Fun Stuff > CHATTER
Chanology?
Spinless:
--- Quote from: The extra letter on 11 Feb 2008, 06:23 ---I'm normally one for letting people believe what they want, but any "religion" that uses trademarks, copyrighting and the like as much as Scientology is a money making venture, not a belief system.
--- End quote ---
Why not? Nobody is forcing you to become a Scientologist. Infact, while I'm sure they use despicable means to hold onto their member, I'm pretty sure that nobody has been held at gunpoint and forced to make the first payment. Scientology is still a choice, just like most other religions.
schimmy:
Gunpoint, no. Blackmailed? Yes.
There was a fantastic Louis Theroux documentary a while back about Scientology where he interviewed former members, attempted to interview current members (they showed up, but pretty much refused to answer any of his questions.)
Anyway, onto the blackmail. What the 'church' does is, they persuade you to let them measure your stress levels using primitive lie detectors.
They then persuade you (at this stage they are very friendly) to talk to them about yourself, and, as I assume you know already, talking about your problems can relieve stress.
What's the problem with this? They record everything you say so they can blackmail you in the future. And now, if you don't have the courage to back out, you basically have to keep paying them an increasingly large subscription to not tell the world your secrets.
Now, I assume most of you don't have secrets that huge that would destroy you if people found out.
But, I'm also willing to assume you're not an actor or businessman to whom a scandal would destroy your career.
That (along with what others such as Khar have said) is what is wrong with Scientology. Maybe it is a religion. Religions can break the law, and scam people just as well any other organization, and I don't see why professing supernatural beliefs should make them immune to criticism and, more importantly, persecution for breaking whatever laws they've broken.
Spinless:
On top form as usual, schimmy. If the Church of Scientology has indeed broken the law, and legal action is taken against the church, then what's stopping us from taking legal action against all churches?
Jimmy the Squid:
A misguided sense of religious tolerance tells us that some things, like a person's right to believe stupid, erroneous, primitive and backward things, are untouchable. You can argue politics, you can argue your opinion of a ruling of a soccer referee but as soon as someone says "I refuse to give my schizophrenic son medication that will allow him to live a relatively normal life because this book, which I will not let you look at, says so" we have to back off and respect it?
Fuck that noise.
0bsessions:
My only real contirbution to this is that I'm glad to know why the fuck there was a dude with a V For Vendetta mask at South Station yesterday.
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