Posted on 11/02/2009 3:28:18 PM PST by nickcarraway
Draw near, infidels, for these are dark days for the Knights of Hubbard. Do not despair entirely – the Church of Scientology remains insanely rich, has excellent and rapacious lawyers, and according to the International Scientology News, "every minute of every hour, someone reaches for L Ron Hubbard technology … simply because they know Tom Cruise is a Scientologist". So unless the world's supply of troubled fools is melting away quicker than the Arctic ice cap, they can probably hold off trying to lure disaffected Kabbalists into their cultish communion, after the fashion of Pope Benedict and the Anglicans. And yet, all things considered, it has not been the best of weeks for our operating thetans.
In France, Scientology was found guilty of defrauding its followers after a judge effectively debunked the idea of the church's trusty e-meter, a crude polygraph whose readings are used to encourage Scientologists to purchase everything from books to extreme sauna courses. In Los Angeles, the Oscar-winning (even if it was only for the abysmal Crash) director Paul Haggis cut his ties with Scientology in protest at what he branded their tolerance of homophobia, adding for good measure that the church's claim that they do not tell people to "disconnect" from unsupportive family members was untrue – his own wife had been ordered to do so. Meanwhile, Scientology's chief spokesman Tommy Davis stormed out of a television interview with Martin Bashir, after the latter pressed him on what we might delicately term "certain articles of faith". The alien stuff, basically.
What has caused these synchronous events? Naturally, one's initial assumption is that the everlasting battery which provides the force field which holds the intergalactic tyrant
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
A person can figure out in five minutes of a truthful, straightforward explanation of what Scientology teaches to know it was just L Ron attempting to make a buck off a religion he decided to invent.
South Park did an excellent job of dealing with the subject. Episode “Tom Cruise won’t come out of the Closet.” Shows the truth can be funny sometimes.
Tom Cruise? Isn’t that the guy who isn’t happy unless he has his wife under his total control?
“he has his wife under his total control”
Short of Islamic level of brutality, it ain’t a’happened yet. Tomorrow doesn’t look any more likely, either.
Clearly, Scientologists should be forced to justify their doctrinal lunacies – the only sadness is that other religions are apparently exempt from having to do the same. Imagine for a moment a Bashir-type interviewing some senior cardinal. "So," he might inquire, "you're saying that by some magic the communion wafer actually becomes the flesh of a man who died 2,000 years ago, a man who – and I don't want to put words into your mouth here – we might categorise as an imaginary friend who can hear the things you're thinking in your head? And when you've done that, do you mind going over the birth control stuff?"
What a shame that we see rather fewer of these exchanges, however amusing and useful a sideshow Scientology may be.
That's it? That's the big climax to the article?
bump for later
Sometimes I find it Lronic.
Not only will the internet not "do for" Christianity, I daresay Scientology isn't going away right now either.
www.xenu.net
www.xenu.net
The two cases are not comparable. Sure, Christianity teaches doctrines that seem odd or even absurd to non-believers — but Christians are upfront about them rather than trying to keep them secret until a would-be convert has already been drawn in fairly deep (the way Scientologists do).
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