Is there a difference between a religion and a cult?
1) “Cult pejoratively refers to a group whose beliefs or practices could be considered strange or sinister. The term was originally used to denote a system of ritual practices. The narrower, derogatory sense of the word is a product of the 20th century, especially since the 1980s, and is a result of the anti-cult movement, which uses the term in reference to groups seen as authoritarian, exploitative and possibly dangerous. The popular, derogatory sense of the term has no currency in academic studies of religions, where “cults” are subsumed under the neutral label of “new religious movement”, while academic sociology has partly adopted the popular meaning of the term.” Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult 2) “Sociologists have proposed various classifications of religious movements. The most widely used classification in the sociology of religion is the church-sect typology. The typology states that churches, ecclesia, denominations, and sects form a contin
