What is the difference between a Cult & Religion?

You have the example of Pedophiles in Church & the govt can do nothing to them
The only way these pedophiles are brought to court is by the victims dragging them to court
But that is not right - if pedophilia was going on in any other organization, the law can launch an investigation, jail everyone that is found guilty but in this case, the law can do nothing unless the victims step up & that too target individual pedophiles
What is horrifying is that we never hear from the parents of these kids when they are kids - why the parents did not drag these pedophiles to court? They were protecting religion over their OWN kids! That is horrifying!
We see no cases from heavily Catholic countries like Mexico and Philippines - the victims too intimidated in these countries to come forward

Sometimes it’s a good idea to poke around on a forum before engaging

I was curious because you posted an emotional response
I clearly laid out the similarities between the Nazis, Racists and what some religions preach
In India lower castes are told they cannot enter temples - God’s houses
and what these religions are doing is saying the same thing - billions will be “lower castes” - are told they cannot enter God’s House - Heaven
If I ask you, you will clearly state that what is happening to lower castes in India is wrong & yet you never considered what these religions are saying is wrong?

The ideas are really simple, right? If religion, belief alone matters then who we are as people does not matter, what we do in life does not matter. That condemns so many scientists - Einstein for example - science has given us so much - we dominate the planet because of it & these religions are saying none of that matters
And of course so many innocent people - entire families, women, children, even babies - will be tossed into hell?
Is that not wrong?

I don’t think you are being as calm and clear as you think you are.

Saying someone is going to hell is not the same as putting them in a gas chamber

It’s not EXACTLY the same - but the process is similar
People are not judged based on who they are as people, what they did in life
The Jew was a criminal simply by being a Jew
These religions posit that one is a criminal simply by their beliefs
So we may have an atheist who gives his life to save others, his country, in the line of duty and yet callously dumped into hell, whereas a believer gets to cry his way to Heaven
So we have entire families, women, children, even babies? being set apart based solely on belief and dumped into hell!
Is that not sickening? Callous? Evil?

We have so many incidents similar to this - Native Americans, Mayans, Armenians in Turkey, Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims in Myanmar - targeted and punished, killed, raped based on what? Just one factor - either their beliefs or being different
We do call these out - we do say this is pure evil
Until we get to religion when such ideas can be OPENLY promoted!

And BTW don’t you think gas chambers are LESS worse than Hell? Eternal torture or pain that ends quickly?

Scientology is still a cult, despite its size. Size isn’t a factor as to what makes a cult.

Only in your dreams. Why don’t you ask a Jew who’s been through it, if you can find one still.

As Lausten said, you really do need to poke around a forum before you start engaging in conversations. While there may be an Xian or two or three on the forum, maybe a Hindu or Buddhist, I don’t know, because I don’t ask, many of us on this forum call ourselves humanists, freethinkers, naturalists, atheists, non-theists, agnostics, non-believers, and other like terms.

What wonderful life of ease & comfort awaits us after death?

Really? And here I thought hell was an invention of the Church to control people and keep them as children because you can control children.

Well… the Episcopal Church did declare racism a sin in 1989. BTW, anyone who believes and worships Jesus is worshipping a man who was a Jew, with a dark complexion. The Jesus many people believe in is not the real man who lived during the settings of the myths written about him. He was not the man many have created in their minds and in painting.

As Robert M. Price said, if there ever was a historical Jesus, he was not the one written in the Bible. That is mythology.

I think hell is not real. So, yeah, the character god is evil sometimes.

Wars are fought for many reasons. Not usually good ones, but no need to over simplify

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I think it must be something like all religions are cults but not all cults are religions.

Time to liven up this thread
I wonder if Ginni Thomas has some words of enlightenment on the topic.

Or perhaps she can enlighten us on what happens to deculted cultists.

Just as an aside, here’s what this particular cultist has to offer our society:

They both are forms of control.Religion was behind all leaders and used as a form of control on the poor for thousands of years and worked well…In the early 20th centry Goverment had their own rules and methods and detached from the priesthood.Today instead of religion materialism is the new path to happyness replacing religion.Purchasing power will determine if you find happyness or not.You get instant gradification in your purchases.This is a constuct created by us.You can’t see it if you can’t free your mind from the controls.
The real problem and why millions are on antidipressents is humans have lost their connection to nature.This new system of buy and sell will not work.
If man wants to heal he needs to reestablish the connection to nature and start retoring nature on the planet.

Thanks for dropping by Peter61.

Well said, hope you don’t mine me adding a little additional reading for those who doubt.

Well okay guess it’s not the majority, still, it’s good part of trump faithful 30%ers, and we know how destructive they’ve been to American government and America’s social fabric.

Prosperity Gospel Taught to 4 in 10 Evangelical Churchgoers

Survey finds most Protestants believe God wants them to prosper financially. But views diverge on whether they must tithe to receive it.

BOB SMIETANA - FACTS & TRENDS | JULY 31, 2018 - christianitytoday.com

For some Americans, dropping a check into the offering plate at church is a bit like having a Discover Card.

Both offer a cash-back bonus.

About a third of Protestant churchgoers say their congregation teaches that God will bless them if they donate money.

Two-thirds say God wants them to prosper. One in 4 say they have to do something for God to receive material blessings in return.

Those are among the key findings of a new studyon “prosperity gospel” beliefs from Nashville-based LifeWay Research …

Google: Prosperity Doctrine


Of course, it’s not like the non-religious are any better regarding their total faith in materialism über alles mindset these days, as a close look at any magazine section demonstrates.

I accidently deleted my post being new.

But I do want to add this new " Gospel of prosperity" fit right in with or buy and sell system offering the same happiness so they are getting compeditive with the system.