An unpopular belief system is a cult. If it grows, a popular cult becomes a religion or an accepted worldview. What is the real difference between a cult and a religion? They say the simplest explanation or solution is likely correct. Let’s explore the differences and similarities.
What is a cult? It’s a group of people that embrace beliefs regarded by others as outlandish, strange, sinister, or evil. Of course, all Western religions fit this criterion. What could be more extreme than eating the flesh and drinking the blood of your imaginary friend?
You can be involved in a cult, even if it is not based on a religious ideology. Trump followers are often referred to as members of a cult. Why? Because they exhibit all the characteristics of a cult. They mirror the signs of the Third Reich of Germany. An unpopular belief system is a cult when it takes on the characteristics of a cult. Their excessive admiration for Trump and his extremist views distinguishes them from normal political party members.
How a Popular Cult Becomes a Religion
Most people do not choose their religious beliefs. They are born into them and are victims of forced indoctrination. People in crisis are also susceptible targets for indoctrination. When you are in crisis, you will accept easy answers.
Cults and religions are more vulnerable than ever. Imaginary friends and enemies are increasingly undefendable in the world of science and reason, which is increasing. The scapegoats created by political extremists don’t make sense.
Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. They thrive on servility and shrink before independence. Gods feed upon worship, as kings do upon flattery. That is why the cry of gods at all times is “Worship us, or we perish.” A dethroned monarch may retain some of his human dignity while driving a taxi for a living. But a god without his thunderbolt is a poor object. ― Chapman Cohen
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. — Robert A. Heinlein
Because cults and religions use the same tactics and have the same characteristics, it is hard to distinguish between those that are healthy and those that are dangerous.
How Cult Beliefs and Unorthodox Beliefs Differ
Unorthodox beliefs are ideas that differ from what most people think. They don’t harm anyone, and people can choose to believe them or not.
Cult beliefs, on the other hand, are often controlled by a leader who demands total loyalty. Cults isolate members from their families and friends, control their lives, and use fear to keep them in line.
So, unorthodox beliefs are just different ideas, while cult beliefs involve control and manipulation. Here’s an example:
Imagine two friends, Alex and Jamie, who both have unconventional beliefs. Alex believes in the healing power of crystals and practices meditation. Jamie recently joined a group that believes the world will end soon and that only their leader can save them.
While unorthodox, Alex’s beliefs are personal and don’t harm anyone. Although Alex enjoys discussing these ideas, he doesn’t pressure anyone to adopt them. Alex’s life remains balanced, with a healthy mix of work, social activities, and personal interests.
Jamie, however, finds their life dominated by the group’s beliefs. The leader demands absolute loyalty and discourages any contact with outsiders, including family and friends. Jamie is required to donate sizeable sums of money and spend most of their time recruiting new members. The group’s teachings are rigid, and questioning them is not allowed.
In this narrative, Alex’s unorthodox beliefs are a personal choice that enriches their life without imposing on others. Jamie’s involvement with the group, however, shows the hallmarks of a cult: authoritarian control, isolation, financial exploitation, and an “us vs. them” mentality.
Signs of an Unpopular Cult or Religion
Recognizing the signs of an unhealthy group can be crucial for protecting yourself and others. When a popular cult becomes a religion or an accepted worldview, it can shape the culture. Here are some common warning signs:
Cults often revolve around a charismatic leader who exerts an extraordinary influence over members. Jim Jones and Donald Trump are examples of cult leaders. The leader’s authority is unquestionable, and dissent is not tolerated.
Members isolate themselves from family, friends, and the outside world. They maintain a herd mentality. The group exerts control over many aspects of members’ lives, including personal relationships and finances. Members are exploited financially, emotionally, or physically.
Cults place a strong emphasis on recruiting new members and use lies and deceptive tactics to attract members. Cults create an “us vs. them” mentality, portraying outsiders as dangerous or evil. Fear and intimidation are used to maintain control and obedience. They promote unreasonable fears about the outside world, including conspiracies and persecution.
If you suspect someone might be involved in a cult, it’s important to approach the situation with care and seek professional advice.
