TLDR - what’s the question mark in the following scale
Cult(-1)……………….Religion(0)……………….???(+1)
Long version (a.k.a my stupid mind’s question that is keeping me awake):
My understanding of cult is a group of people with an absurd or even possibly nefarious belief system. Like something negative.
By that definition I would put religion in the middle (though a majority of it leans towards the cult side). A group of people that is very serious about what they believe in, no matter how illogical it is.
So with this understanding what would you call the positive side ? A group of people coming together to have a tradition and belief system just for the fun of it ? Is there such thing ?
Belief , like the traditional cult of the ancestors in China, where you have no “priest” or “guru”, it is just a bunch of people relying on elders to mimick the rituals, but in fact nobody remember it well, it is all disorganized, and nobody is really checking for “correctness” as much as checking if the commitment is done with intent. So the opposite of having a strong vertical domination by one person (cult) or an organized institution (religion) is a weak control of the rites by anyone (belief)