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

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The number of followers is the best conclusion I found. What's your guys' opinion on it?

Members of a religion are still able to function normally as rational human beings, members of a cult lack this capacity. Example: members of a cult might refuse medical treatment, or be forced into bizarre and harmful practices.

Would you consider Christian Science to be a cult, or any other religion that encourages prayer over medical treatment for that matter?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Science#Medicine

Scientology is undoubtedly a cult.

To me, there are very subtle differences between the two, so I will defer to the quote: "Cult is what the big church calls the little church."

Basically, it is just the social acceptability of a religious organization. Usually though, religious organizations become more socially acceptable when they have more members who function in society.

Yes. Christian Science, to my mind, is neither Christianity nor science.

Organization. If you can explain your religious views without coming off link a crank; that might be a religion...

Well Dictionary.com doesn't mention it, but my guess would be that at some point historically the word "cult" was a short form of "occult" and that it was a reference to their practices being secret, since the word "occult" means something like hidden or secret. And so although they're probably not defined that way now, at some point historically the distinction between cult and religion may have been a question of how secretive they were.

A religion is a cult with a bit more of civilization. A cult has a much higher emphasis on the exploitive side of its beliefs than a religion. But the number of followers also is important. However Scientology is said to be bigger than Caodai if we believe official numbers, yet I never heard the term cult for Cao Dai.

level of control... similar to the difference between a president and a military dictatorship.

You follow a religion, a cult follows you

this, plus religion doesn't require you to give them all your money. at least that's a definition I'd heard.

A religion is a cult that has outlived its founder.

ruveyn

L. Ron Hubbard is dead.

And scientology is a religion. You might not like it, but it is a religion and is protected by the first amendment.

The LSD religion started off as a cult and it became a religion after the death of Brigham Young.

ruveyn

A cult is a heavily corrupt religion of a small size.

All Religions then fall on a spectrum of corruption. They range from heavily corrupt (examples include the medieval catholic church, Islamic extremism, televangelists, and Scientology) to a pure faith (scholarly Islam, some Christian groups, ect.). A corrupt religion is after wealth and power while a pure faith honestly believes and follows what they preach even within the leadership. In most cases if everyone held and practiced a pure faith then most of the problems we experience in our world would be gone.

In case your wondering a pure faith (or at least something that's more toward that end of the spectrum) is called "nondenominational" on a small scale.

i think there is no difference other than what zorp said plus number of years in existence.

most of us have become accustomed to the major religions and take them for granted. although not taking them for granted is kind of trendy now.

many religions are dangerous and some more so than others. we tend to think cults are far more dangerous than religions.....or that cults are dangerous and religions aren't.

from my perspective, cults and religions, are basically equally dangerous for the same reasons.....and differ only in age of existence and number of followers.

as for scientology, i find their skepticism and dislike of the medical profession to be a breath of fresh air. but the fact that they charge exhorbitantly for their scant insights is appaling. if devotion to a financial parasite floats your boat.... whatever...

religious fanaticism isn't a healthy thing whether it's due to a religion or a cult. and a major religion can act very cult-like when some of its members become unhinged....and when the acts of those unhinged members are applauded by the more rational elements of said religion or cult, then the entire enterprise has gone to hell in a handbasket.

Cult or religion? It sounds like a continuum to me with cults at one end and organised religion at the other with various cult/religions somewhere in between. Principle criteria must be number of followers. It can't just be that some are more harmful than others - just look at Islam for example, it isn't exactly a benign religion especially towards women or minorities and just look at how many lives are lost in its name.