What's the difference between a religion and a cult?

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There is no difference except the subjective ones - if you're inside the group it's a religion, but from the outside it's a cult.

You could get technical about openness to outsiders and tolerance of diversity, but - cult or religion - they're going to tell you unbelievable things and expect you to believe them. I've always liked the story about the birth of Islam - Mohammed staggered from his cave crying "God is God, and I am his prophet"

People heard and said to each other "God is God, and Mohammed is his prophet".

Of course, that's a glib interpretation, the Sufi, for example, stick fairly close to the original version.

Do you consider this to be an unbelievable story?

There is nothing unbelievable about it. People have staggered out of caves proclaiming that God spoke to them, since God invented dirt. What is unfortunate is that Mohamed (Pus and Blisters Upon Him) was able to convince so many people that what he claimed he heard was the Truth. There is a direct line between the day Mohamed (Pus and Blisters Upon Him) staggered out of the cave and 9/11/2001.

ruveyn

religions idealise immortal deities and cults idealise mortal entities.

Devout Pauline Christians proclaim that Jesus is both Man and God. Orthodox Judaism makes the Commandments the central entity.

ruveyn

Insulting the Muslim prophet like that is something you can only do online.

There are (at least) two different meanings of the word. In common usage, the symbol {cult} is used to represent groups that use coercive mind-control techniques on their members. Among anthropologists and some religious scholars, symbol {cult} refers to a group with minority status - newer/smaller than other groups.

I also do it in person. I have no couth. Why should I respect a goat-herding pederast?

ruveyn

About a hundred years.

there is none

religion=cult

1. Abusive treatment of people - God killed people left, right, and center in the the old testament, not to mention the wars caused by religion, and the killing of women who people thought where witches.

2. Authoritarian rule, non-democratic, removes free choice - The Catholic church used tourtue during the middle ages to convert pagans to christanity. Free thinking such as ideas outside of religion was considered work of the devil (hard-core catholics actually believe that it was the devil that placed dinosuar bones in the earth)

3. Use of power, fear, intimidation, and manipulation to control - The taliban used all of these methods to control people.

4. Thrives in secrecy - I am sure that the vatican has a treasure trove of secrets, but won't reveal them because it wants to keep it's grip on the people.

5. Demands a complete break from family, friends and life deemed to be a bad influence - God was a bad influence on Abraham by making him attempt to kill his son. (I don't care what people say, this is one of the sickest stories in the bible)

6. God-like leader - Well, god is god.

7. Usually demands considerable amounts of money from its members - Many religions, catholic and scientology just to name a few, have lots of money, but don't pay taxes.

Overall religion and cults are the same, people don't consider religions like judaism, christianity, islam, ect. cults because they are just used to them and they have been around for thousands of years, but new stuff like scientology is very easy to target as a cult even though it is offically recognized as a religion. Paganism has been seen as a cult because of it's history of being alienated by the major religions, dispite paganism being much older then them.

People gathering every sunday in a building, singing and praying to a god in unison..... sounds like a cult to me.

http://rickross.com/faq.html

This is from the Rick Ross website. Hope it helps.

good on you. that's what i should have said. rather than being verbose.

Go to church for yourself and get some actual experience before shooting your mouth off.

I was dragged to church up until I was 14, so I know what it is like. It is the most boring, repetitive, place I have ever been to. Everyone sings and recites the psalms like zombies. It's a cult, I gave my reasoning in my last post.

The ONLY church I know of that isn't so much like a cult is the Salvation Army. They tend to celebrate, rather the recite scriptures.

The fact that you did not like it and had a rather childish reaction does not make it a cult. You wouldn't know a cult if it bit you in the ass.

This is personal.