Not trying to offend anyone here, just a thought. But could it be one giant mainstream cult throughout the world? cult[ kuhlt ] noun 1. a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies. 2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult. 3. the object of such devotion. 4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc. 5. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols. 6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader. 7. the members of such a religion or sect. 8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific. Discuss.
Religion is all bullshit to me. I have no problem with other people believing what they want, just respect my view and I'll respect yours. Don't try and force your religion down my throat either.
There could be extreme sects that are cults. Like the Branch Davidians who did everything David Koresh told them to do no matter how crazy it sounded. But as a whole, no it is not a cult.
Sociologists describe cults as any established group that has practices, rituals, or norms to be upheld. So pretty much any group nowadays is a cult technically. Religions just take it to a whole new level because it affects many peoples' lifelong outlooks on life.
No, what separates most mainstream religion and cults isn't the beliefs, but the time that they've been around. I forget the actual progression, but the older and more established it gets, the less it seems "cult-ish". So, yeah, I suppose it was considered one at time obviously? But it's interesting to think about. EDIT: Damn, that was some seriousness ninjaness bro.
Its the most widely believed lie in history. It's all based on praying on the gullible and wishful thinking
But here's the thing. Christianity stems back to one person: Christ. Christianity directly merits religion. If you believe in Jesus and his ways then you must believe that organized religion is inherently good because he was a practicing Jew. If you do believe in Christianity then you are acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God. You cannot say that Christianity is a way of life without believing in the religious aspect of it because that's the whole driving force behind it. If you try to separate Christianity from religion what you are doing is making Jesus the biggest liar of all time. His legacy lives on for 2,000 years as being the son of god for over a billion followers. If you stick to Christianity you are either A) Religious, or B) Ignorant. I don't know about you, but I don't want to follow the ways of the biggest hypocrite of all time because separating religion from christianity makes Jesus a liar, which makes him a hypocrite, which makes him not the person he ever claim to be and the person you still claim him to be to this day. It logically does not work to separate religion from christianity. Now that doesn't mean to say you still can't say Jesus had a lot of great teachings and had much love to spread.
So other people don't believe their cults with their heart? You even say religion is a cult... Huh, I guess you're point of view must be the only possible and reasonable solution to everything. Haha, I don't even want to argue, I just feel like you contradicted yourself pretty hard for only two sentences... Unless you are a master level troll...