A Cult Or Some One's Religion  

When I was younger, I was raised Christian, went to a private Christan school, and attended church. I never felt like I fit it with anyone there.

I think that religion has become a barrier between different peoples. If everyone were not religious for a day, what would they do differently? What would change from day to day if they lived like this?

Some people find religion to be a difficult topic to talk about, but only when you feel like you will be judged for your decision. I personally do not believe in any higher power. I believe in a sense of greater good.

Now, the definition of cult, a system of religious belief for one figure or object, simply describes any religion, therefore, yes. Every religion could and possibly is labeled a cult.

The line, I think, is in the devotion. Are you allowed to talk to your family or friends outside teh relgion? Do you all have to live together and only do the things that are to the religion/cult? Not every religion can be labeled a cult because a cult is something very negative where you are pratically brainwashed and eventually will die in it (unless you are one of the lucky few who get out).
My friend went to Africa on a missions trip with her christian church and decided not to come back. In reality, she joined a cult over in Africa that was not connected t the mission she was on nor the Christian group she went with. She is now not allowed,by cult rule, to contact her family over here, she was forced to shave her head and she is used as a s3x slave, etc. It is horrible. That, my fellow mylotter and friend, is not religion but a cult.

I've always defined a cult as any organization or set of beliefs that exercised a tyrannical level of control over its members. And it's not just relegated to religions. Any group can be a cult.

You know you're in a cult when the group members seek to control your actions and thoughts through coercion and threats, either implicit or explicit. Questioning is discouraged, as well as criticism. Cults often portray those outside the cult as evil and wrong and often work to minimize their member's contact with those on the outside.

If you belong to a church or group that doesn't do that, then it's not a cult.

It's a conjugated noun: I have a faith, you have a religion, they have a cult.

I believe and have proved that there are some religions,that are connected to occult or cult activities. Some religions are also a mixture of cult and occult.

Yes, getting down to the bare bones I think every man-made religion is a cult in the sense that you have a particular person who’s like a leader and others are expected to follow him without question and subscribe to his notions of God and religion and way of life. In that sense, I guess Hinduism is not a cult simply coz I know of no person who’s supposed to have started this religion. I don’t say this coz I’m a Hindu myself but as far as the definition of cult goes, I truly feel that Hinduism or all other ancient ‘pagan’ religions were not cults. They had/have their saints and priests and religious leaders but they all preach and speak from within the ambits of that particular religion i.e. if you don’t like or follow one saint, you have another to look for guidance. Of course there are monasteries founded by many saints and they all have their own followers (which makes it a cult for the followers of that particular sect) but its all within the religion itself, not something new or not something different from what other Hindus have been practicing for ages

I think every religion, before it organizes itself passes through this stage; we know as cult. In every branch a new shoot develops. It takes another path different to the original one. New spa begins to flow in it. It develops new leaves and then one day it turns into a full-fledged branch itself. It is the same with cult. It is a new age religion in making. None must abhor it, because one day it would develop into a full-fledged religion like your own with wide following. Christianity too went through this stage. May be followers of ancient Judaism initially thought Christianity too is a cult.

Hi gewcew, There really is no difference, if you would check the definition, you would find that all religions could be called a cult. Blessings.