Notice: Fredric Rice may have removed segments of the replies given to questions if they contained copoyrighted materials. After a very short while, Scientology "experts" refused to answer questions and started cut-and-pasting copyrighted cult propaganda. Additionally I removed URLs in some of the replies, and left them in others. And it's also important to note that eventually the unfortunate "Greg Churilov" cultist was ejected from askme.com for his typical Scientological behavior.

Anonymous apparently asked himself this question on 4/18/2000:

What's the difference between a minority religion and a cult?

Greg Churilov apparently gave himself this unmitigated whopper on 4/18/2000:

The word "cult" used to simply mean a group of people who share the same form of worship and religious ideals.

[That's not quite true. There are actually three generally accepted definitions of the contemporary word usage. In fact a "cult" is nothing more and nothing less than a religion. All religions are cults according to the primary, secondary, and terciary definitions of contemporary word usage. The derogatory usage of the word is fairly new, going back perhaps 200 years or so - flr]

It has the same root as the word "cultivate", to grow.

[I wonder if the cult's ringleaders tell their followers that all words that have the same sound all have a common root. Such an insane notion would be in keeping with the rest of Scientology's insane notions - flr]

In the late 70s the word began to be used disparagingly (mostly to badmouth Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini) by the press, to mean a group with fanatic or zealot tendencies, with secret rituals, etc.

[And that's a lie. The derogatory application of the word can easily be traced at least back to the turn of the century in 1899 in the United States as there were end-of-the-world cultists groups that thought that the year 1900 spelled the return of Jesus Christ and as such the end of the world was some how near again.

What's more relevant toward Scientology is that Hubbard created his cult back in the 1940's and, though he first created his extrmly silly pop psychology, built an organization that took on all of the classical earmarks of a dangerous cult. Though his drug-induced book Dianetics was a pop-psychology / self-help book in the 1970's, he and his cult never lost the media's use of the derogatory application of the word - flr]

Nowadays the difference between "cult" a) Openness vs. Secretive practices The Church of Scientology is a Religion, since anyone can walk into any of our centers with no restriction. All services are available to all, and all books are freely accessible. b) Legal Status The Church of Scientology has been recognized as a Bonafide Religion by the U.S. Supreme Court and as a Bonafide Non-Profit Charitable Organization by the IRS.

[And that's absolute nonsense. The USSC has never and never will dictate what is and what is not a religion. That's not their job. And the IRS has never and never will describe what is and what it not a religion. That's not their job either.

This lie seems to be what the Scientology cult's leaders are making their current crop of rubes believe - flr]

Further facts about this criminal empire may be found at Operation Clambake and FACTNet.

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