According to Merriam-Webster--
​

Religion is defined as "a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith."
 
Cult is defined as "a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator," a dogma characterized by "great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work."

 
FLAT EARTH
"Flat Earth" is an unfortunate moniker and strawman. Of course the Earth is not flat. Anyone can see the hills and valleys, so calling Earth flat sounds and is ridiculous.
 
The flat Earth movement is actually the denial of all aspects of modern cosmology. There is no set model, Earth shape, or official leader or organization demanding devotion and directing beliefs. The preeminence of reason, the scientific method, independent research, and critical thought are the guiding principles. It is a loose-knit group that freely contends with one another and consists entirely of former modern cosmology believers.
 
This movement, therefore, does not fit the definition of a religion or cult. (This 24-7 Discord presents live debates by skilled and seasoned "flat Earthers." This additional information in the left menu summarizes, A-Z, the basis for their rejection of modern cosmology and cosmogony.) 
 
 
MODERN COSMOLOGY/COSMOGONY (MCC) FITS RELIGIOUS CULT DEFINITIONS
Modern cosmology/cosmogony (MCC) is the speculated nature and origin of the universe. It fits important aspects of Merriam-Webster's definitions of both a religion and a cult.

1. MCC is an "idea" requiring "beliefs held with ardor and faith."
   
   
2.  There is "belief" and "faith" in the "people" driving the MCC ideas and the "promulgators' system for the cure of disease."
   ​
3. There is "great devotion to the promulgators" of the MCC "idea":
   
   

MCC ideas are derived from ancient religiousphilosophers. The ideas are cloaked with technological trappings by modern philosophers, called PhDs (doctors of philosophy).


The foundational assumption of MCC ismaterialism: matter is the fundamental substance of all reality. This simplification of reality leads to the belief that humans can understand, manipulate, and command it all. Materialism, in effect, deifies humans.
 
From the time we are about five, about twenty years before the rational and critical thinking part of the brain is developed, we have been indoctrinated with the MCC  belief ideas. This occurs by means of school, authority figures, movies, story books, maps, cereal boxes, logos, t-shirts, videos, orrery crib mobiles, video games, cartoons, costuming, superheroes, etc. 

⌕ Click to enlarge

Ingrained for decades as "science," the MCC beliefs become assumed as fundamental truths and are then held with ardor and faith.
 
The promulgators --government, others claiming authority and expertise, and those just following along to make money--thrive on our belief and faith in them. Not accidentally, promulgator space agencies and their cohorts feed off billions of dollars of tax tithes and profits. NASA alone takes 60-70 million dollars a day.
 
MCC promulgators promise a system for the cure of disease. Their materialist partner, modern medicine, claims to cure our physical and mental diseases. (This cure turns out to be the number one killer.)
 
As a speck in the MCC Universe of predominantly space nothingness, the MCC laity feels puny, ignorant, threatened, helpless, and dependent. They have dis-ease (a lack of ease). As saviors, in return for great devotion, the promulgators promise to get devotees to new planets when this one burns out or humans destroy it, save them from asteroids, and soon give them immortal life with AI implants. "Rocket science" and astrophysics are now synonymous with god-like genius and hope for the world.
 
We are immersed in promulgator NASA.gov rocket launches, ISS astronauts performing zero gravity tricks, "images" of a universe that is 93 billion light years in diameter, "evidence" of life elsewhere in space, daily space news reports, space and Earth globe images everywhere, sci-fi movies, space documentaries, and a space military to protect us from ETs and other space militaries.
 
Practically the whole world, including me, joined the MCC cult religion based on belief and faith alone. Critical and rational thinking is pushed aside and replaced with awe, deference, wonder, trust, desire, pictures, movies, fear, insecurity, ego, and hope.
​

⌕ Click to enlarge

​As with all cults, great devotion is required. That means restricting all information to that from official infallible MCC sources. Sleuthing outside of Google's preferential MCC algorithms is most definitely a no-no and met with this cautionary tag--

⌕ Click to enlarge

​Anything contrary to the MCC cult doctrines is ferreted out by fact-checking and debunking promulgator-supported Inquisitors and branded a heretical conspiracy theory. True to cult religion form, MCC believers will ad hominem attack, ostracize, insult, label, and create ridiculous strawman "flat Earth" caricatures of any who would dare challenge their MCC belief and faith.
 
