# Tom.... Tom. Tom. Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom.... Tom. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 29, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403 "2005-06-29T18:27:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/61 "2005-06-30T02:35:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by featherlou > I used to think Tom Cruise was a fair actor, and all around fairly normal human being - when I didn’t hear anything from him at all. Now he’s started opening his mouth, and I’m not thinking he’s so normal any more. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > Well, he’s got this here movie to make a splash over. > > At least he isn’t throwing phones at anybody. On further thought, I wish to reconsider my original post - he’s a movie star. Of course he’s not normal. ( **elelle** - **fewer** tainted daisies.) ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/62 "2005-06-30T03:17:17Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > He made a simple remark, the meaning of which seemed perfectly plain, as I described. I commented on it. He rejoined that it was his opinion apart from other considerations. Well, no, it is my opinion even considering the other considerations. Those theories could make it more or less likely that we would contact intelligent life (or alien civilizations), or make a greater or fewer number of planets on which earth-like life could exist. The universe is so huge that even considering them, I believe it is possible for other intelligent life to exist even if I believed those theories to be true. None of them are exclusive. Nor do any of them take into account (realistically, they _can’t_ take into account) life which is not earth-like. Given my view that life on earth appeared and evolved in a natural way, I would be foolish to claim that earth is the only planet out of the billions and billions and billions of planets in the universe that life could have appeared on. I can’t prove it; it’s unlikely that it will be proved in our lifetimes - but still. Call it faith if you like. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/63 "2005-06-30T04:29:32Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#): > > I’m confused–he can’t talk about Xenu? The core of his belief? Why not? Yeah, what **Revtim** said, but they say “those enthetas-- they just can’t HANDLE the truth,” which I believe is a phrase familiar to Mr. Cruise. I imagine all the years and sessions of brainwashing they go through softens them up for this big revelation, which they believe because of their overinvestment in this cult, their suggestibility at this point in their membership, and the fact that people love being in on a big secret that no one else knows. Though, I guess the Xenu thing is not a whole lot crazier than the idea that a sinless virgin got pregnant with God’s baby, who also lived his whole life without sin, was executed, and then rose bodily from the dead after journeying through hell. He also raised the dead, banished demons, turned water into wine, you know the drill. Hey, to each his own, right? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/64 "2005-06-30T04:57:19Z")
He’s probably right, but with all the engrams he’s had removed he ought to be able to turn the asshole-ish behavior down a little. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/65 "2005-06-30T06:27:01Z")
Shucks. Here, I thought I’d finally earned a truly virulent pitting, and it’s all about that pretty boy action film actor with the odd belief in Xenu. _::: sigh :::_ Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/66 "2005-06-30T07:45:32Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > After Douglas Adams’ death, his friend Richard Dawkins remembered a characteristic joke: “To illustrate the vain conceit that the universe must be somehow preordained for us, because we are so well suited to live in it, he mimed a wonderfully funny imitation of a puddle of water, fitting itself snugly into a depression in the ground, the depression uncannily being exactly the same shape as the puddle.” Great example!!! ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/67 "2005-06-30T10:14:59Z")
> [@The Hook](#): > > I am truly baffled by this discussion. That makes two of us. My comment on his remark was that it was not without controversy. That is in fact the case. And now, TYM has specifically identified his subject as “earth-like life”, which, as I said before, seemed discernable to me in his original remark by his usage of the word “other”. The links I provided were therefore pertinent. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/68 "2005-06-30T12:43:43Z")
