The term cult means something different, something other than normal, something that is different. Generally most people think that a cult is strange or abnormal, the problem of identifying a cult is affected by the fact that even experts in cultic studies realize that, no scientific test accurately establishes whether or not a group is indeed a cult (Barker). Currently, the most popular cult is the Moonies, or the followers of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. This cult draws attention because of its "media and political linkages, financial practices and commercial diversification" (Maxim). A few years ago, twenty-one female and nineteen male followers of the Heaven's Gate cult committed mass suicide in order to follow the Hale Bop comet (Zimbardo). This incident raised a new awareness of the damage cults can cause. Another example of cults would be the Branch Davidian Cult that existed in Waco, Texas. This was a

case of a people who were psychologically easy to be brain washed. It is amazing to see how one man can get attention of all of those people and make them believe that he is someone who will take care of them forever. What made these people decide to leave their life and join such a cult, and leave everything to live with this lunatic ? Chris Bader and Alfred Demaris used a Stark and Bainbridge theory of religion in order to determine what causes people to join to cults. Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge created three hundred and forty-four causes that explain nearly every aspect of religion, including why people join cults. First, the terms sect and cult were define as: "Cults are new religious movements-movements that have not split off from another religious organization" and "sects are movements that split off from churches because of a dispute over beliefs and practices" (Bader and Demaris). The causes that Bader and Demaris chose to study are. "Persons with low stakes in conformity tend to have less favorable evaluations of conventional religious explanations than do persons with higher stakes in conformity". "Persons who desire limited rewards that exist but who lack the social power to obtain them will tend to affiliate with sects, to the extent that their society possesses a dominant religious tradition suppo

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Approximate Word count = 906
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)