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 Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:50 pm
Is your religion a cult? Is mine? Well, what do you think makes a cult? Is it a charismatic leader? Is it the texts? Is it the fact that you worship a god/goddess, not in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic type? What do you think a cult, really means?
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Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:29 am
i believe the difference between a religion and a cult is simply the number of people who follow it, but a religion can have cults within it... or something like that
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Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 2:12 pm
I think it depends on a person's perspective. A religion may be a cult to one person and yet not one to another. It all depends on how a person defines the word "cult."
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Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 1:35 pm
American Heritage Dictionary cult (kŭlt) pronunciation n. a. 1. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader. 2. The followers of such a religion or sect. b. A system or community of religious worship and ritual. c. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual. d. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease. e. 1. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing. 2. The object of such devotion. f. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest. Under that definition, any organized religion or even just a group sharing an unusual interest that's not religious in nature, is a cult! eek I suppose the usual connotation of the word, however, incorporates the "faddish" and "obsessive" and "authoritarian" ideas. Personally, I rarely if ever use the word. I have some unusual and very idiosyncratic ideas myself, and I don't want to label anyone else's spirituality or enthusiasms with a word that's so generally taken in a very negative way. Although I would be tempted to label the ideas of people who want to hasten a horrific armageddon as... um... not nice.
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 9:35 pm
I think, what defines a cult, is a religion that 'traps' you. I'm not very good at describing myself, but...I'll try. >>;;
What I mean by 'trapping you', is that, when a religion tells you you can't eat for an unreasonable amount of time, you can't help others in need, you can't accept methods to prolong your life, you have to do physical harm to yourself, you have to marry at a very young age, you can't choose who you marry...(yadda, yadda, I'm sure you get the idea...) and that, if you do do those things (or don't, depending on the thing listed. >>;; ) that you will, without a doubt, be damned for all eternity.
Bascily, controlling people's lives. Telling them everything that they can, and cannot do. Telling them that they have to follow their leader's exact orders, or they'll be damned.
I'm sure there are other ways of defining cults, as well, and I'm sure my ideals are rather general, and what most people think, but, that's what I feel.
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