secular/nonreligious would get the best score I imagine !!

yes, give them a perfect 0/13 !!!!
well done the athiests here - take a bow !!!


I don't know enough about hindus, chinese or buddhists to rate them.
can anyone else do it ??

tallow - given being God or Gods son only applies to one person , I'ld think that one is just a shot at christians.
How does one become God/Gods son ??

perhaps the recent muslims would like to peruse this thread and give their input ??

Esp the posts from early october onwards

According to the indicators for a cult we have compiled, it has zippo to do with whence it came from.

What did the professor say about a belief some guy invented all by himself ??

Sprintcyclist wrote on Nov 14^th, 2008 at 10:07am:


A good bulk of the world religions have elements coming from previous religions. Christianity has aspects of Judaism and Roman practices, along with Platonic philosophy. Islam has aspects of both Christianity and Judaism, as well as some aspects of Aristotle's theories. Buddhism was a branch off of Hinduism, and has many aspects as that religion as well. Lutheranism, the example I used, has aspects of the Catholic faith it branched off from, but differs in certain beliefs which were present in Catholicism such as the validity of indulgences as tickets out of hell, and the infallibility of the Pope.

By the definition I was taught, cults have aspects of the religions they branched off from, but the leader of the cult had differences in ideas and opinions in certain areas.

For example, Muhammad (pbuh) believed in one superior God, which was acknowledged by many of his contemporaries, although the culture was also henonistic, meaning that worship of multiple gods was accepted along with the concept of an all powerful God, so his cult split off saying that there is only One God worthy of worship. This is similar to the Jewish mitzvah, commandment, that "thou shalt have no other gods before me [Adonai]".

The Shema which goes "Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheynu, Adonai Ehad" is very simular to the first verse of the 112th chapter of the Qur'an "Qul Huwa-Allahu Ahad" ("Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one" and "Say He is "Allah" - "the God" - he is one" respectively).

You guys are using the term "cult" in a very negative way, buying into the fear that certain "cultic" movements in the 60's, 70's and 80's created. I wasn't pretending to use the same connotation for the terms that had been discussed, and that's why I gave the definitions that I had been taught for them. I was only trying to show a different view on the topic being discussed.

I was only offering a different interpretation and use of the words cult and sect.

I cannot imagine that my professor would have been very impressed if she was asked a question by someone using such passive-aggressive phrasing as "a belief some guy invented all by himself." I am not very impressed either.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Nov 14^th, 2008 at 10:54am:


Like I said in my previous post, you're using the negative application of that term.

As for a cult "some guy invented by himself", I thought that I made it pretty clear from the definition I gave that cults branch off from other religions or faith traditions, at least according to the usage of the term I was applying.

Cult groups like the Heaven's Gate, Order of the Solar Temple, Peoples Temple, and the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God which had their members commit mass suicide are certainly negative forms of cult and match many of the features that have been brought up in this thread.

If those are the cults "some guy invented by himself" then I agree, they are bad, but they also have roots in other belief traditions.

i.e. Heaven's Gate had many gnotic aspects modernized with the belief in aliens and spaceships, Solar Temple had aspects of worship of astrological bodies (most of their mass suicides occured around equinoxes and solstices), Peoples Temple was a communist/socialist movement, and the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God was a split off from the Roman Catholic Church.

So my definitions still apply, the definition that you are using is a very one-sided look at only the negative manifestations of cults. Christianity was considered a cult in its day as well.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Nov 14^th, 2008 at 1:00pm:


I said from the start that the definition I was using was the one I was taught in my Comparative Religious Thought course and which is used in that field of study.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Nov 14^th, 2008 at 1:00pm:


Hmm.. I kind of get the impression that this scoreboard wasn't exactly the most unbiased...

By any chance, do you yourself happen to be atheist?

muso wrote on Nov 14^th, 2008 at 10:35am:


That just gave me Princess Bride flashbacks.

Emily the Muslim wrote on Nov 14^th, 2008 at 1:45pm:

Love the movie. A gem.
Indigo.