Scientology. religion or cult and the constitutional situation?

[fido139]

Tom Cruise is proof enough that Scientology needs to die. Seriously.

Cruise got really weird after his introduction to it. I used to like the guy a lot, but something went wrong.

 

[theotherguy]

I used to think the same thing many years ago, and I can see how it is viewed that way, but it is the furthest thing from the truth. Cults, distorted "religions", and assholes hiding behind religious "badges" have made all decent Christianity look bad, but you can not go by appearance, one must study it in its entirety for the true answer. Scientology is yet another CRAP religion that only touches the fringes of truth.

Can you explain to me any qualitative differences between a cult and a religion? I see no distinction other than religions tending to be more stable over time and encourage indoctrination of children, while cults tend to focus on a select group of members and gear them towards immediate action.

Otherwise the similarities run deep. Reverence of patriarchal figures, unquestioning belief in dogma, belief in some kind of future event leading to savior, excessive reliance on prostletyzing and spreading the idea, cutting people off from the real world, faith, ritual actions, etc. Its the same in both religions and cults, but cults simply tend to be smaller, and more extreme in their actions and beliefs.

I believe they are simply two forms of the same phenomenon, like the difference between a rainstorm and a monsoon.