You know what bothers me about Tom’s remark? It’s unoriginal and at least a little pretentious; along the lines of “People who don’t believe in aliens are closed-minded and arrogant. I’m neither closed-minded nor arrogant, therefore I believe in aliens.”. Here’s my take on the matter: Flash back a few billion years. The Earth is a barren rock, with the exception of a tenth of a gram of bacteria on the side of a volcanic vent. These bacteria are the ancestors of every single living organism alive on Earth today. If these bacteria were capable of thought, would they be arrogant in thinking that they are the only life on Earth? Back the the present. The Earth is teeming with life, from simple bacteriea to all sorts of crazy complex animals. Consider that it may very well be that out of millions (billions?) of planets in our galaxy, only one of them has life on it… at the moment. Consider that it may very well be that out of countless galaxies, only ours contains any life… at the moment. Consider that we, for all our wondrous civilization, may not be much farther along than the bacteria on the side of the volcanic vent. That life and civilization as we know it may be a mere prologue, a footnote in the history of life in the universe. Is this “arrogant”? Regardless of whether this idea is anywhere near the truth, at the very least it isn’t an idea that tens of millions of people have expressed in an effort to appear enlightened. Goddammit, Tom! You starred in a movie about an alien invasion of Earth. You knew you’d be giving a lot of interviews to promote this movie. You knew that you’d probably be asked whether you believed in extraterrestrials. Couldn’t you come up with original to say on the topic? Tool. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/69 "2005-06-30T13:11:48Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > Though, I guess the Xenu thing is not a whole lot crazier than the idea that a sinless virgin got pregnant with God’s baby, who also lived his whole life without sin, was executed, and then rose bodily from the dead after journeying through hell. He also raised the dead, banished demons, turned water into wine, you know the drill. Hey, to each his own, right? I don’t believe in the sinless virgin either, but you gotta give the Zenu more points for bizarreness. According to the Wikipedia article previously linked to, he brought the kidnapped “people” to Earth in vehicles that were _exact copies of Douglas DC-8s_. That alone makes the story a good deal more wacky than the sinless virgin story, IMHO. It’s like if somebody said Jesus was crucified on an exact replica of the Hollywood sign. ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/70 "2005-06-30T13:43:21Z")
Arrogant is maybe not “le mot juste” but I can’t think of a better word myself. If he were a more polished speaker he’d have avoided seeming to imply that the interviewer was personally arrogant. But I don’t know what else to call it but a collective arrogance that allows humans to think we’re at all likely to be the most intelligent entities in a universe that contains on the order of 10^22 (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars just in the area we can observe. It seems to me people are being nothing but reactionary to be label Tom Cruise “nutty” for voicing opinions that are not utterly mainstream and trite. Everything he’s done and said are still well within the standard discourse. Including his statements about psychiatry. There are plenty of reasonable people who are skeptical about psychiatry and there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical as well. Why is it that - just because he’s a celebrity - he has to be thoroughly uncontroversial? Is this good for us as a culture to cow our public figures into innoccuous, vacuous banality? ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/71 "2005-06-30T14:29:52Z")
**uglybeech** _If he were a more polished speaker he’d have avoided seeming to imply that the interviewer was personally arrogant._ Exactly ! _That_ is what bothers me about what he said. Yes, perhaps if he were a more polished speaker, things would have gone better. Well, he made his first movie around 1981. You’d think after over two _decades_ he’d learn to present a better public persona. After all, he should realize that he is in the “public eye” and also he is going to do the occassional interview. With all the negative Tom Crusie postings here at SDMB, “Dubya” has _almost_ been replaced as the number 1 “bashee”. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/72 "2005-06-30T15:02:30Z")
[QUOTE=Revtim] I don’t believe in the sinless virgin either, but you gotta give the Zenu more points for bizarreness. According to the Wikipedia article previously linked to, he brought the kidnapped “people” to Earth in vehicles that were _exact copies of Douglas DC-8s_. Whoa, I didn’t here that part. OK, you got me, Xenu is pretty far out there. I have no idea how anyone can believe in that with a straight face. But frankly, all these religious with intricate backstories seem pretty whacked out to me. Xenu maybe is just the most whacked out (but hey, some people think Haile Selassie is the messiah, so who am I to judge?). > [@](#): > > That alone makes the story a good deal more wacky than the sinless virgin story, IMHO. It’s like if somebody said Jesus was crucified on an exact replica of the Hollywood sign. Now that would be quite the political statement. Don’t give Mel Gibson any ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/73 "2005-06-30T19:33:15Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > Whoa, I didn’t here that part. OK, you got me, Xenu is pretty far out there. I have no idea how anyone can believe in that with a straight face. This stuff isn’t revealed to the initiate until they are already heavily invested both financially and emotionally into the cult. It’s less painful to swallow the Xenu story than to admit one was wrong and wasted all that money and time and emotional investment. