Why does it seem the SL population hates Christians?

My dear Mr. Nerd

As a Jew you offend me deeply with your assertions that because I believe Jesus is a man a teacher and perhaps that he had much to share with mankind, but was not the risen son of god, that I ,no matter how hard I try, no matter no matter what good works I do, am condemned to hell.

I further am appalled and offended to the core that by your assertions everyone of the 6 million Jews that died in the Holocaust after weeks or even months of torture finds themselves in hell. If your christian god or Jesus, is one that condoms good people who die at the hands of a madman to a life in hell, then you can bloody well keep him!

I am so offended I am not ARing you, I am calling LL directly as well as the Bi nae Brith and the JDL. People like YOU make good people like me glad to not be christian. As to the OP I am sorry you are being harassed but you must see it is people like Mr Nerd ( gad what an apropos name) that cause you to be treated as such.

That's not an acceptable remark to make in public.

For those who don't know (or missed that one beautiful airing of South Park).

$cientology is a pseudo-religion that was founded by a sci-fi writer. I can safely say pseudo-religion as they define themselves as being followers of a philosophy or discoverers of some truth, without laying claim to the existence of any specific God.

Similar perhaps to people who take the books of Gor too seriously, $cientologists follow the teachings in their book as if it was a religion. If anyone suggests that they may be wrong or that they are doing something uncouth, they file slander lawsuits and, in rare cases, descrimination suits. This scares some $cientologists into never leaving the pseudo-cult, as they may be sued if they disagree openly. This also allows the group to carry that same 'OMFG descriminated' banner that some Christian and Wiccan groups are known to wear on their sleeves, thus validating the system in the eyes of the believers.

So what do $cientologists believe? Well, like the Bible, it's a case of a few good ideas mixed in with a lot of junk, but being told that if you don't believe the junk, you dont believe in the good ideas. $cientology encourages healthy eating, kindness, etc. It also has a few things in it that are senseless, like not treating cancer and a bit of numerology. Once the leader of a group of $cientologists has deemed someone as being with the belief enough (read, brainwashed 1984 style), they are told the Ultimate Truth.

This is the part that South Park exposee'd with the help of a couple of former $cientologists who they refrained from naming. Comedy Central was immediately sued and the episode banned from North American distribution via broadcast after airing. The Ultimate Truth. If I get sued for this you people better send L$ .

They believe, essentially, that an alien starship scattered the souls of humanity all over the Earth and other places. Essentially, a survey mission to see how Life works. The alien who flew the starship promised to come back and retrieve the souls and learn what humans learned, but that following $cientology and understanding the plan was the only way you'd get to advance in the alien culture when you get there. Otherwise you were just shoved into storage (some groups dont believe the storage bit but it's been more prominent as more people have left the cult). The alien is an interdimensional being and in some texts, there's mention of interdimensional war.

There's some pretty wide holes in that explanation for life, obviously, but that's their theory. And to say they might be wrong means you could get sued. So yeah, I'd say they make themselves targets.

Very well said Boliver and I couldn't agree more and I'm one of those pesky heathen going straight to hell without passing go and collecting $200 atheists.

BTW on a lighter note, This particular line you mentioned above "If your christian god or Jesus, is one that condoms good people who die at the hands of a madman to a life in hell, then you can bloody well keep him!" sounds kinky. Jesus/God condoms good people?!? and here the church has been opposed to condoms and birth control...if they only knew.

Didn't Jesus preach tolerance?

I'm going to hell I guess as well.

I've studied a lot of Scientology texts, and examined a lot of the claims of ex- and anti-Scientologists. Most of what you've written here bears no resemblance to what EITHER side claims. But then, why worry about collecting facts when no one likes the group in the first place, huh?

This is why the value of tolerance and the principle of innocent until proven guilty are so important. People should not be persecuted on account of such bullshit, even if they are a bunch of weirdos.

I've studied a lot of Scientology texts, and examined a lot of the claims of ex- and anti-Scientologists. Most of what you've written here bears no resemblance to what EITHER side claims. But then, why worry about collecting facts when no one likes the group in the first place, huh?