An Unpopular Belief System is a Cult with Potential
Any combination of beliefs can become an umbrella for religious, political, or spiritual thought. Any system can become accepted through a series of changes.
First, it must have compelling, controversial, or inspirational ideas. A charismatic leader who can articulate these views and attract followers helps. As the movement gains popularity, more people join, and a community forms around these beliefs, providing social support and a sense of belonging.
The group develops rituals and practices that help reinforce their beliefs and create a shared identity. Over time, they document their beliefs and practices. Sometimes, these come from sacred texts or teachings, which help to formalize and spread the ideology.
As the group grows, it becomes more organized, establishing outlets and recruiting other leaders. This organization helps the belief system become more structured and stable, providing the basis for an accepted worldview.
Cults work hard to project different personas. Their outward appearance is always family-friendly, while the culture inside is often run like a strict military base. The goal is for the cult to integrate into the broader culture, influencing and being influenced by societal norms and values. Eventually, the system gains recognition and legitimacy from both its followers and external entities, such as governments or other religious groups.
Through these steps, an unpopular belief system can transform into an accepted worldview. Is the only difference between what people call religion and a cult the size of its membership? Are religions and cults at the opposite ends of a continuum of resources? Or are there other more meaningful ways to distinguish between them? Here is how some other thinkers see it.
The only differences between a cult and a religion are the numbers of adherents and the degree to which they are marginalized by the rest of society. — Sam Harris
Moral Purity as a Measure of Health
Could the measure of a healthy religion be how it treats those who aren’t members? That would disqualify all those who promote genocide, ethnic cleansing, and religious persecution. History shows us how a popular cult becomes a religion by using violence. The fact is the three largest religions all use these tactics to justify holy wars.
The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own. — Frank Zappa
Is Monetary Resources the Primary Difference?
If wealth is the standard between cult and religion, the Catholic Church is the winner. Its holdings of land, precious metals, and art comprise perhaps 30% of the total wealth on the planet. The Catholic Church has its own country/state, the Vatican. It is the largest cult seen as an accepted worldview.
A one-sentence definition of mythology? Mythology is what we call someone else’s religion. – Joseph Campbell
A delusion held by one person is a mental illness, held by a few is a cult, held by many is a religion. — Robert Todd Carroll
A cult is a religion with no political power. — Tom Wolfe
Religion is a superstition that originated in man’s mental inability to solve natural phenomena. The Church is an organized institution that has always been stumbling to block progress. — Emma Goldman
Is Social Mass and Political Control the Difference?
A dominant religion translates directly to political power because it can program the dominant cultural narrative. It’s the reason politicians campaign as members of a religion. People vote for others with the same imaginary friend because that is important in determining leadership.
I would say that Jesus Christ and his followers were a cult, Buddha and his followers were a cult, and Mohammed and his followers were a cult. Every religion starts out as a cult and if it becomes ‘box office’, it is accepted. — Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell
The Tactics of Cults and Religions
Capitalizing On Fear
Religions and most cults focus on just a few central themes. After-beliefs and end-times scenarios are popular for religions. Political cults often create scapegoats on which to focus hate and violence. Any group that is marginalized, like immigrants, people of color, and those with non-traditional lifestyles, are the prime targets.
First, politicians create, distort, or misrepresent a problem on which to blame the scapegoats. Then, they simply keep repeating the lies. They know the more they repeat, the more likely they are to be believed.
Religions do the same thing with fear. For example, they create the fear of eternal punishment in hell. But then they provide the solution, a beautiful eternal existence in Heaven. Of course, this solution comes at a small price. You must remain in “good standing,” which takes ten percent of everything you earn and own. You must attend regular meetings to submit to continued indoctrination so that you can be used as a social and political tool.
The profoundly cynical premise of all religionists is that people are not capable of behaving decently toward one another unless they are lured with promises of pie in the sky and simultaneously terrorized by the threats of extreme nastiness in the eternal afterlife in hell. — Barbara G. Walker
Extremist political movements and religious cults know how a popular cult becomes a religion or an accepted worldview through leveraging fear.
