Scientologists are weird.
Why can't they just believe normal stuff? You know, like a man walking on water.
I think any and all religions can be dangerous when fundamentalism is applied. I'll support anyone's right to believe what they want, so long as it doesn't harm someone else or infringe upon someone else's rights (meaning all of these so-called "religious liberties" that folks are whining about is just their way of complaining that the world isn't white, straight and christian anymore).
That being said, scientologists are just kooky. Like, they all need severe psychological help. Which is probably why they eschew it so.
I think any and all religions can be dangerous when fundamentalism is applied. I'll support anyone's right to believe what they want, so long as it doesn't harm someone else or infringe upon someone else's rights (meaning all of these so-called "religious liberties" that folks are whining about is just their way of complaining that the world isn't white, straight and christian anymore).
That being said, scientologists are just kooky. Like, they all need severe psychological help. Which is probably why they eschew it so.
chainsaw, buddy!..... they're just pissed cause someone dropped a house on their sister!.... Oh yeah, and then took the pretty red party shoes!
But with that being said, I think I should also add that with virtually every other religion in the world, the "Word of God" has been passed down to believers by prophets and/or men who genuinely saw themselves as providing a "connection" to either God himself or to a system of belief that culminated in the rise of ones soul or spirit to a higher plane of existence and in almost every single case it involved living in such a way as to bring no harm to others nor to condemn them for their beliefs. So although Christianity (and I'm not talking about the "born agains".... those people make scientology look almost sane), Islam and the Jews have, respectively: the Bible, the Koran, and the Old Testament (and since I haven't read any of them cover-to-cover and don't feel comfortable offering any kind of evaluation on their contents), there are also Buddhists, Taoists and many others who follow the teachings of men they believed attained some kind of ascension or enlightenment as the result of the way in which they lived their lives. In each case there was something inspirational to be found in their written works and/or the men themselves.
What I struggle with is that, in each case, it is ultimately the word of
man that serves as the foundation for those beliefs and frankly, as I see it,
that just boils down to a search for power and the desire to convince others that "this belief" or "that belief" offers a means to a better life through following certain "rules" set down by a guy who says he either is or has been, touched by God.... well, except the Scientologists. They've been touched by a bad Science-Fi writer who had a God-complex. And don't even get me started on the Mormons (one sect of which will defend their right to pedophilia to the death) or the Jehovah's Witnesses who are pretty much running a ponzi-scheme to get into heaven... the more you convert the closer you get to being one of the, what is it... 500 chosen who
actually will make it to heaven? Cause I have never been aware that, like a HOA, they have a cap on how many can be housed there! So recruit away foolish believers... you, like those of us who will never see the Social Security we've been paying into our whole lives... are also free to live the dream although it won't really do you much good.
In the end, every single system of belief lasts only as long as there are people who are willing to buy into it and even then, only as long as it can continue to survive in the current tidal wave of political beliefs and world-wide public actions (which although in this country are supposed to be well and truly separate are now being used like hammers to pound any who don't support their "obvious" connections to righteousness/God into the ground and possibly push those of us who don't agree right on down to Hell itself). We can't predict how long
any religion will last because we refuse to learn from history and we have no way of predicting what the final result would be when or if, people who've been repressed for generations finally rise-up against their oppressors and take action against them. The survival of religion in that case, will also be determined by what the survivors choose to hold onto and/or what they choose to discard... rather like the heads of the French Aristocracy... or the Russian Aristocracy.... or any other heads of state who've promoted their own well-being to the ultimate destruction of the classes who are no longer able to support that "state of being" both literally and figuratively.
And to any who've taken offense, I apologize. Both my Grandfather and my Uncle were Lutheran ministers virtually their entire lives and one of the things G'pa and I debated most strongly was my struggle with man's so-called "organization" of religion. Thankfully, because he loved me so much, he pretty much turned back to Martin Luther and said he supposed I was just another "rebel" of my generation! But please know that I meant no offense in my explanation of what are essentially, my own beliefs.
