Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion

That was a quote from the founder of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard.
I don't think it's fair to hate on Christianity alone, so I thought I would look deeper into the pseudo religion of Scientology (Islam, YOU'RE NEXT!). And what I found was shocking.

The year is 2005. Widely famous actor Tom Cruise is on the Oprah show, promoting War of The Worlds, when in a fit of passion, leaps on the couch exclaiming his love for his drone, Katie Holmes. I heard about this, thought nothing of it. Cruise who was normally composed in interviews in the past years, has been looking more and more crazy. He was on the Today show later that year, debating against psychiatry, as "there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance in a body". Of course, I thought this was hilarious. Research and science has proved that that the human body is riddled with chemicals and an odd mix due to genetics is bound to occur. Shaking my head again, I thought nothing of it.
Then later that year, I seen the now notorious Scientology episode of South Park. This is the first time I have heard of this and thought it was a joke. The way they described it, I thought it was a parody. Even the "THIS IS REALLY WHAT THEY BELIEVE" flashing on the screen, I STILL thought it was parody. Over the years, I have heard various things about them, but nothing substantial. Until I found out someone I knew was one. The language they spoke of it was very.... entrancing. It wasn't a personal way of telling, it was talking points (A talking point is a neologism for an idea which may or may not be factual, usually compiled in a short list with summaries of a speaker's agenda for public or private engagements. Public relations professionals, for example, sometimes prepare "talking points memos" for their clients to help them more effectively conform public presentations with this advice). I didn't even know Scientology talking points, but I knew political talking points and they sounded just the same. I recognized the arrogant delivery.

This is when I wanted to start on this, find out what it is. One need not look long before you see an indoctrination about a million times less subtle than the typical Christian's. And then after that you see the mafia-esque - tax fraud, bribing and intimidating the authorities, wiretapping members and dissenters, extortion, calling the works of those who defected aptly named "suppressive" (which is a term they use for anyone who is openly against the church, including ex-members), making false legal claims, etc. This isn't buried knowledge or hearsay. And it's definitely not isolated. It is ingrown into the society, itself.

Next, their ideology. Fuck it, I'll just copy from Wikipedia

Xenu, also Xemu was, according to the founder of Scientology and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology dogma holds that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm. Members of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story.

That pretty much sums up that. Hubbard was a SCIENCE FICTION WRITER. I mean, once you hit this part of it, you should see that it's just tacked on to give it religious validity, even though it's complete nonsense. Like I said, it was his intent to create original material to entertain the public and that's what he did.

 Now there is auditing, probably the biggest farce and scam and oddly enough, probably it's biggest draw. Okay, so a "thetan" is a spirit sort of creature that never dies, apparently, and goes in search of a baby in the womb after death. This spirit creature records all the experiences of it's "owners" and is sort of a tablet for memory. Thus, through this psycho hypnotic therapy session, known as auditing (which they themselves refuse from the IRS, go figure), you can recall past events of your life as a thetan. To the lamen, this is intriguing. It's identical to reincarnation, except they just gave the spirit of a scifi name and the ability to remember...... which you can through therapy sessions too. Basically, this where Hubbard got a bit lazy and just stole the entire reincarnation thing for himself.
To someone like myself, who is familiar with the human brain (or at least, the mental aspect of it), it's seen as trickery. People are creative. It's just in our very being, to create elaborate tales for entertainment. Look at religion. It has existed ever since man has and wonder why? Auditing only gives people the reason to think up elaborate stories. There is only one way to prove auditing and thetans. Get someone who lived a past life, with full details of that person's life which they could not know. Say a Californian businessman with the memories of 1920s hooker in Brooklyn, which we could go back and track exactly what he said. Do they do that? No. If they did, do you not think they would publish that in some medical journal in a heartbeat? Obviously they would, it would give them validity amongst the science community and the world. Why WOULDN'T they do that? Because it all is a farce.

They also attack psychiatry, as a means to discredit their competitors to their "You can make yourself feel better if you just think it". Didn't work when Peter Pan suggested it, it isn't going to work now. And they blame those among their members who are sick. They cloud people's minds who could be getting proper treatment, much like Christians and praying, except worse.

Finally, the things that Scientologists say to reference or read up on their "religion". They lure in the weak with simple questions, make them seem like they need the help of the church to fix them, then offer ways of trickery to coerce buying their material. And they, of course, tell you to read the books, look on the website, which completely over complicates things and is intended to show that the person is not adequately able to handle all the material and some get impressed by it. This is not an adequate way of representing your beliefs. Any atheist you talk to will instantly tell you of his beliefs, his thoughts, his "religious" stances. Hell, even a Christian would. But when even the most knowledgeable Scientologist, who are really into, would STILL reference you to the website, that tells you a lot right there.

