Did you know...?

Question

...That not every religion that isn't Christianity is a cult?

Did you know that in the early days of the church, they were indeed considered to be a dangerous brainwashing cult?

Can someone give me the sociological definition of "cult"?

^_^ heh heh.

Answer 1

Don't cha know?

Every god for sakened little heathen.........wait....what? christianity a brain washing cult? NEVER!!!

Cult = crazy people!

Answer 2

A cult is a group of people who share the same beliefs. Using this actual definition, ALL religions are cults. The problem is that the connotation of the word is negative, even if the denotation is not. So people tend to freak out when they hear "cult", even though it's nothing bad.

Answer 3

Here is the definition from Webster's Dictionary:

1: formal religious veneration : worship
2: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents
3: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents
4: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator
5 a: great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b: the object of such devotion c: a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion

As you can see, most of these definitions would include Christianity and all other mainstream religions. That is why many people refer to mainstream religions as cults.

Answer 4

This word is generally used to mean a party in religion, differing in belief from the main body. There were several sects among the Jews in the days of Christ, the chief being, 1. The Pharisees or formalists; 2. The Sadducees or materialists; and 3. The Essenes, a sort of monastic body. Other divisions, as the Herodians and Zealots, were mainly political.

The religion preached by Christ and His disciples was frequently called a sect, for it was quite a number of years before it was extended to the Gentiles, and the Jews who embraced it were faithful to the major part of their ancestral faith." Crudence's Complete Concordance, p.573.

"Which is of the sect of the Sadducees..." Acts 5:17.

"the sect of the Pharisees..." Acts 15:5.

the apostle was accused of being "a ringleader of the sect of the Nazareens." Acts 24:5.

"but we desire to hear from you what you think; for concerning this sect, we know that it is spoken against everywhere." Acts 28:22.

The Random House College Dictionary definition:

cult: an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers: a cult of Napoleon; a group or sect bound together by devotion to or veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.

Answer 5

A religion is a cult for the first 100 years of its existence.

Answer 6

I tend to view any system that claims to have all the answers or a monopoly on truth as a cult. Since fundamentalists of most monotheistic religions claim to have the one absolute truth (though you might have aspects of it, but only insomuch as you agree with me), most of those fundamentalists are cultists. The more spiritual people generally think along the lines of "I follow this path, you follow that one, but we're still going to the same destination." For them, it's just a matter of vocab- I say "Tao" and you say "Id", but what does it matter?
But there definitely are non-cultist paths open, even in Christianity.

Answer 7

a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.
3. the object of such devotion.
4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
5. Sociology. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.
6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.
7. the members of such a religion or sect.
8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.

Hows that?

Answer 8

A cult would be for instance Christianity and all it's many thousands of sects.
It's a belief system that makes outrageous claims and demands on it's followers and society yet it has no evidence at all to back up the claims and demands it makes.

Answer 9

If you don't already know the sociological definition of a "cult" how can you announce that Christianity is not included?

Answer 10

A cult is a group that becomes more important than the individuals in it.
In effect it attempts to stop man's individual development of his mind, and only develop the groups interests.

Answer 11

A religion is your set of beliefs. A cult is the other guy's set of beliefs.