2012 Off topic thread(basketball,movies,etc whatever)

[SPX]

For pure Scientological hilarity, the following video is a must see:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/263120

[SPX]

O'Hara's treachery has disgraced us.

[Svino]

That's pretty interesting.

Here's what I really want to know: Do they really believe it? Does Cruise, for instance, really believe the story about the volcano and the body thetans and all that shit? Does he think it's literally true?

Well, the volcano story is certainly *intended* to be believed. None of the higher OT levels make sense except in light of a literal belief in the existence of body Thetans, and clearly a lot of people believe it. The key is that you would never even hear about this stuff until you'd already spent a huge amount of time, energy, and money on Scientology and by that point the psychological buy-in is so huge people will believe just about anything. Most Scientologists never even get to the point where they're learning about Xenu.

I have heard some former Scientologists claim they had always rationalized it by thinking of it as a parable, but I doubt that's the case for everyone.

[zY|]

I have heard some former Scientologists claim they had always rationalized it by thinking of it as a parable, but I doubt that's the case for everyone.

Pretty much this. If you believe or want to believe, you will find a justification or rationalization. I don't see how the Xenu story is any more ridiculous than a lot of that bullshit in the Bible, which doesn't seem to bother Christians in the slightest.

[SPX]

Pretty much this. If you believe or want to believe, you will find a justification or rationalization. I don't see how the Xenu story is any more ridiculous than a lot of that bullshit in the Bible, which doesn't seem to bother Christians in the slightest.

I've actually always thought of the Christian story as being less fantastical than most other religions. There are supernatural elements but they seem more grounded.

[zY|]

600 year old man building a boat for every animal.

[Svino]

Pretty much this. If you believe or want to believe, you will find a justification or rationalization. I don't see how the Xenu story is any more ridiculous than a lot of that bullshit in the Bible, which doesn't seem to bother Christians in the slightest.

There's kind of a trend where the the more recent a religion is, the less obviously nutty its beliefs tend to be.

At the least, we can say Scientology bucks that trend.

One funny thing about former Scientologists is that while a lot of them come to believe that all Scientology is bunk, there are still a lot that continue to practice as "Independent Scientologists". Even after coming out and reading everything on the internet about how big a joke it all is and talking to the other ex-Scientologists, they still somehow manage to believe that Scientology practices are true at their core and the only problem with the religion now is that David Miscavige is ruining the church by having strayed from L. Ron Hubbard's teachings.

The truth is that if anything, Miscavige's dishonest, controlling, paranoid style of leadership makes him pretty much the perfect successor to Hubbard.

[poopoo333]

What are your guys religious views?

[SPX]

600 year old man building a boat for every animal.

I guess I was really more thinking about the New Testament. . .

[SPX]

So I'm not overly familiar with the story.

How is it that Hubbard claimed to know all these things? Did he receive some divine revelation from God or did he just figure it out?

[zY|]

I guess I was really more thinking about the New Testament. . .

Yes, like I was saying, rationalizing away the crazy parts.

[SPX]

What are your guys religious views?

I'm pretty much a pure agnostic. But I was initially raised Baptist and was at one point a pretty serious Christian who thought that I would one day end up in some kind of career related to the faith, whether that would be the ministry or working as an apologist in the academic world.

Today I think that not only does humanity not know the truth, but we probably CAN'T know with certainty. I think that there may be a god and that that god may even intervene occasionally in human affairs, but I don't think that that God has revealed himself to any particular group of people so that they could write a book about it and then say that they have the one true religion that we are all supposed to believe in. Conversely, I am also open to there being no god at all.

I think that there are a number of spiritual, possibly supernatural experiences that humans have been having throughout history (like near-death experiences, encounters with apparitions/ghosts/other creatures, out of body experiences, etc) that may point to the existence of a spiritual/supernatural reality. I also think it's possible that these experiences are what lead to the founding of many of the world's religions.

Right now I'm reading a book called The Christ Conspiracy, which tackles the question of whether or not Jesus ever actually existed in any form at all. It is one of the books that Zeitgeist Part 1 was based on. It's pretty interesting.

[SPX]

Yes, like I was saying, rationalizing away the crazy parts.

Well when I was a Christian I would've just said that God is a supernatural being and so what else would you expect than for him to perform wonders that aren't normally possible? But yeah, the Noah story does have all the hallmarks of a myth and legend.

But I will say that it irritates me that people use walking on water or rising from the dead as a reason to not believe in Jesus. "People can't do that!" they say. And I'm like, well yeah, that's the whole point. He did shit normal people can't do. If he didn't then he'd just be another dude, not the Son of God.

There may be a whole lot of reasons to believe that Jesus WASN'T the Son of God, but I don't think his miracles are among them.

[MMA_scientist]

What are your guys religious views?

I worship steven segal.

[zY|]

You know who I pray to?

Joe Pesci.