My wife and I attended a Catholic wedding this weekend. The ceremony included a full mass, with delightful renditions of such classics as The Lord’s Prayer, The Lamb of God and Ave Maria, as well as numerous extracts from the gospels. The singing was pretty and I’m sure Paul and Mark had useful things to say, but what made me really uncomfortable (as an unbeliever) was the set of responses that all in attendance were supposed to know and deliver. The Lord be with you, Jesus this, the Holy Spirit that. The sight of little kids fluently parroting all of the above disturbed me. Were they brainwashed? How was this different from a cult? I don’t have anything specific against Catholicism. Muslims, Hindus, whatever: they’re all the same.

To summarize my quandry: What exactly is the difference between a religion and a cult?

For enlightenment, I consulted that omniscient modern text Wikipedia:

Religion—sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system—is commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the moral codes, practices, values, and institutions associated with such belief. [link]

and:

A cult is a relatively small and cohesive group of people (often a new religious movement) devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be far outside the mainstream. [link]

There you have it. Raven’s first law of superstition:

A religion is a successful cult.

and:

A cult is a developing or failed religion.