Somehow the Mission Impossible music playing in the background seems fitting.
Have you caught the buzz circulating on the internet about Tom Cruise's leaked Scientology rant? Cruise was caught on film rambling on at length about his Scientology beliefs. Just trying to follow the logic in his rant on the merits of Scientology seems like an impossible mission.
Reportedly, the Church of Scientology did not want the video surfacing on the internet and has heavy-handedly moved in with the lawyer brigade to try and restrict the video's availability. This legal maneuvering by the Scientologists was seen by some as a 'restriction of free speech.' The result: the launch of the internet wars raging between the Church of Scientology and a loose affiliation of illegal hackers trying to bring down the Scientologists' website and initiating a variety of other internet sabotage, including 'Google bombing.' Now the FBI's involved, computers have been seized...and who knows how this is going to play out in the end...
But what is the Church of Scientology about? What do Scientology's followers believe? Let's zero in briefly on two key teachings - God and salvation and compare Scientology with what the Bible has to say.
God:
Scientology draws its view of God from science fiction and eastern mysticism and teaches there are multiple gods, while denying the deity of Christ. In contrast, the Bible teaches there is one eternal God revealed in three persons, as explained in these verses:
• There is one who is called the Father and is identified as being God. ’Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,' declares the LORD (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
• There is one who is called Jesus and is identified as being God. "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Col. 2:9).
• There is one who is called the Holy Spirit and is identified as being God. "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of truth" (John 14:16-17).
Salvation:
Scientologists believe personal salvation comes through freeing oneself from the cycle of birth and death associated with reincarnation. This Scientology process of breaking this birth/death cycle is called 'auditing,' where memories and subconscious thoughts that block positive energy are removed. Auditing can be a lengthy and expensive process. In contrast, the Bible teaches that salvation is through Jesus Christ.
"I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
So take the opportunity to use the buzz around the Tom Cruise Scientology video circulating on the web to talk with your friends about spiritual things. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
• Ask your friends if they've heard any of the news stories about the recently released Tom Cruise's Scientology video rant? Ask them if they're interested in spiritual things. Continue >>
Comments
Citsonga,
I've seen your kind of "drive by atheist" before, I'm not sure if you're a high-schooler who's just read the latest Dawkins book, or if you're a Scientologist that's trying to divert attention away from the main thrust of the argument. Your tactics and phrasing is fairly consistent with both, but it doesn't really matter does it? The article and the discussion that followed were a comparison of Scientology to Christianity, and a question of whether or not they're compatible. That is all.
If you actually wanted a genuine discussion this isn't where you'd go to find it, you'd find a serious apologetics website, or go to one of the many, many boards where you find people with every possible philosophical point of view. Instead you came here and decided it be fun (lulzy) to yell "Religion is irrational and man made" and try to see if you could get a rise out of the netizens here.
You're not even *trying* man! Tell me do you have any training, education, studies, or what not other than surfing Sceptics Bible and the Dawkins forums? Have you even done that? Wittgenstein? Flew? Pascal? C.S. Lewis? Kreeft? Ring any bells?
That said I suppose I *could* say that if you make a positive claim (and yes saying that all religion are man-made *is* a positive claim) that goes against accepted knowledge then *you* are the one that have to back it up. I suppose I could say that your points were little more than going "You're all the same, and I won't be bothered even considering anything else." I suppose I could say that one paragraph or two line posts that contain no arguments, no new point of view, and contain deliberate provocations, is generally the mark of a troll rather than a debater.
However I don't want to say that since you're posts are off topic. The topic at hand is a comparison of Christianity and Scientology, most specifically to see if they're compatible or not. It's not a comparison of philosophical materialism with various brands of religious philosophy.
Flagging and deleting inappropriate or off-topic posts is common in all web-communities, don't flatter yourself to think that you're being flagged because of your Iconoclastic Truths. You're being off-topic, and you're getting what most boards do to off-topic drive-by trolls.
Once more if you want a serious debate go find a place where such debates are on topic and appropriate. If not, well I hate to classify people, but here:
http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/atheist.htm
I apologise for the length of this post, but I had to make my points quickly, and I'll probably be unable to post again for quite some time. Good luck, God bless, and have a good day.
I got flagged twice. I must be making good points. Some folks here cant handle opposing view points I suppose. Keep those blinders on and ignore reality- if that makes you happy- great, but to whom ever is doing the flagging, stop being the information police for everyone else. If you dont like what I post, ignore it or defend your point of view and point out where you disagree with me. Stop being an ignorant coward.
Romans 1:19-22
19 Because the knowledge of God may be seen in them, God having made it clear to them. 20 For from the first making of the world, those things of God which the eye is unable to see, that is, his eternal power and existence, are fully made clear, he having given the knowledge of them through the things which he has made, so that men have no reason for wrongdoing: 21 Because, having the knowledge of God, they did not give glory to God as God, and did not give praise, but their minds were full of foolish things, and their hearts, being without sense, were made dark. 22 Seeming to be wise, they were in fact foolish. (If we don't want to be found out as actually being foolish, we best get a hold of God, before it is too late. We still need to live what we know the truth to be no matter what others may choose to believe.)
Man is GOD BREATHED!!! We breath HOLY BREATH but we can choose to reject this and sadly many are.
My prayer is that people will wake up and see they are living on a DEAD planet and the only way off is JESUS CHRIST! This world is reserved for fire and then Jesus will bring a new heaven and a new earth! Blessed be the Name of the LORD!
