The problem with Scientology and why it is a cult is because you have to pay large amounts of cash to belong. Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity etc.... do not require a fee to join, usually all it takes is some studying and a ceremony.

In religion and sociology, a cult is a term designating a cohesive group of people (generally, but not exclusively a relatively small and recently founded religious movement) devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be outside the mainstream or ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult

Heres another def: adherents of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices

Pretty much all the definitions you find are about the same. A cult is simply a group people with the same beliefs, so pretty much most of religions. The term cult has a lot of connotations though. It generally gives the impression of a group that is sacrificing things and worshipping all sorts of strange things. That is not define what a cult is though, that is simply what a lot of people associate with the term. You could apply the word cult to most religious practices.

As far as hearing that morminism is made up and a cult. Well I guess it is a cult in the fact that it is a group of people that share a belief, but calling mormons a cult is probably not a politicaly correct thing. Not with all the negative connotations people associate with the word. And as far as it being made up, I guess most people would say any religion that is not thiers is made up, right? I mean catholocism was organized in 325 bc during the Nicæa Council. It was a group of political and religious figures that got together and came up with the creed that most all the christian world follows. There are more than a few people that would call that made up. I mean, you can't say that a few ideas didn't sneak in there from some corrupt political/religious figures. Come on, some of the creed principals are nowhere to be found in the bible.

It's hard to define a cult to a secular person...it's generally defined in the context of an existing religion.

The worst thing you can say to a member of scientology is the 'C' word. It's like a red rag to a bull......although bulls are colour blind apparently. I took a picture of their London building and someone tried to hassle me about it.

Organized religion = cult? My thoughts.

I was hoping for Bad Religion Vs Blue Oyster Cult shenanigans gonig on in here.

OT: As kirby says: I think the main difference is point of view, like terrorists and freedom fighters, it depends who you ask.

What is Christianity?

The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father
can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and
telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil
force in your soul that is present in humanity because a woman-who was born from a rib-
was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree
-taken from Kazadoom's thread

People can spin almost anything in a bad light.
I appreciate the info flow but It would be better for someone more informed and less hostile about the subject to explain.

@ Soriku
Shame on you for instantly believing what other people say as truth.

It's easy to define a cult as a Christian, since it would be a group that breaks off of the traditional doctrines, things like that.

If you don't believe in God or don't belong to a religion, a cult and a religion will seem pretty much the same to you, except perhaps some are crazier than others.

Blue Oyster Cult is waaaay better than Bad Religion

That's not really the point anyway.  Anybody should be free to believe whatever they want, and if someone wants to believe the story behind Scientology, they should be able to.

Scientology is bad because of its practices though.  It requires tons of money to get into the group, it has broken into government facilities to spy on people, it's taken people hostage to keep them from talking...something should be done about it.