Ronald Hubbard dies in a car accident and never founds scientology what happens to the world excluding the pop cultural jokes (that would be the only thing i would miss).
Yeah, I guess so.Hollyweird finds another New Age fascination.
Hollyweird finds another New Age fascination.
Cruise and Travolta finds some other way to be crazy.
Hollyweird finds another New Age fascination.
All I know about the Moonies is that once upon a time they made some kind of shitty movie glorifying Douglas MacArthur. I think that'd be pretty up there with some of the stuff Scientology does.
Hollyweird finds another New Age fascination.
Cruise and Travolta finds some other way to be crazy.
Much as that South Park episode taking the piss out of Scientology was funny (and it was bloody funny), it really has to be said that following Scientology is no more crazy than believing in a jealous god trapped in stone who comunicates with his followers via burning bushes that talk and who turns disobediant wives into pillars of salt, or people who believe they'll be reincarnated as a bug if they are bad and nothing at all if they are good, or people who think there are several levels of heaven and the one reserved for them is the best, or that the souls of the dead all live on the Moon... etc ad infinitum.
They pulled off the largest infiltration of the Federal government in American history to get (and destroy) records pertaining to them, have a history of suing and legally harassing anyone who criticizes them, have harassed (including death threats) people they feel are threats and/or who are criticizing them, abuse and harass members who have wanted to leave (one lady was starved or dehydrated to death), have infiltrated local governments and police in areas where their organization has a lot of influence and control, etc, etc. These aren't fanatics branching off from the group; this is the Church of Scientology itself, as an organization, doing all this. They have a HORRIBLE track record.As far as crazy religions go, Scientology has a pretty good record; they haven't burned any non-beleivers to death, stoned adulterers or blasphemers and don't practice human sacrifice (or animal sacrifice for that matter). Quite frankly I don't see why people seem to work themselves into such a fury concerning them.
One is a religion, the other is a cult.
As a lapsed whatever the hell my religion was, I admit that Christianity is not exactly scientific. But Scientology is a lot nuttier. Christianity is very much spiritual and things beyond understanding and a borderline magic. Scientology is based on a story where Xenu got a bunch of prisoners, brainwashed them in a giant space movie theater, threw them into volcanoes which he nuked, and then the ghosts of those aliens infected early humans and that's what causes us to feel bad feelings. It's Star Wars, which takes a really weird and convoluted turn. I can't abide by the anti-theistic line of "Well, this is crazy but so are all the other religions". The other religions are based on either things that sound fine as stories, or are treated as beyond comprehension from a mighty and all powerful super being or multiple of them.
They pulled off the largest infiltration of the Federal government in American history to get (and destroy) records pertaining to them, have a history of suing and legally harassing anyone who criticizes them, have harassed (including death threats) people they feel are threats and/or who are criticizing them, abuse and harass members who have wanted to leave (one lady was starved or dehydrated to death), have infiltrated local governments and police in areas where their organization has a lot of influence and control, etc, etc. These aren't fanatics branching off from the group; this is the Church of Scientology itself, as an organization, doing all this. They have a HORRIBLE track record.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_controversies
Depends what you mean by crazy. I would argue that believing the events of Dracula actually happened is equally as crazy as believing that the events of Twilight happened, notwithstanding the fact that the former is a much more coherent and generally better story. And for what it counts I would tend to agree that the cosmology of Islam, for example, is much more pleasing in an aesthetic sense than that of Scientology.
Also, falsifying records pertaining to themselves, harassing or litigating against people who criticize them, abusing/torturing/killing members who try to leave, and using government organs to spread their influence are things that all the major religions have already done (it's how they got major).
Really, this from someone trying to argue that there is a difference between a religion and a cult?Now, now, this is a massive generalisation.![]()