Whats the difference between a cult and a religion?

Yeah, I agree.....seems that once a cult is a part of "acceptable" society it loses all the negativity associated with the word, in the main anyway.

Jehovah's Witness' has a very popular following in my neck o' the woods as well.....but then this is the country that has allowed Jedi Knight to be a formally recognised religion.....so make of that wot yer will

 

I heard from someone that to become a religion, a cult has to have at least a thousand followers and their leader must die....which explains ow cults like christianity and scientology became religions

 

religions get tax breaks
cults dont

 

in my understanding, a cult is something thats realativly new, while a religon is well established

 

In a definition I'm borrowing (read: ripping off wholesale) from Tom Wolfe, a cult is a religious organization (which is often, but not necessarily, theological) that has little or no political influence.

Seems to work. Our intuitions are probably that, say, the Catholic Church, whatever else it is, isn't a cult. Meanwhile, Heaven's Gate and Ayn Rand's Objectivists are each cults.

'Cult', to me, is not a derrogatory term (at least I don't use it that way). It's merely descriptive.

 

by the way people use the word "cult" today, you would think that the difference between the two would be that "cults" are not socially acceptable while "religion" is

 

You can religiously feed your dog.

Most organized religion I regard as a cult.

 

i always classified a cult as " a group (religous or otherwise) with no set doctrine and an all-powerful leader."

basically a group that some guy/girl can mold to his/her will, whenever s/he feels like it
peace and love

 

I think a cult is a group of people who follow someone, and a religion is a set of beliefs and a denomination is a smaller set of beliefs within a religion. There is a lot of confusion abot Christianity, a lot of people claim to be christian but know nothing about Christ. They have turned it into a bunch of meaningless strict pointless rituals, like going to church. Going to church does not make you a christian and it has nothing to do with Christ.

 

So since a religion is a set of beliefs (and rules) then what you
are saying is that Christianity became a religion but started as a cult (buncha people following someone).

I think it still is, just a bigger one, with more rules.

 

Exactly.

[/QUOTE]I think it still is, just a bigger one, with more rules.[/QUOTE]Only some people dont even care about following Jesus anymore they just do the going to church being homophobic thing, completely bastardizing the cult because its the socially acceptable thing to do, and all the while they call themselves Christians which gives the real followers of Christ a bad name. It is disgusting.

 

numbers

 

Chr1st was G0d!!! d0n't f0rget that

 

I think it should only matter if it is a dangerous cult, like requiring members to kill themselves or harm other people.

 

Religions are just really old cults

 

The difference? Cults admit it.

 

^not necessarily. Have you ever tried to get a scientologist to admit to being in a cult?

Religions are just really powerful cults, and have more members.

 

The term "cult" has its etymology in the term "culture" it is an abbreviation.
Christianity is a cult, Islam is a cult, Hindu, and all those religions are cults.
Your own family is a cult. A cult is simply an organised body of people
with a shared interest. Whether it is a religious culture or not will be typified by whether they worship some higher being or are a ritualistic group. There are cults which are not religious - cult of the dead cow for example - a hacking cult.
why new ways of organising people are commonly referred to today as "a cult" is simply organised politics defending itself against new cultures emerging. The abbreviation is a way to undermine the status of the group being attacked as "culture" nowadays defines a large group but "cult" seems to imply "small and possibly misguided"
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I really like this NaturaAtraSpiritus, did you make this up?
or where did it come from?

 

well it's already been said

cult = someone else's religeon someone else's religeon = cult

baha'u'llah said "when two people argue about religeon the're both wrong"

ok, i'm not currently a baha'i in my heart either, i'm not convinced anything needs to be infallable. if something is or isn't, well i don't think anyone knows that either.

it all comes from one place, and if that one place is anyone's idea of god or gods or even if it isn't, well it, meaning all beliefs, all mystic uplift the heart, it's that same spark, within you without you

the lines people draw, trying to judge what we cannot judge, what is not ours TO judge, the only line is to avoid causing suffering

=^^=
.../\...

 

There is no difference. Religion is a cult and a cult is a religion.