Windwalker, Scientology is not only dippy - were that the case, I wouldn’t feel too good about bashing it, regardless of how I feel about it. As it happens, though, Scientology is a scam that HAS caused more than its share of distress and harm to those who got sucked in - financial ruin being just one of them. Scientology is well deserving of the outrage is often generates on this board, and Tom Cruise is high enough in the ranks that he ought to know better. He’s an asshole, and they’re all assholes collectively.
I just to say that this isn’t so bad. Lots of assholes have nice grandfathers. Scientology is Buddism asshole grandson and Buddism wants a DNA test.
I just to say that this isn’t so bad. Lots of assholes have nice grandfathers. Scientology is Buddism’s asshole grandson and Buddism wants a DNA test.
On-topic, Cruise is a jerk. His handlers must be yanking his chain to get him to mention $cientology more often. He used to keep his mouth shut about it.
Off-topic…
In Lisa Marie’s case (Presley, not the actress) she was practically raised in it. Priscilla became a $cieno in 1979 (cite article). I feel VERY sorry for people who are born/raised in the cult. They have little or no chance of getting free. I feel no pity for idiots like Cruise, who get into the cult as an adult without having done any homework on it whatsoever.
Completely off-topic, but I found this while searching for the date that Priscilla joined the cult. I thought it was funny.
I don’t know if it’s true about Elvis, but it’s still funny.
(Too bad about Peggy Lipton though. I didn’t know she was a $cieno)
Funniest damn thing I’ve seen all day!
As others have pointed out time and time again, $cientology is not just dippy. It’s a harmful and dangerous cult. It’s fun to make fun of their airy-fairy alien beliefs, but when you start researching the harm they’ve caused to people, it gets deadly serious.
Like it or not, people get interested in things their favorite stars are interested in. It can be used for good (charity work, bringing attention to a disease) or it can be used for bad. Some people might think “oh, scientology can’t be all that bad. Tom Cruise and John Travolta, they’re nice guys, they wouldn’t be into it if it were all that bad” and so they might get involved without researching it first. It’s easy to get hooked in and then brainwashed if you’re not told about and on the lookout for the nasty side.
I don’t care that Cruise is a $cieno, but I feel bad for any fans who might get sucked in because of Cruise and the other celebrity $cienos.
Nicole is sooo much better off without that dork. Bah and ptooey.
Not a scientology fan by no means. I’m just wondering why its ok to bash THIS religion but not ones like Christtianity.
And if its becuase of the whole scam thing I disagree. Scams have been made with ALL religions.
I take Toms statement to be rather innacuous.
Scientology is BASED on a scam. Most other religions are not.
Ah, That makes sense.
Thanks Lynn.
ahem
I had no idea what scientology was or is, until I read this thread. I live in Florida near to Clearwater so have heard many disgruntled people talk about these individuals but I’ve never known what Dianetics is or what Hubbard was about, save for some of his mundane trying novels… So this thread has been most informative.
Something though that struck me…
Sorry Lynn, this not meant to be an insult, but I am curious.
How is that true? As far as I’m aware a religion is simply a concept and a belief that people hold faith in. Sure scientology is a scam and from what I’ve read from links in this thread a very well organised one, utilising many hypnotic suggestive techniques to ensure faith is maintained and monitored, but I could say that about catholicism too. I could also take apart each and every faith that I have had some exposure to, and make valid points for it being a scam, and the monitoring of faith also.
Whilst I do not mean to compare scientology to any other ‘ESTABLISHED’ faith system, if you say one ‘faith’ or ‘reigion’ is a scam and you say so because of certain parameters then you have to use those parameters on every other ‘faith’ or ‘religiion’ and reach conclusions for those also.
To use one example, I could say that Christianity has been more harmful than Scientology, because it has been the cause of generations of deaths, and has grown wealthy off the backs of the poor. Sure it has it’s good points also, and I won’t deny that, but we’re focusing on the negatives here, are we not?
Logic.
Christianity, regardless of the atrocities committed in its name over the years, was at least derived from sincere religious beliefs. Scientology was derivied from Hubbard’s desire to make a shitload of money, confirm his opinion that he was smarter than everybody else, and have his enormous ego stoked.
I hate it when I find out that somebody I like is being used by that “church”. Isaac Hayes, for instance.
It’s not OK to bash Christianity? :dubious: Believing that simply acknowledging Jesus Christ as the divine son of God is all you need to do to score an eternity in heaven(1) doesn’t seem that much more eccentric to me then trying to purge yourself of Thetans.
[size=1)(1) Yes, I know all sects don’t believe that. Some do, though.[/size]
Uh, what makes you an expert on the motives of Jesus Christ? 
And the believers of scientology are likely every bit as assured of the integrity of their faith as the average Christian (maybe even more so).
Hubbard studied brainwashing, and intentionally wrapped it in psuedoscience as a scame to make money. It only became a religion when he realized he could evade taxes. For the first 10-15 years, he pretended it was scientific healing. He then proceeded to try to sell it as scientific healing and a religion.
I have sat through Scientology seminars, and I assure you that Scientology is too fucking stupid to be a religion. Nobody with an IQ over 25 would believe that shit. I wouldn’t bash any religion, but Scientology is not a religion just because the brainwashed rubes (who have to be fucking morons to begin with) call it a religion. It is not a religion any more than astrology is a science. It’s a scam for braindead losers. Its rise in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s had a lot to do with people who’d fried their brains and were open minded enough to believe anything so long as it wasn’t based on logic.
There are plenty of places on the Web to read about the experiences of former Scientologists and children of Scientologists that would make you outraged. On the surface, Scientology is only stupid, but as an organization, it is despicable. There’s a reason Scientology has been virtually banned in some countries, and it is NOT religious persecution.
http://www.xenu.net <— There’s a reason why there’s an online war against Scientology.
I am at the stage now where try to actively avoid any movies with $cieno twats in them.
Happily, that means never again having to suffer the ghastly Jenna Elfman, the gruesome Tom Cruise, the mad Kirstie Alley or the moronic John Travolta. In fact, I am growing in gratitude to $cientology, for giving me an excuse to avoid these horrors.
I now pray that Gwyneth Paltrow, Leonardo di Caprio, Demi Moore, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Douglas and Jack Nicholson also join swiftly (if they haven’t already and I am unaware of it).
If you’re going to join a cult, the least you can do is go with the Right One!
If you are a fan of the Simpsons, it would shock you to know that Bart Simpson is voiced by a Scientologist.
Jenna Elfman is a scientologist, too.