Perhaps I wouldn't respect it. However that assertion isn't realistic, and if that's what you believe, then you should try looking beyond all the sensationalised stuff floating all over. It's recently become a bit of a fad to hate scientology, and anything that makes them look bad gets wildly exaggerated. The idea that every single scientologist (or even a majority) are just brainwashed is silly. People have their reasons. I'm not trying to tell you what you can and can't believe, just that in this case, it's not all it's made out to be.

It's sort of like the weird extremist stuff that happens in any belief system.

Quote (FaTaL eRrOr @ July 04 2006, 9:56 am)

Boys, boys, calm yourselves!  Both of you (Wheezle and George) are making the mistake of assuming you're being insulted.  And all of us have made/are making the mistake of lumping people of any one faith into a group.  "Group A believes/acts/says..." is generalization and unfair.  Just because the majority believes/acts/says one thing doesn't mean the whole does.  If you're going to judge a people group, judge each person individually.  If you're going to judge an idea (like the idea of Scientology itself), make sure you seperate it from it's adherents.

I am not being insulted, although wheezle used languge one might assume he was making it personal. But I hold no ill will toward Wheezle. I was merely debating on what he said.

Wheezle hugs Carver





what?  

Well I don't know about you, but I'm planning on heading up to a church of scientology today to see what it's all about.
Now, it could be a money laundering scam designed to give people false hope while eliminating their funds or it could truely be used to help.  I don't know.  But I do know that:
1)  If people are being hyptnotized, brainwashed, ect... they won't know it and will be indistinguishable from just about any other devote follower.  Unlikely as it may seem, many many groups in history have done it alot more effectively.  Look at Hitler.  He literally brainwashed all of germany, aside from the jews, that Jews were evil.  So we atleast can say it's possible.

2) How do you determine what someone is saying is correct and what is false?  Especially over the internet?  If I came back 3 years from now and told you all a bunch of horror stories about labor camps, pressure to never leave, hours upon hours of agressive hypnosis, ect... would anyone believe me?

3) The Church of Scientology has made the statement that anyone who speaks negitively about them isn't part of the church and therefore doesn't understand the church and thus their negative statements are false.  So then does that mean that noone can accurately speak negatively about them?

4) Since we're on religious respect: Durring the earlier days of the Roman Cathlic Church, many people in power were greedy and selfish, often influencing politics, buying land, and using their position as the knower of all things God as a way to gain money like the "pay for your sins to be lifted" and since most people were uneducated and couldn't read, they did.  Would you respect them?

OK, this one has run it's course I think.  The main topic in itself is technically a no no (although I'm in two minds as to if scientology should fall under the catagory of religion).  The thread is also starting to branch out into other areas I don't like, and I'm receiving complaints about it.

*Clunk Click*