[lbo-talk] Scientology: the beliefs

[John Thornton]

On Fri, Jan 18, 2008 at 11:19:11AM -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:
>> Someone asked why Scientology was odd. A lot of Christians don't  
>> really believe in the literal truth of the Bible, which is a relief,  
>> considering some of the things in that strange text. But  
>> Scientologists are expected to believe a lot of stunning nonsense.  
>>     
>
> I read this (all I know about Scientology I learned from the South
> Park episode...) and it stunning nonsense, but hardly worse than
> believing that an invisible god impregnated a virgin and then
> the baby grew up and died and magically came back to life and flew up
> in the sky.  Being Christian means believing in this magic-Jesus
> stuff; maybe not all of the magic stories, but at least those two.
>
> DC-8 shaped spaceships carrying souls to be blown up at volcanoes
> sounds pretty much the same as invisible sperm and resurrections, at
> least to me.  I'd say it is a wash when it comes to the level of
> nonsense.
>
> There are probably Scientologists who think Xenu is just allegory, if
> we want to give them a pass, too.
>
> Matt

Those are my thoughts. Most xtians believe most of the bible is true. 
You have to believe the whole god impregnated a virgin nonsense to even 
be a xtian.
Doug isn't generally one to give xtians a pass but he seems to be 
veering that way with respect to scientologists.
One reason I dislike this supernatural crap was brought home today in a 
radio interview I heard with a laid-off worker.
She wasn't angry because she believed god had a plan and would do 
whatever was needed. She put her faith in god when she needs to put her 
faith in others to get anything meaningful accomplished.
As long as the ruling class has this for people to fall back on the job 
of consciousness raising will be made just that much harder.
Supernatural beliefs are an obstacle to change in spite of the fact that 
some religious people do good work.

John Thornton