Cults are a direct result of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment point of view was that the scientific method could be applied to human problems to obtain solutions as rigorous and exact as mathematics. This idea lead to the development of pseudo sciences like psychology.
When people start to ask questions about the meaning of life it is almost inevitable for them to to be approached by cults.


Cults are relatively easy to spot. If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck then it probably is  a duck. One of the most telling ways is the emphasis on the  appearance of being a part of a legitimate religion and the rituals.