Cult is like a gathering of people right, all like-minded, but keeping their activities in secret. I couldn't tell you what religion is, I'm too confused over the definition of it...
IMO. Not a lot. But One ( religion ) has through lies, fear, manipulation ...... Seems to have become accepted as a truth..... Somehow. To a few poor deluded souls. IMO Religion.... The best way for making good people do wicked things.
A cult is a kind of religious off-shoot. It usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre.
final answer: its an ambiguos term, often used by the establishment to discredit and neutralize groups that are a threat to global corporate cohesion. Overlooked Cult in modern times: Corporations of every major industry across the USA
A cult is usually a small organization of people who devote themselves to a figure or object. They often have religious ties but are looked upon as sinister or abnormal. A religion is generally a large group of people who devote their lives to a supreme Deity(s). The religious folk normally follow dogma. There are differences, but a lot of religions are merely cults.
Cults get negative press for being extreme, while religion gets a free pass cause the tv station owner also happens to be a godhead. But all religions are a cult, very big cults with lots of buying power. The power to buy pro religion messages in movies and books, by buying members of congress and the presidential cabinet, tv adds, everything.
To a mainstream Christian, any group that doesn't believe in the Trinity is a cult. To an orthodox Jew, any group that adheres to Hasidism or Kabbalah is a cult. To many people, Scientology and the Unification Church is a cult. Pretty much what granny said applies: if you belong to a group, it's not a cult. If you're an outsider to that group, you probably very well could apply the "cult" label to them.
And it's not just the religious that are cults, think about the corporations, the mass media, the politicians not just on the right, but on the left. Fuck man, every mainstream organization has a private side, which makes them practically cults. I mean, I believe in God, but what everyone is doing on TV, and shit like that is just beyond me. It's all trying to control your perspective, trying to tell you how to think, how to feel. Fuck it all, fuck all corporations, corrupted churches, politicians, US government, and especially the Mass Media! I mean come-on, back in the third reich, they had a psychologist handle propaganda for their extremist cult. It's all fucked up. I'd stay out of mainstream living and pick up the old ways. But it's hard making that transition. Being that you have to know exactly what you are going to do, and how to do it, before doing it. Otherwise you'd just fuck yourself.
Cult = religion that is not accepted or recognized by general public. Religion = cult that is accepted and recognized by general public. This is the best definition I have ever been able to come up with.
Okay so what qualifies a cult for being accepted and recognized by the general public? According to my knowledge the devotion to a deity versus a person or object is what causes a division between the two.
I guess when people start calling it a religion. If you think about it, all religions start off as cults, once they become "big" enough then they are recognized as actual religions. You could say there is a difference in legitimacy as well, but what qualifies a religion as being legitimate?
I don't think quantity qualifies a cult as a religion. Look at the mormon cult, it's recognized by the public as a cult over an actual religion. For me, it's the ritualistic aspect which makes a cult a cult or a religion a cult. I find that cults teach if you're a good person and obey the deity or person in control you will receive salvation or some benefit. Nothing qualifies a religion as being legitimate lol
Apparently, the third definition is what comes to anybody's mind, when they think of cults.... But in all honesty. I think everyone has a religion as long as they have a goal, judging by the forth definition and the nature of it. I guess hating religion so much and wanting to eradicate it, is its own religion...
Sounds like most all religions. I see a correlation between the size of a religion and it's perception by outsiders to be pretty consistent. It may not be the deciding factor in determining whether or not a religion is a "cult", but it definitely seems to belong to a steady pattern. Wasn't Christianity seen as a cult when it was founded? Now it is the most popular religion. Maybe longevity also matters.
But thinking of the context the OP used, is now making me question, why religion being considered a cult is a bad thing. Did he not just make a play on words? But thinking about the origin of the word, makes me consider that there was a bias coming from somewhere when the word was added to the English dictionary. Was this bias seeded by the religious or anti-religious? For both have been considered dogmatic from either side, and from the nonreligious standpoint, both are very dogmatic....