How would you define the word "cult"?

Question

Please use your own personal definition (no wiki quickies!).

Can you give some examples?

Answer 1

Cult is what the larger religious group calls the smaller one . That's all a cult is , a religion with a smaller fallowing . All religions are cults to me .

Answer 2

Any organization that fronts itself as a "religion," but is just a cover-up for a money making scheme. Some religions have become cult-like, and some cults have taken on religious aspects, but if it remains mostly about connecting with a higher power I think it is a religion, however weird and strange it may be.

Answer 3

A cult is an organization that warps what the Bible says to fit their own wants and needs. Sometimes it is done innocently, at other times it's not. Take Jim Jones for instance. He molested children and caused hundreds to take their own lives. The Bible doesn't condone things like that. Then there are groups like the 7th Day Adventists whose biggest error is placing too much emphasis on a day that God created and not enough on God Himself. God rested on the Sabbath, but He did not say it was Sunday. It was the 7th day and we don't know for sure it was Saturday, which is what Adventists believe. So, like I said, there are innocent and not so innocent cults. Their common denominator is a warped believe in the Bible. If it's not in there, don't try to add it.

Answer 4

Blue Oyster Cult.

Answer 5

Any religion before it gains in size and become accepted by the general public as a religion. Size is the only reason big religions of today are not called cults...

Answer 6

The word "concept" confuses the subject as a results of fact we are speaking approximately faith, so it relatively is deceptive human beings into thinking that atheists have confidence something. it relatively is unquestionably purely the choice of concept. An atheist is one that denies the life of a deity/deities and does not worship any deity. when you consider that I even have seen yet another unsuitable opinion approximately atheists, if I had my druthers i'd additionally upload to the definition above, "...and that denial consists of each and every of the secondary characters linked with that deity". reason: some religious human beings straight away make a silly bounce and mistakenly think of that if atheists deny God they might desire to worship devil. i do no longer comprehend any atheist who worships something, no longer to show a mythological being believers made up.

Answer 7

A religious organization, a religious movement, or the followers of any one religion; in essence, a cult is a religion. That's what the word really means, and that's what it means to me.

Answer 8

Cult originally meant a formal kind of worship or veneration, involving ritual, like a church service.
Now it has come to mean a kind of disfunctional, abusively controling kind of religion that is not part of a mainstream religion (though it may be derived from one). It uses mind-control (brain-washing) techniques to some extent, and tries to isolate its members from outside influences.

Answer 9

Any group/person that attempts to control any other group or person's mind/money/will-power or opinions.

Pretty much any organization that demands conformity and does not allow for freedom of thought or freedom of will by any man/woman or child within the group.

Just guessing here?!?!

Answer 10

A misunderstood group, censored or negatively labeled by the mindless masses.