Whats the difference between a cult and a religion?
May 13, 2014 at 9:29 pm
(This post was last modified: May 13, 2014 at 9:36 pm by Rampant.A.I..)
(May 13, 2014 at 1:15 am)max-greece Wrote: Cult is to religion as puppy is to dog.
This. /thread.
The popular definition for "cult" is "group of people sharing a culturally normative set of odd beliefs," whereas the definition of "cult" is "a group of people who share a set of uncommon beliefs."
A cult's beliefs only become normative the longer they're in operation and the more believers they amass.
If Scientology has originated several thousand years ago, and had become as culturally pervasive as Christianity is now, their beliefs would seem normative.
The only reason the "cult" designator seems to apply to Scientology is their belief system is outside the cultural norm.
That's it. As atheists, this should be a recognizable difference.
There's nothing more absurd in the doctrine of Scientology than there is in Christianity, the only difference is Christian beliefs seem more mundane because of their pervasiveness.
