Scientology

[ikonia]

These guys are a total joke

[JPreston]

Is it OT to note that this thread has become nothing more than a place for theists to indulge in some blatant religious intolerance of their own? Live and let live, you know? WWJD?

[TeePee]

The old 'My religion is right and everyone elses is wrong/wierd/a cult/evil/etc'?

[pr0p4g4nd4]

I just watched the documentary on YouTube. It was quite interesting, these scientologist seem pretty damn messed up.

What I don't get is if Hubbard was anti-Christ or anti-believeing in Christ's existance, why is there a cross in the Scientology logo? Sorry if I'm being thick

[Agent]

Is it OT to note that this thread has become nothing more than a place for theists to indulge in some blatant religious intolerance of their own? Live and let live, you know? WWJD?

I was wondering the same thing too!
I was more interested in peoples views on this 'religion', not another war about others

Its fairly new, and even in the scheme of religions, it seems more far fetched than most.
It also seems to cause a lot of people to profit!

[iranu]

Good to see we are back on topic.

What worries me is the secretive, sinister side of this organisation and how manipulative it can be. This is typical of a lot of cults whereby once you are in it is very hard to get out. They always seem to be very protective of any form of criticism or investigation which seems odd.

What I cannot fathom is how supposedly rational and intelligent people like Tom Cruise can fall for this and avidly promote it when it doesn't stand upto any test and has blatantly been created by a poor sci-fi writer.

Some people are stupid but more people are gullable and when the gullable reach critical mass then you really do have a problem (and yes this can apply to other areas eg, politics, Nazis etc).

"Oooh, Marge, look, another limer bean that looks like the leader. I'll put it with the other leader beans"

[kalniel]

Is it OT to note that this thread has become nothing more than a place for theists to indulge in some blatant religious intolerance of their own?

I don't think that's the case at all, there's some interesting discussion here.

[ikonia]

if you do some wikipedia trawling you'll find that there are other logos for scientology - one is a 26 leaf tree branch with stars that represents the evil alien over lord. (not kidding).

[[GSV]Trig]

What I cannot fathom is how supposedly rational and intelligent people like Tom Cruise can fall for this and avidly promote it when it doesn't stand upto any test and has blatantly been created by a poor sci-fi writer.

Brainwashing?

When people are "Audited" they are hypnotised and then asked questions so they can't lie, this IMHO of course would also make it possible for people to become very open to suggestions, or if they are incapable of lying telling someone there worse fears which can later be used against them, or infact other things that they may have done in the past which opens them upto blackmail...

[kalniel]

Well the panorama program seems to indicate that the side of scientology presented to celebs is not really much of the cultish/religious thing at all, rather it's more of a life skills/self betterment type thing, which I can understand celebs promoting perfectly well.

[pollaxe]

Watching Tom Cruise bouncing up and down on the sofas with Oprah surely invalidated any claim on him being at least a rational human being!

[Kezzer]

Well the panorama program seems to indicate that the side of scientology presented to celebs is not really much of the cultish/religious thing at all, rather it's more of a life skills/self betterment type thing, which I can understand celebs promoting perfectly well.

In the same was as many non-Buddhists follow Buddhist practices.

[[GSV]Trig]

Well the panorama program seems to indicate that the side of scientology presented to celebs is not really much of the cultish/religious thing at all, rather it's more of a life skills/self betterment type thing, which I can understand celebs promoting perfectly well.

I also noticed this, it would appear there are two sides to Scientology, the "idea" as such, a set of rules/instructions for good living etc and then theres the Church of Scientology which seems to be the nastier side...

[TeePee]

We may percieve the church part as being 'nasty' but do the followers? Of course not! This may well go for the celebraties as well. The program didn't show interviews with any normal followers, only those who had left.

I thought the program was poor, one-sided journalism. The presenter whined about not getting and access, but it seemed to me that he wasn't trying to be objective. Of course, that doesn't mean the church isn't wierd.

Contrast this with Louis Theroux's meeting with the Westboro Baptist Church. It was left far more up to the viewer to make up their own mind. Of course, Theroux did get some limited access to the church, but the difference is, he didn't set out to argue with them.

[autopilot]

Im not at all suprised that celebraties like Mr Cruise get involved in wierd crap like this. They spended so little time in the real world and their grasp on reality is is obviously weak, that it makes them even more of a candidate than 'noraml' people i would have thought.

[Stewart]

What I cannot fathom is how supposedly rational and intelligent people like Tom Cruise can fall for this and avidly promote it when it doesn't stand upto any test and has blatantly been created by a poor sci-fi writer.

How many rational and intelligent people 'fall for' Christianity?

Christianity stands up to any tests?

Christianity as told in the Bible, hasn't been created, blantantly so, by a person or persons?

I know this isn't the thead, but Scientology is no more far fetched than the major religions, and like the major religions, it is obviously based on nonsense, far fetched claims, etc. And as you say, like the major religions, there is no shortage of rational people who are willing to believe in it.

Xenu, God, Odin, Ra - same thing. Failed attempts to explain the world around us, via the use of 'super magic people in the sky'

No Christian, Muslim, or Jew can look down on those who believe in Scientology, it is just the latest crazy take on things - get enough gulible folk to believe what you say and bingo. New religion.