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The term "cult" first appeared in English in 1617, derived from the French culte, meaning "worship" which in turn originated from the Latin word cultus meaning "care, cultivation, worship". The meaning "devotion to a person or thing" is from 1829. Starting about 1920, "cult" acquired an additional six or more positive and negative definitions.
Destructive cult is a term frequently used by the anti-cult movement. [18] Members of the anti-cult movement typically define a destructive cult as a group that is unethical, deceptive, and one that uses "strong influence" or mind control techniques to affect critical thinking skills. [32]
[4] [11] [7] Benton Johnson simplified the definition of sect and church and based it on a single variable: the degree of acceptance of the social environment. A church is a religious group that accepts the social environment in which it exists, a sect is a religious group that rejects it. [6] [2]
The cult is also marked by the intensity of the people's feelings for and devotion to their leaders, [107] and the key role played by a Confucianized ideology of familism both in maintaining the cult and thereby in sustaining the regime itself. The North Korean cult of personality is a large part of Juche and totalitarianism.
Religion is the substance, the ground, and the depth of man's spiritual life." [83] When religion is seen in terms of sacred, divine, intensive valuing, or ultimate concern, then it is possible to understand why scientific findings and philosophical criticisms (e.g., those made by Richard Dawkins) do not necessarily disturb its adherents. [84]
Organized religion, also known as institutional religion, is religion in which belief systems and rituals are systematically arranged and formally established, typically by an official doctrine (or dogma), a hierarchical or bureaucratic leadership structure, and a codification of proper and improper behavior.
Religious fanaticism (or the prefix ultra-being used with a religious term (such as ultra-Orthodox Judaism), or (especially when violence is involved) religious extremism) is a pejorative designation used to indicate uncritical zeal or obsessive enthusiasm that is related to one's own, or one's group's, devotion to a religion – a form of human fanaticism that could otherwise be expressed in ...
Pseudoreligion or pseudotheology is a pejorative term which is a combination of the Greek prefix "pseudo", meaning false, and "religion."The term is sometimes avoided in religious scholarship as it is seen as polemic, but it is used colloquially in multiple ways, and is generally used for a belief system, philosophy, or movement which is functionally similar to a religious movement, often ...