What makes something a religon.

This can be really confusing but I was wondering the other day at what point does a belif to become a religon, or what makes something a cult? I mean a cult and a religon are basiclly the same thing but a cult has a sterotypical bad name. I mean the word cult sounds so bad or evil. I asked my friend this and she said that anything that isnt her religon is cult ( I disagree. )

I mean at what point does it start becoming a " offical " religon?

All it needs is an Idea, and after that there is nothing proving its not a religion but there is also nothing proving it right.

I think its the amount of followers.

That is actually a pretty good point but who makes up what the # is? People are starting to say Mormonism is a religon( Which is fine by me ) and they have only about... meh 10,000 members if I had to make a guess.

But who makes up the number? The league of Religons? I remember the stories as a kid, the all meet up at the
Vadi-Syna-Mosk?

Umm the Mormon faith has 15 million followers.

Kopimism

I guess it is all about the amount of followers. I might join.

Sweden will recognize anything as an religion.

Oh, those Swedes with their weird copyright laws and pirate party...

Check out this story...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14135523

A religion is a belief that is followed by a group of people.

Same thing could be said about a cult.

"One guy has an imaginary friend, they call that crazy. One million people have an imaginary friend, they call that religion."

Just saying, since is seems relevent to the direction of the thread.

Then it is a religious cult. Come to think of it, there's not that much else in the way of cults, except the cult of personality, and that can get pretty religious.

Like Scientology.

Blah blah Blah Wittgenstein... Blah Blah Blah... Family Resemblance.

It's hard to put it into words, it's not like a form you can fill in with checkboxes:

God - Check
Followers - Check
Strange obsession with what happens in the bedroom - Check

Religion - Pass.

Ultimately, you know one when you see one, obviously they will have some things in common, for example you could perhaps say they all require faith, but not everything that requires faith is a religion e.g. having faith that my sister will pass her exams despite being an idiot.

And don't forgot the obsession with virgins.

Religion to me means a widely accepted spiritual belief which is organized .

You seem to speak with the bitter experience of having been followed around/stalked by these people.

Open your Bible and read Deuteronomy 22:13-21...

cough...Mary...cough