—“What is the difference between a cult & religion in practice?”—Zach Edward
First, religions and cults consist of a mythos and costly rituals that require demonstration of advocacy (not necessarily belief) in one or more falsehoods as a substitute for reason and a signal of contribution to the group’s informational and as a consequence, behavioral commons.
It’s that a religion is adopted at scale and has political influence, and a cult has a smaller scale and does not have political influence.
And because a cult differs from the mainstream, and requires higher costs of adherence, members of a cult are generally more devoted than those of a religion or major religion.
– Major Religion (influential in a civilization – many governments)
– Religion (Influential in a polity – government)
– Cult (not influential in a polity or government)