Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Cult is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "A relatively small group of people having (esp. religious) beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister, or as exercising excessive control over members."
The term "cult" first appeared in English in 1617, derived from the French culte, meaning "worship" which in turn originated from the Latin word cultus meaning "care, cultivation, worship". The meaning "devotion to a person or thing" is from 1829. Starting about 1920, "cult" acquired an additional six or more positive and negative definitions.
The application of the labels "cults" or "sects" to (for example) religious movements in government documents usually signifies the popular and negative use of the term "cult" in English and a functionally similar use of words translated as "sect" in several European languages.
The following is a list of religious slurs or religious insults in the English language that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about adherents or non-believers of a given religion or irreligion, or to refer to them in a derogatory (critical or disrespectful), pejorative (disapproving or contemptuous), or insulting manner.
The cult is also marked by the intensity of the people's feelings for and devotion to their leaders, [108] and the key role played by a Confucianized ideology of familism both in maintaining the cult and thereby in sustaining the regime itself. The North Korean cult of personality is a large part of Juche and totalitarianism.
Religion and expressive art are important aspects of human culture. Germans marching during a folk culture celebration Culture ( / ˈ k ʌ l tʃ ər / KUL -chər ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior , institutions , and norms found in human societies , as well as the knowledge , beliefs , arts , laws , customs , capabilities ...
Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity ( yazata ) Mithra , the Roman Mithras was linked to a new and distinctive imagery, and the degree of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman ...
Funerary cult, a religious practice centered on veneration of the dead; Mortuary cult, a ceremonial and religious devotion to dead loved ones by the bereaved; Doomsday cult, a cult that believes in, and may attempt to bring about, an end-of-world prophecy; Destructive cult, an anti-cult movement term for unethical and deceptive cults