People have had trouble for along time on the question of how to discern between a cult and a religion. to me this is clearly a matter of what Otto called ''numinous'' . That is to say that there is ladder of values and the closer one gets to an area of value that is all content and no form, the more one can  be caught up in evil. I do not think there is any antidote to this problem. being secular does not seem like much of a solution either. The best idea I think is the formula of the Middle Ages--to combine faith with reason. [You can see this approach most clearly in the Chovot Levavot and Saadia Gaon.]