This is why the value of tolerance and the principle of innocent until proven guilty are so important. People should not be persecuted on account of such bullshit, even if they are a bunch of weirdos.

umm one small correction
you are not a Heathen, you are a heretic because you have heard teh word of God and do not accept that!

i take great pleasure in pointing this out to teh "good Christians" who call me a heathen all the time

Nice dodge; you could have at least Googled the response that was already out there, which basically blames it all on the Jews and still says boys kissing is A HUGE SIN. How about I find some, from the new testament, that I have problems with:

1 Peter 2:18 "Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh."

Colossians 3:22 "Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord."

1 Timothy 6:1 "All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered."

Matthew 10:24 "A student is not greater than the teacher. A slave is not greater than the master."

Revelation 2:22-23 "So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds."

Killing children? Slavery? Nice.

The vast majority of Christian are good, moral people who use their religion as both inspiration and moral code. Those who are brainwashed are a different entity entirely.

Regards,

-Flip

You know what? I bet that is where I got it. I'm a big fan of Bill Maher. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure that's where I heard it from, but that it was much ruder and more strongly stated than I did.



Ananda, did you read the posts? Most have been commenting on how the person who insulted the original poster is a bigot and an idiot, HOWEVER, we don't like evangelic over-zealous types thrusting religion down our throat. There's a world of difference between the comments made by the original poster and Lewis Nerd's post. Within that difference lies the reaction that has been seen.


A Muslim has never harassed me in the street trying to convert me. A Muslim has never told me "You're going to hell." I'm not worried about Muslims running the USA into the ground, leveraging a perversion of a religion to brainwash and rule through fear. Christians have done all these things to me.

That said, the great majority of Christians are good people with a moral compass and understanding. Have you ever told someone they're going to hell? Whatever I believe in as an agnostic - you know, my own moral compass - that would be telling someone they're going to hell (and actually believing and taking joy and comfort in it) because they disagree with you is a much greater sin than most considered by many Christians, like boys kissing, female priests, and working on a Sunday.

Regards,

-Flip

umm one small correction
you are not a Heathen, you are a heretic because you have heard teh word of God and do not accept that!

i take great pleasure in pointing this out to teh "good Christians" who call me a heathen all the time

Yes, but most atheistic philosophers (e.g. Nietzsche, Mackie, etc.) would argue that with a rejection of any kind of theism goes the rejection of the system of metaphysics built on it. Epistemic honesty requires this, not the kind of lazy hanging onto moral metanarratives that passes for atheism today

The difference is that Aimee Weber isn't the saviour of the world.

In my world, neither is jesus

Can you linky those books? Everything I've read and seen and heard has jived with my explanation perfectly well, give or take.

I remember a certain incident or 2 where Christendom burned thousands of midwives, pagans, and homosexuals, so let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.

Jenn - you made me laugh right as I was taking a drink. I wonder if Vanilla Pepsi and Compaq's go well together

No argument there, but I attribute that to the individuals rather than their specific inspirations. I'm certainly a huge fan of religious architecture but religious texts don't teach engineering or material sciences on which those human achievements actually depend. Credit where credit is due.

not be a part of something I don't fully believe or that no matter how much I believe would chose to condemn me to hell for questioning and for life decisions and personal philosophies.

http://www.scientology.org/html/en_US/istore/item/index.html?minisite=10041&section=10322&item=680

I'd start with this book, or with the What Is Scientology? book. Stuff on the web (including Wikipedia) is mostly just a battleground of unsubstantiated allegations and attempts by each side to smear the other.

Flipper-

I don't know the whole details of the OT III incident, but I would like to point out to you that it is merely a description of a discovered incident, not the Ultimate Truth in Scientology.

The ultimate truths of Scientology are rather basic and can be found in the first few sections of either book I mentioned. Everything else is just things people may run into along the way to trying to achieve spiritual awareness and ability.

I'd start with this book, or with the What Is Scientology? book. Stuff on the web (including Wikipedia) is mostly just a battleground of unsubstantiated allegations and attempts by each side to smear the other.

The verdict characterizes KEPHE as "... an organization with totalitarian
structures and trends, which essentially despises man, acts freely "in
phenomenon" in order to attract members, who are then subjected (with all
the above mentioned processes and theories) into a brain wash, aiming at
the creation of directable way of thinking and minimizing objections
(basic positions of the Scientology founder's theories), so that we are
standing in front of beings with no personal will, who have lost the
capacity of making decisions as products of their free will, since they
have passed through the propaganda filters of Scientology and the suitable
processing, become susceptible to the "truths" it applies, without having
motives to examine and evaluate".