Since we're posting funny sites about celebrities

[schmosef]

http://www.tomcruiseisnuts.com/

Visit the site. Take the poll.

[Dr Mordrid]

Of all the people to knock Prozac this is the one needs it most

Dr. Mordrid

[Gurm]

Have I mentioned before how scary Scientology is?

A prolific author writes a bullshit self-help book. As a JOKE. People take it seriously. Then he gets in tax trouble, so he creates... a... RELIGION. Registers himself, and everything he owns as part of the religion. Yay! No more taxes!

And people still believe in it. Apparently, see, there are ALIENS. Possessing ... nevermind. It's SOOOO amazingly stupid.

[Nowhere]

I linked the site from parent post to a friend and he came up with some "psychological" (pfff...) test somewhere there/linked from there (didn't looked at the site myseelf yet). Two questions from it:

98. Would you use capital punishment on a child aged ten if it refused to obey you?

Would you like to “start a new activity” in the area in which you live?

And the results (he is quite ok in reality)
Convince them that their lives are miserable and the only way is to join?




Is this still a joke? I hope so...

[Dr Mordrid]

Tack some recycled Gnosticism onto a BS SciFci notion that 75 million years ago there was this alien despot name Xenu who sent alien ghosts to Earth and you have one of the higher level teachings of Scientology. Supposedly these "thetans" now hang around our bodies acting as spiritual parasites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology#Xenu

Dr. Mordrid

[bsdgeek]

There are aliens in your BRAAAAIIINNNNN!

And we need $300k to remove them.

[Gurm]

That's the best part. It costs MONEY. They don't even try to couch it in some sort of "charity" wrapping, or "sacrifice" motivation. They just outright tell you that it costs X dollars to progress to the next level.

They also have a HUGE outreach program, instituted decades ago, to court celebrities. The goal was to make it trendy to be a Scientologist.

Hubbard was a great writer, and a devious bastard. The Scientologists claim that he believed all this crap, but honestly he didn't. It was a great hoax... that people are destroying their lives over today.

[Dr Mordrid]

Starting with Katie Holmes, whose wheels are coming off in a big way;

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162082,00.html

Dr. Mordrid

[GT98]

Starting with Katie Holmes, whose wheels are coming off in a big way;

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162082,00.html

Dr. Mordrid

damn got shit canned from the next Batman already

[Jon P. Inghram]

Hey, Scientology can't be all bad, Battlefield: Earth is a very entertaining movie! And I honestly mean that, I really did enjoy the movie; it's one of the best examples of a movie being so terribly bad in just the right ways that it becomes very fun to watch.

[Gurm]

Hey, Scientology can't be all bad, Battlefield: Earth is a very entertaining movie! And I honestly mean that, I really did enjoy the movie; it's one of the best examples of a movie being so terribly bad in just the right ways that it becomes very fun to watch.

Julie hated Battlefield: Earth because she had JUST finished reading the book when it came out... and compared to the book it's so very VERY bad.

I'm with you, though - I loved it. It was really entertainingly bad.

[Helevitia]

Starting with Katie Holmes, whose wheels are coming off in a big way;

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162082,00.html

Dr. Mordrid

wow, that is scary

[RichL]

Julie hated Battlefield: Earth because she had JUST finished reading the book when it came out... and compared to the book it's so very VERY bad.

I'm with you, though - I loved it. It was really entertainingly bad.

The book was no prize winner to start with. L Ron must have been on a paid-by-the-word deal and his editor getting a kickback.

Still, the film manages to take a mediochre book and turn it into high grade distilled garbage.
It's worth watching after reading the book just to see how mind-meltingly awful it is.

[schmosef]

so Travola's a Scientologist too? I have to wonder, do they know about the Alien stories? Or are they just kept in the dark?

[Gurm]

so Travola's a Scientologist too? I have to wonder, do they know about the Alien stories? Or are they just kept in the dark?

Ok now we're diverging a little.

One of the defining characteristics of a cult is that they have an "external" religious presentation and an "internal" one.

This is one of the reasons (don't go getting bent, Jammrock - we've already discussed that your people aren't like this) that folks get all bent out of shape about Mormons. Their EXTERNAL presentation is the stuff in the Book of Mormon. I think it's silly, but it's pretty much just a branch of Christianity. But their INTERNAL presentation involves Temple Rites, and all kinds of OTHER strange stuff. They VIGOROUSLY deny it, or try to spin it, but that's how it is. They even "posthumously baptized" some of the worst people in recent history (for presumably good reasons, but since when can you posthumously baptize ANYONE?) such as Hitler and Stalin... and then worked REALLY hard to pretend they hadn't.

Scientology is much the same way. Who KNOWS whether or not Travolta and Cruise know about the bizarreness that is upper-level Scientology? Scientologists don't even ADMIT to the really weird stuff. They deny it vigorously, and even launch smear campaigns and outright harassment (sometimes even PHYSICAL attacks) on anyone who makes too much noise about their inner workings.

The problem is that with a cult of any size... we live in the information age. Just ONE cult dropout with a cable modem, and the word is out. France & Germany have made Scientology illegal - they don't tolerate cults over there.

Catholicism, for all that I hate it, is pretty damn open. "THIS is what we believe, it's not up for discussion." The vatican does shady stuff, but it's not like the Pope believes one thing and your local priest believes something entirely different. Same with Judaism, Buddhism, Baptist Christianity, etc.

But to get back on track, Scientology VERY SPECIFICALLY isolates its members. You should read the testimony of some former members, they tell SCARY stories about being forbidden to have outside friends, how the church takes over your life, watches over you 24/7 to make sure you're not straying, etc. etc.