cults vs religion

I grew up as a Seventh-Day Adventist, one of the Christian denomenations regularly deemed a 'cult', and I always understood 'cult' to meen a group that venerated a person or thing rather than God. I know that's a fairly Christian-looking-at-non-Christians viewpoint, but if that is the difference then Christianity by definition is a cult. Christians venerate Christ. He was a dude. So they're a cult. Protestants refered to Catholics as 'The Cult of the Virgin' during the reformation. And Adventism was dubbed a cult because the founder (Ellen White) believed she was a prophet of God, and she is sometimes venerated, although she's not supposed to be doctrinally. Because of the high stock Adventists put in her writing (most believe she is infallible) Adventism was written off as a cult for many many years.

in 1844 Uriah Smith (early Adventist) interpretted the prophocies in Danial 7 and Revalation 12 to point to October xx, 1844 as the date for the coming of Christ, and just like the afformentioned cult, Ol' JC was a no-show. He should really pay attention when we tell him to come so we don't end up loooking so stupid! ;)

Hi, I'm new here. I just chanced upon this thread. I was doing a research on cults. I'v not gone through all the topics, but on the theological arguments going on here, I noticed is centered mainly on the Judea-Christian concept of what God is. There is another concept of God that is not anthropomorphic, more cosmological like that of The Force in Star Wars. In the ancient Hindu tradition in particular all deities are mere representationals of the divine that is beyond understanding (transcendental). That's why it's not uncommon for some hindus to worship objects, people or animals they deem are worthy representations of the divine. When they bow to a guest in the house or pay respect to a stone or give reverrence to a cow, a westerner will find it buffling or backward. God as an emanation of the life force that is all within us and in all matters in that respect, that I may not have a problem believing, or even illogical. But for a person who governs the whole universe and at the same time will seek us among these billions and billions of galaxies to interfere in our human affairs, that maybe too far-fetched. I cannot be that too arrogant to believe in it.

I previously posted this in the wrong thread, I apologize. It's difficult to find your way back here, the search tool is too general. This is my intended thread not the respect for religion.

Yea, I live in Oregon and they sprayed salmanilla tainted water or something all over a salad bar at Izzys pizza. Lots of people got very sick, but not as sick as the mind that invented the idea. I think that group would be a classic definition of the word cult.

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Originally Posted by sunglider

Hi, I'm new here. I just chanced upon this thread. I was doing a research on cults. I'v not gone through all the topics, but on the theological arguments going on here, I noticed is centered mainly on the Judea-Christian concept of what God is. There is another concept of God that is not anthropomorphic, more cosmological like that of The Force in Star Wars. In the ancient Hindu tradition in particular all deities are mere representationals of the divine that is beyond understanding (transcendental). That's why it's not uncommon for some hindus to worship objects, people or animals they deem are worthy representations of the divine. When they bow to a guest in the house or pay respect to a stone or give reverrence to a cow, a westerner will find it buffling or backward. God as an emanation of the life force that is all within us and in all matters in that respect, that I may not have a problem believing, or even illogical. But for a person who governs the whole universe and at the same time will seek us among these billions and billions of galaxies to interfere in our human affairs, that maybe too far-fetched. I cannot be that too arrogant to believe in it.

I previously posted this in the wrong thread, I apologize. It's difficult to find your way back here, the search tool is too general. This is my intended thread not the respect for religion.

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If God is an cloud of electron particles covering the entire universe then, OK. But if He is such, then why would he care if Bob got married to Tim?

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Originally Posted by baddad

Language is of course powerful enough to designate positive or negative connotations. The word cult has a less than stellar etimology in North America. Cult has come to mean other than rational......

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What's the thing between 'cult' and 'occult'?

A cult is a religious group that is not recognized as a legitimate religion.
Jesus and his followers would have been considered a cult in their time. The same with Mormans.

I agree I mean religion and killing people and everyone has a right to their opinionsbut when someone goes out and starts killing people its time to well put thoose lunatics away because whether they believe that god is telling them to do it or whatever in the bible it isnt ok to kill

The difference between a cult and religion is a very thin line that is unfortunately easily crossed. I term a cult as any group of religious people who think that they and they only are right. To my way of thinking, when you have it all figured out, you can be certain of only one thing—you're wrong. Nobody and no group have the answers to everything. Even science will not be so arrogant as to claim that they know it all. They are sure that there must be a rational explanation for everything, but they will also tell you that in many cases they have yet to find one. God as an all-knowing being I can accept. Any group of people as all knowing, I wouldn’t give a chance. We grow, we learn, and we strive for that perfection. We learn from the mistakes we make along the way. Tell me you have perfection now, here on this Earth, and I will not believe you.The Clay is still in the hands of the Potter.

God Bless

Pen

I think that a cult is one which believes itself to be legitimate and for the purpose of establishing that which is good, but by ridding the world of that which is evil by not-so-legitimate means. The KKK tried to get rid of blacks b/c they thought they were evil and had sold their souls to the devil, which seemed to be a legitimate reason, and they ran around in black hoods and burned houses to get rid of them. That would be a cult.
A religion on the other hand, also seems to believe itself legitimate and to est. what is good, but instead of destroying the bad, converting it.

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Originally Posted by sunglider

Hi, I'm new here. I just chanced upon this thread. I was doing a research on cults. I'v not gone through all the topics, but on the theological arguments going on here, I noticed is centered mainly on the Judea-Christian concept of what God is. There is another concept of God that is not anthropomorphic, more cosmological like that of The Force in Star Wars. In the ancient Hindu tradition in particular all deities are mere representationals of the divine that is beyond understanding (transcendental). That's why it's not uncommon for some hindus to worship objects, people or animals they deem are worthy representations of the divine. When they bow to a guest in the house or pay respect to a stone or give reverrence to a cow, a westerner will find it buffling or backward. God as an emanation of the life force that is all within us and in all matters in that respect, that I may not have a problem believing, or even illogical. But for a person who governs the whole universe and at the same time will seek us among these billions and billions of galaxies to interfere in our human affairs, that maybe too far-fetched. I cannot be that too arrogant to believe in it.

I previously posted this in the wrong thread, I apologize. It's difficult to find your way back here, the search tool is too general. This is my intended thread not the respect for religion.

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Your "too busy with other things" argument is very common, but it's indefensible. God is outside time (time is illusory) He can take as long as He wants to govern all things, He is also far more powerful than a person, and present everywhere, so it is not even difficult for Him to govern all things at once.

It's my opinion that cults are religions that don't represent a large enough voting block.

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Originally Posted by Unbeliever

It's my opinion that cults are religions that don't represent a large enough voting block.

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Many large, established religions would no doubt agree with you. Yet there are a few large established religions usually given the name of "cult." People still seem to think that they hold the power of judging one another. Like I said, when you have all the answers, you might want to double check everything. Nobody has all the answers. One who thinks he or she does is delusional.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l1.../PuppyLove.gif

Culture, cult and religions are integrally one thing.

The transformation of the word "cult" from describing an association worshipping a particular god (ancient Egypt, imperial Rome) to a normative term applied to an association of people manipulated by a religious figure, is interesting.

"Sect" seems to avoided this transformation somewhat and is still applied in a neutral sense to a subset of a larger religion that emphasizes some dogma over others while still subscribing to all of them.

A cult is not necessarily negative.