cult.

Thank God for "God"

Haha.

Honestly, people like the cult annoys me so much because of all of their ignorance and obsession. But as Ape-Demon said- they are essential to the whole story line of not only the Silent Hill world, but other movies and entertainments.

Wait, so you are annoyed by people who like the cult, or the cult annoys you?

No, no- sorry about the misunderstanding. I dislike cult hungry fanatical people believing their religion is the only thing alive in this world and then when they do something horrible, they use their beliefs to justify what they have done. Like in the news some months ago, this fanatical Christian lady was accused of child abuse, but based her innocence on the bible ssaying it was alright to 'abuse' the child for punishment purposes. So again, sorry for the confusion.

Nothing to spice up the weekend like some good ol' fashion religious zealotry. But I guess its better than coming to Silent Hill to golf. Love 'em.

Heh...you could include almost every religion in that definition of "cult" then, except maybe Buddhism..

You are heading your way to a cult as a religion??

Wait.

Are we arguing the prescence of the cult in the game, or just the cult in general?
The cult in the game is necessary for the storyline, but no, they are not very nice.