The modern idea of a cult vs. a religion is that a cult imposes excessive control over members and has extreme or dangerous philosophical, religious or political ideas.

So if your religion imposes extremist ideas (as in, disrespect for life or other peoples religion) and tries to control your personal life, then you might be in a cult.  

 Only that the bible wasn't written by a sci-fi writer that said that the best way to get money is to make a religion (he died rich by the way). And that christianity don't require loads of money to join.

And no shame on soriku, for i spoke the truth. And now a more imparcial one:

Scientologists believe that seventy-five million years ago, Xenu was the ruler of a Galactic Confederacy which consisted of 26 stars and 76 planets including Earth, which was then known as Teegeeack. The planets were overpopulated, each having an average population of 178 billion.^[1][2][3] The Galactic Confederacy's civilization was comparable to our own, with aliens "walking around in clothes which looked very remarkably like the clothes they wear this very minute" and using cars, trains and boats looking exactly the same as those "circa 1950, 1960" on Earth.

Xenu was about to be deposed from power, so he devised a plot to eliminate the excess population from his dominions. With the assistance of psychiatrists, he summoned billions^[1] of his citizens together under the pretense of tax inspections, then paralyzed them and froze them in a mixture of alcohol and glycol to capture their souls. The kidnapped populace was loaded into spacecraft for transport to the site of extermination, the planet of Teegeeack (Earth). The appearance of these spacecraft would later be subconsciously expressed in the design of the Douglas DC-8, the only difference being the DC-8's jet turbines. When they had reached Teegeeack/Earth, the paralyzed citizens were unloaded around the bases of volcanoes across the planet. Hydrogen bombs were then lowered into the volcanoes and detonated simultaneously. Only a few aliens' physical bodies survived. Hubbard described the scene in his film script, Revolt in the Stars:

The now-disembodied victims' souls, which Hubbard called thetans, were blown into the air by the blast. They were captured by Xenu's forces using an "electronic ribbon" ("which also was a type of standing wave") and sucked into "vacuum zones" around the world. The hundreds of billions^[7] of captured thetans were taken to a type of cinema, where they were forced to watch a "three-D, super colossal motion picture" for thirty-six days. This implanted what Hubbard termed "various misleading data"' (collectively termed the R6 implant) into the memories of the hapless thetans, "which has to do with God, the Devil, space opera, et cetera". This included all world religions, with Hubbard specifically attributing Roman Catholicism and the image of the Crucifixion to the influence of Xenu. The interior decoration of "all modern theaters" is also said by Hubbard to be due to an unconscious recollection of Xenu's implants. The two "implant stations" cited by Hubbard were said to have been located on Hawaii and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

In addition to implanting new beliefs in the thetans, the images deprived them of their sense of personal identity. When the thetans left the projection areas, they started to cluster together in groups of a few thousand, having lost the ability to differentiate between each other. Each cluster of thetans gathered into one of the few remaining bodies that survived the explosion. These became what are known as body thetans, which are said to be still clinging to and adversely affecting everyone except those Scientologists who have performed the necessary steps to remove them.

Military officers loyal to the people finally overthrew Xenu and his renegades, and locked him away in a mountain, where he was imprisoned forever by a force field powered by an eternal battery. Although the location of Xenu is sometimes said to be the Pyrenees on Earth, this is actually the location Hubbard gave elsewhere for an ancient "Martian report station."^[8] Teegeeack/Earth was subsequently abandoned by the Galactic Confederacy and remains a pariah "prison planet" to this day, although it has suffered repeatedly from incursions by alien "Invader Forces" since that time.

Man, that cracks me up lol 

That should not be the case.
If I want to believe that Abraham Lincoln was a black dwarf with one eye, then started spreading my beliefs to young kids about it, should people allow me to?

Even Anonymous isn't against scientology as a religion, but are against the people who run the religion. By your examples Christianity is bad because the priest steal from, abuse and rape women and children.
Remember in the early years priests we're given power by Spain and most, if not all, of them abused that power in the colonies Spain has conquered.

Uh, something should be done about any priest that breaks the law as well.

I don't understand your post, I am not against the religion, I am also against those that run it. Did you misread mine?

edit:  I guess I should "Scientology as it exists today," because "Scientology" alone would be hating on the religion.  The problem is, all Scientology requires you to pay to gain higher access, Scientology as it's run today manipulates and illegally harbors its members into keeping secrets and breaking into various facilities.

For me...

Religion = All information on the religion is free and there is no secret information.

Someone of a different religion can come in, get a book whatever... and learn everything about the religion they want right away. Perferably no murder or violene advocated either... but it's sadly not make or break for me.

Cult = Information only for members, or charges you to join or for salvation or whatever.

So yes, i'd of considered the Catholic Church a cult during the whole indulgences thing.

Except you can know everything there is to know in a Catholic church and never pay a dime...other than the whole "you'll probably go to hell without paying" thing though...I don't know how that all works.

That is one reason I am not a Catholic though.

With source matieral like that why do all Bible games seem to suck?

I mean honestly, that sounds like the best RPG ever. 

It was just a fundraising scheme by the Catholic Church.

Like how they had confession. People sometimes died before last rights... so you'd go to the priest, tell them about how much sin you were expecting to comit and paid a fee to have coverage vs instant death instead of just "Repent on the deathbed" or if you die right after confession coverage.

Like why bart becomes an evangical minister in that one episode of the simpsons.

I think you could also get them for doing good deeds or something.  Kinda like extra credit or no homework passes in school. 

Priests at that time were above the law, they were never wrong, they were the voice of God.
But since I obviously misinterpreted your intent in that post and you clarified it.
The priest part doesnt really matter.

@Kas, Yeah, it's pretty stupid, I don't know if I'd put it near the same level as Scientology, but I certainly do not agree with the Catholic traditions at all.