L. Ron Hubbard was a SCIENCE FICTION WRITER!!!! and not a very good one! Nothing personal but people need to see this is FICTION!!!
JESUS CHRIST is real and HE is alive! L. Ron Hubbard has died and no one knows where he is!
But JESUS CHRIST is returning!
As God's Word says about the End Times: people draw up for themselves preachers who preach what they want to hear; even myths will be told as truth; please be correctly discerning the times and know that we are created in the IMAGE of Almighty GOD and people are exchanging the Worship of the Creator, to worship the creation; which is also Prophetic.
This should encourage all true followers of Jesus Christ; as we see The DAY approaching; we give THANKS!!!!! The KING is coming!!! Hallelujah!!!
Hallelujah, hallelujah!
Sorry, just couldn't resist that one. :) I do agree that the best way to share one's faith is by living a good, productive & virtuous life, saying when I read the Bible, this is how I feel, and letting our actions be our words. Soooo a person can try to use Hannah Montana to use their faith, but in the end it's just a dumb TV show and not really what a person should base their principles off of. :)
The Bible doesn't agree with scientology. True christians need to have a deep relationship with the Lord, Jesus, and know His Word like the back of their hand. We just need to live our lives the way His Word tells us to do. That is the best way to witness and win souls!
http://www.contenderministries.org/scientology.php has a VERY good article on it
We Are Anonymous, not "Hackers" as many newsgroups would have you think - very few of us are code savvy
Now we come full circle. As the Church attempted to have the Tom Cruise video removed, another video, titled simply “Message to Scientology”, was distributed online. This video, a declaration of war against the Church, coincided with Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks which succeeded in disabling a number of key Scientology websites. This – later described as an opening salvo to grab the attention of the public and the media – quickly evolved into a movement pushing for global demonstrations against the Church on the 10th of February 2008. Demonstrators wore masks resembling those from the film and comic V for Vendetta, to protect their identities from later reprisals from the Church's Office of Special Affairs, as a symbolic statement against tyranny, and to reinforce the concept of Anonymous: that it is everywhere and nowhere, everyone and no-one.
Described by the church as Nazi-Communist hate criminals in the pay of the German government (which has refused to grant the Church tax-exempt religious status) and the psychiatric establishment, and by the media as “hackers on steroids”, Anonymous is chaotic, disorganised, organic, viral, confusing, amusing and growing. It is in this structureless, leaderless, anarchic environment that many find strength when put against an organisation which is based on, and can only understand, the most rigid forms of authority.
preparations are already underway for the 15th of March, the next round of global demonstrations, timed to take place close to the birthday of L Ron Hubbard. Critics have come forward to voice their support, ex-members have been given the courage to speak out, and people worldwide are becoming aware that the kooky sect with some strange ideas is the home of a rotten and destructive core. Only time will tell what effect this will have in the long term, and whether the Church can adapt to face its new challenge, but one thing is clear: the Church is under threat.
Many Christian/Muslim and other online religious groups have stated support for Anonymous in our plight.
We are Anonymous.
Expect us.
I agree entirely, it is silly to judge a religion based on the rantings of an actor. That's why I've included links to Scientology websites, quoted L. Ron Hubbard himself (and given links to audiofiles) and so forth to explain my point of view. If you're interested just scroll a little further down in the comments section.
Strudelcookies - I agree.. do not base it at all on the actors, base it on the whole structure of the unloving and corrupt cult that it is. Do not call it a religion please, as doing so insults me and all religious people. At best it is a business.
Hmm...I don't know much about Scientology, but it does seem a bit odd to judge a religion based off of some crazy actor's rants. Just my thoughts.
Excuse me, I have looked deeply into Scientology from both sides before you accuse me of only looking at haters websites. The fact is that the Church of Scientology runs like a cult where you need to pay more and more money to get up the ladder. By the very fact that the church forces it followers to dissconnect from their families who are not members and they feel the need to hide behind such things as "free personality tests" in which every single person is told they need to join to be able to live a happy life means that it is something that should be questioned at all levels. The Bible is very open and will be given to anyone that asks for it, to find out about the high levels of the Co$ you need to get there, and to get there you need money. = Buisness/Cult
Not quite, the very essence of the beliefs is that you are an immortal spirit being that's being held back by a collection of bad events that have occurred in this life or in previous lives. Once you've been cleared or cured of all these beliefs you will regain the various abilities and powers a Thetan should have, never get sick, have a perfect memory and so forth. This needless to say is incompatible with Christianity.
Then you ask me not to believe in everything I read? If I can't trust L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology's own websites to give me accurate information about Scientology, then who can I trust? Are you saying www.scientology.org and L. Ron Hubbard are wrong about Scientology?
However if I were to take you seriously, if the essence to your belief is that we're immortal spirit beings who are troubled by bad deeds, well why do I need Scientology? I already know about souls, and this carpenter from Judea who seems to have a good bead on how to get rid of your sins.
So either you're incompatible with Christianity (according to what I've read on www.scientology.org and heard from L. Ron Hubbard own lips) or I don't need Scientology (according to you). Which is it?
I'm sorry, SilentBefore, that you think I'm trying to trick you or "muddy the waters".
To be honest, my knowledge of the Bible is fairly poor, and I've only ever read translated versions, so I cannot say in absolute what was in the original version. All I said was that "some scholars think".
Conversely however, you seem to consider yourself an expert on Scientology, despite your sources being extremely dubious.
At least my views of Christianity are not based on www.christianity-hatred.org and www.lies-about-christianity.net.
Not everything you read on the net, or in newspapers and books, is true.