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/74 "2005-06-30T21:11:07Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > I think the reporter was trying to bait/needle Cruise about Xenu, without of course saying it directly. People who are in the know about Scientology would have understood the thrust of the question, and would read into Cruise’s response. Of course, as an OT VII or whatever the hell he is, he could never talk about Xenu in public. Hence, the rather vague nature of the question. I pit interviewers (and stupid reality-show pranksters) who waste a perfectly good opportunity to come right out and ASK Cruise about Xenu and Body Thetans! For the first time ever Cruise is presenting golden opportunities left and right, and no one is grabbing it head on! What the hell is going on with these people? Some interviewers are too concerned with future access, sure, but not everyone cares about that. Those pranksters especially. You can squirt water on ANYBODY. There are only a small handful of big name people you can ask about Xenu. What a waste. I’ve seen Cruise lie on national TV (that you can be another religion while being a $cientologist) and now I want him to FLAT OUT DENY his religious beliefs, which he would be doing if he denied that $cientology is about Xenu and Body Thetans. The window of opportunity is closing fast. Won’t someone do it please!? (Btw, WOTW is a very good movie. Cruise is good in it too. I can’t wait to pay for another movie so I can duck into WOTW again.) ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/75 "2005-07-01T01:28:09Z")
Point #1- Spielberg may not be saying anything, but this must be driving him nuts. Taylor Hackford went through similar dire straits when his (admittedly so-so) film _Proof of Life_ tanked at least in part due to the backlash against it’s stars’ real-life affair. We shall see how these things affect this film’s box office take. Point #2- for the last million years or so, Tom Cruise had the Iron Maiden as his publicist. Pat Kingsley absolutely controlled everything her clients said in public and how they were reported on by the media to a great extent. Cruise just fired her and replaced her with his sister. Occam’s razor assumes that Cruise had these views and opinions all along, but was prevented (rightly, perhaps, for his career’s sake) from expressing them publicly. It’s more sad than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/76 "2005-07-01T01:37:49Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > This stuff isn’t revealed to the initiate until they are already heavily invested both financially and emotionally into the cult. It’s less painful to swallow the Xenu story than to admit one was wrong and wasted all that money and time and emotional investment. But _we_ all know about it. It’s not that much of a secret, is it? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/77 "2005-07-01T01:51:50Z")
The Xenu stuff is out there, but how anyone can fall for that Dianetics crap, with engrams and reactive mind and all that shit is mind-boggling. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/78 "2005-07-01T01:59:22Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > But _we_ all know about it. It’s not that much of a secret, is it? Yeah, I bet the fact that this stuff got leaked has hurt their recruiting somewhat. But I bet the general populace still hasn’t heard the Xenu story. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/79 "2005-07-01T02:05:55Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > But _we_ all know about it. It’s not that much of a secret, is it? We’re Dopers. We know everything. Including what you did last summer. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403/80 "2005-07-01T02:24:22Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Yeah, I bet the fact that this stuff got leaked has hurt their recruiting somewhat. But I bet the general populace still hasn’t heard the Xenu story. I butted into a conversation about Scientology at the local hippie feminist bookstore. One woman didn’t know anything about, and her friend had an idea that they had some weird beliefs. I told them about Xenu and that they believed they could “cure” homosexuality. The women (who were probably at least bisexual, in this place) were horrified. Just doin’ my part. If you’re gonna fight ignorance, it helps to be a busybody. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom-tom/310403.md?page=5)