Religions Provide Proofs for Mythology
An unpopular belief system is a cult that shares all the common traits of an accepted religion. One of the main similarities is their basis in superstition and mythology, which sometimes manifests as conspiracy theories.
Both have doctrines and dogma. The most popular beliefs all have some divinely inspired texts. But texts also contain multiple inconsistencies. These contradictions require explanations, so they hire salespeople, whom they call preachers and priests, to help sort out the confusion.
The dilemma of textual inconsistency also provides an excellent financial opportunity. Since there are inconsistencies, you can cherry-pick parts of their holy texts to create a new religion. These inconsistencies lead to the growth of different denominations.
Today, there are over 6,000 major gods and 200,000 sub-classifications of religions (1), from one to several hundred imaginary friends. Christianity alone now sports 33,000 sects. If you belong to one sect of the Abrahamic tree, all the other sects are unpopular religions. Of the 8 billion people on Earth, 4 billion belong to Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. These are Semitic or Abrahamic religions (2).
If you ask the devotees of the Abrahamic religion if they think their faith is a cult, they will tell you no. If you ask them if other religions are cults, they answer yes. This includes other Abrahamic religions. Any different interpretation of their beliefs is a threat to their sect. We are all going to hell in someone else’s religion.
It’s hard to change the hardline believer mindset. You can’t use reason or logic and convince them of the facts.
You can’t use reason to convince anyone out of an argument that they didn’t use reason to get into. ― Neil deGrasse Tyson
Systems of religious error have been adopted in times of ignorance. It has been the interest of tyrannical kings, popes, and prelates to maintain these errors. When the clouds of ignorance began to vanish, and the people grew more enlightened, there was no other way to keep them in error but to prohibit their altering their religious opinions by severe persecuting laws. In this way, persecution became general throughout Europe. — Oliver Ellsworth
Religion is misunderstood mythology. — Joseph Campbell
Religion is a Mind Game
A political group or religion often exerts its control over society by labeling and “demonizing” opposing worldviews. If you don’t belong to their religion, you are given some labels to describe your position “in reference to” their religion. You are a heathen, which means someone who doesn’t follow their religion. So, it follows suit: they refer to you as a pagan, infidel, or idolator. Because if you don’t follow their religion, you worship idols or imaginary enemies they call devils.
Or, worse yet, you can be labeled a heretic, a person practicing what they call heresy, an opinion that ignores and opposes their beliefs. How dare you do that? Speaking ill of their God is blasphemy because such language offends their imaginary friend.
Today, the term for unbelievers and non-followers is the atheist, which means “without God.”
This terminology is intended to demonize anyone who says anything bad about their beliefs. The opposite of religion isn’t someone without God but a freethinker who walks their spiritual path. It doesn’t mean without spirituality but without counterfeit spirituality of organized religion. Joseph Campbell calls this adventure the Hero’s Journey. (3)
You don’t need a religion. All you need are the proper tools to assist you in this quest. Here’s a simple list of resources to help propel your spiritual walk without religion.
Final Thoughts
Spiritual exploration does not require belief in any set or form of mythology or dogma. Therefore, practicing these tools is often called a “path.” The goal of this path is to explore consciousness. What you believe does matter, and your beliefs have consequences.
Many people argue that an unpopular belief system is a cult, so we should just ignore it. But this proves to be a mistake. Cults are like cancer. Cults grow and ultimately destroy those involved.
Religion is a cult with social mass, popularity, and significant monetary resources. It is important to learn how a popular cult becomes a force in the culture. We don’t want people to be caught up in the schemes.
The problem arises when people are immersed in groupthink manipulation. It turns them into devotees. A cult is just a cult, no matter who you venerate or worship. It’s a slippery slope that leads to extremist bias and religious prejudice. If you ascribe to a sect of popular organized religion, you most likely can’t see cult-like thinking, values, and behaviors. It all seems perfectly normal, but it is not.
References
(1) World Religions By Population, Wikipedia
(2) Abrahamic Religions, Wikipedia
(3) Joseph Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Wikipedia