Christianity is not a sect of Judaism. That issue was resolved in the 1st century. Reference Book of Acts and several Pauline letters.
Christians venerate Jewish patriarchs and prophets, cherish Jewish books as holy objects, hold to Jewish Commandments, and worship a Jewish God. That is not a coincidence. Shalom.
i believe all religions are cults for this reason. this doesnt mean that any one religion is based in truth or not, just that most of the believers arent believers because of that truth. invalidates the belief.
This makes no sense. Who defines who the extremists are? Extremism is a relative term, it means immoderate or acts outside the norm. Moderation and the norm are defined by the popular majority. When the popular majority are Christians, they are the norm & thus do not consider their own craziness to be extreme.
I think most religious people would say that although they are their parent's religion, they made the decision for themselves. Of course, statistically, this is very very unlikely, because if they were truly deciding for themselves then more people would chose religions other than their parents'.
If they are more familiar with their parents' religion, I don't find it unlikely that people would willfully choose to follow their parents' religion. It may not be the most informed decision, but that doesn't mean they didn't decide on their own. I think most people don't put the effort they should into their religion. It is easy to be swept away by secular activities.
You answered your own question and stated exactly what I said, their "acts" define it. Societies and cultures have accepted norms worldwide regardless if the popular majority is christian or not. Some acts are universally extreme and universally right or wrong. I dont visit this forum often so maybe there is some underlying motive to your question but it looks like a trap intended to reel something or somebody in.
To answer this question we first have to come to a suitable definition. There are two basic definitions: a broad definition and a more narrow definition. Webster's Third International Dictionary's broad definition defines a cult as "1: a religious practice; worship. 2: a system of of beliefs and rituals connected with the worship of a diety, a spirit or a group of dieties or spirits." These definitions are so broad that they can apply to virtually any religion. As a result they are not very helpful. The second definition is more narrow in scope and probably the best one. This definition states that a cult is " a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurioius." Here the text was damaged in printing and a further elaboration is unreadable. So I went to the American Heritage Dictionary which describes a cult as "a religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or bogus. The followers of such a religion or sect. By these more nuanced definitions, Christianity is not a cult.