Curious about flat Earth, some brave MCC believers may do a little secret sleuthing. The internet algorithms quickly shunt them to a fake "Flat Earth Society,"  debunkers, a fake professor, and portrayals of an Earth pizza with water dripping off the edge orbiting the sun. That, plus not wanting to be called "flat Earther," is enough to close inquiry and turn most people back to the faithful MCC fold.
 
 
MCC DOCTRINES
Blinded by the MCC materialistic indoctrination, believers embrace a catechism of indefensible doctrines devoid of observational experience and common sense. The doctrines are also in violation of natural laws, require logical fallacies to prop them up, defy falsification (the deductive standard for determining scientific validity), and are without actual scientific experimental validation. This makes them pseudoscience (pretend science).
 
Virtually nobody in the MCC fold, even the rocket scientists and astrophysicists, can defend these basic doctrines with logic, experience, observation, or science:

1. Belief doctrine: A Big Bang of Nothing created everything.

This, and new versions of such a beginning, are without experimental proof (= pseudoscience) and break the natural law that matter cannot be created nor destroyed. 
​

⌕ Click to enlarge

2. Belief doctrine: Big Bang gases coalesced to form spinning and orbiting balls, such as planets, stars, and other celestial objects.

No observational proof exists of the Big Bang and no experimental proof exists proving gases can form such balls. (= pseudoscience)
 
3. Belief doctrine: A force called gravity holds everything together in the universe.

Gravity as a testable force is unproven. (= pseudoscience) It's also denied by MCC heroes like Einstein, Newton, and Tesla.
 
4. Belief doctrine: Living organisms spontaneously generated from lifeless matter and evolved into the panoply of unimaginably complex creatures on Earth.

This violates natural laws, including thermodynamics, biogenesis, information, probability, functional complexity, chemistry, and time. No experimental proof exists that living organisms can come from lifeless matter or evolve in functional complexity beyond the scope of their primogenitors. (= pseudoscience)

⌕ Click to enlarge

▶️ Click to play video

​5. Belief doctrine: A spinning, rotating, and gyrating oblate wobbling spheroid Earth travels at a combined 2.8 million miles per hour.

​Violates natural laws of motion and probability and has no experimental proof. (= pseudoscience)

⌕ Click to enlarge

6. Belief doctrine: The ball-Earth accomplishes perpetual motion feats while covered with over 70% water that stays put.
​
Violates natural laws and has no experimental proof (= pseudoscience).

7. Belief doctrine: Earth's atmosphere stays put while next to a space vacuum.
​
Violates natural laws and has no experimental proof (= pseudoscience).

⌕ Click to enlarge

8. Belief doctrine: The Earthball has a radius of 3,959 miles and a circumference of 25,000 miles. 

There is no proof of these dimensions and Earth is observed, measured, and used as planar.
 
9. Belief doctrine: An infinite expanding space-time universe consists primarily of unknown black holes, dark energy, and dark matter. 

Violates natural laws and has no experimental proof (= pseudoscience).
​

⌕ Click to enlarge

⌕ Click to enlarge

10. Belief doctrine: Rockets, spaceships, probes, space stations, and astronauts escape an impossible 5000 0 F thermosphere dome of heat and radiation and survive a hostile space environment.

Supported byfraud, violates natural laws, and has no experimental proof (= pseudoscience).

All of these and other MCC promulgator doctrines are based upon models, speculations, philosophies, and even fraud shaping the narrative to fit their need to deceive the world in order to retain and grow power and wealth.
 
Why has this MCC religious cult been embraced by the world? Because, sadly, it is a common human flaw to opt for the easy dependent thing, belief and faith in cult religion.
 
That is the underlying cause of all human problems. Belief and faith repudiate our implicit and preeminent duty to truth, reason, conscience, and free will.
 
 
MEANWHILE, BACK ON EARTH

Married couple want their kids back

▶️ Click to play video

Bull and dog love

▶️ Click to play video