There's more I can say. But I am already repulsed at this point. Had they had the history of the Christianity, I no doubt think more and worse atrocities would have been committed and WILL be committed. But I think this video sums up my opinion on Scientology, as well as the video producer in the clip.
Also, I read a 19 year old TIME article on it. Check it out as well, as well as anything I said. Just look into it and if there's anyone you know in it, get them out and get them help.

Essential Experiences

I sometimes feel like missing out on those experiences was a bad thing, almost a potentially life-threatening thing. No matter how they turn out, everyone who goes through the rounds seems at least well adjusted and adaptive. My future is bleak because I avoided everything, saw fit to exclude all of it from my life because of unnecessaries, fear, or just plain laziness. But the one thing that fills me is the fact that I won't be like them

I don't look for the normal life. I don't want it. Every human experiences the same thing, go through the same rounds, to the point of utter repetition. And for what? "I did it too". Is that all you have? I just don't see it. I want a different set of circumstances and experiences. And maybe living my life in negatives rather than positives is none so great, either. I don't know what I want, but I know what I DON'T want. Strange how things turn out... I just want to be different. I want to tell my story at 60 to some youngster and change his life. I want to live and be all the things that normal people cannot, because of responsibilities, obligations, family, romance, friendships and just things in general people want to do (like owning property). I don't want to fucking relate to any of you. All of you are boring. Your lives drift on and you could be replaced in a micro second. I yearn to be different, if nothing else then to discover what it's like to live out of favor. I can learn all I want about living in favor by listening to all of you.

Bill Maher: Don't screw with our prom!

"Conservatives have to stop complaining about Hollywood values. It's the Oscars this weekend, which means two things, one, I've got to get waxed, and two, talkradio hosts and conservative columnists will trot out their annual complaints about Hollywood: We're too liberal, we're out of touch with the heartland, the theater floors are always sticky, our facial muscles have been deadened with chicken botulism, there aren't as many Goobers in a box as there used to be, and we make them feel fat. To these people, I say -- shut up and eat your popcorn. And stop bitching about one of the few industries in America that still makes something people all over the world want to buy. Not to rub it in, but"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" made $400 million. And that's a squeakquel.Last year, Hollywood set a box office record: $10.6 billion. Sixteen billion worldwide. Not bad for a bunch of socialists. You never see Hollywood begging Washington for a handout, like corn farmers, or the auto industry, or the entire state of Alaska. Except for Kevin Smith, we pull our own weight.
What makes it even more inappropriate for conservatives to slam Hollywood is that they more than anybody fall in love with any D-list celebrity who happens to lean to the right, to the point where they actually run them for office. You don't find the equivalent of Sonny Bono on the left -- or Fred Thompson, or George Murphy, or Congressman Gofer from"The Love Boat." And let's not forget, the modern conservative messiah is a guy who co-starred with a chimp. That's right, Dick Cheney. But also Bonzo's buddy, Ronald Reagan. Now, I like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he is an Austrian ham who bragged about drugs and gang-bangs and could speak no English, but when he said he'd run, the family values, anti-immigrant party terminated in their pants.
Which brings us up to the right wing's most recent teen crushes: a couple of cute kids named Sarah Palin and Scott Brown. Sarah is a former Miss Wasilla who served as the weekend sports anchor on station KTUU in Anchorage before eloping with her high school sweetheart and eventually answering a call to public office. Scott is a former Miss Cosmo Guy, and his turnoffs are people who don't drive trucks and having to wear clothes. Scott's a senator now, but -- shout-out to the folks at"The Bachelor" -- if you need a stud for Season 19, Scott's totally there.
Politics has become the safety school for show business washouts who are just looking for a way to stay in front of the camera -- the Republican Party is not far from nominating a guy who dropped a hundred pounds on"The Biggest Loser."
Republicans say they hate celebrities who get involved with politics, but you would too if the best celebrities on your side were Chuck Norris and Bo Derek. I'm not saying no one cares about their stars, but if Stephen Baldwin killed himself and Craig T. Nelson with a car bomb, the headline the next day would be"Two Die in Car Bombing."
The truth is that the vast majority of Hollywood talent are liberals, because most stars adhere to an ideology that jibes with their core principles of taking drugs and getting laid. The liberal stars that the right are always demonizing -- Sean Penn and Michael Moore, Streisand and Alec Baldwin and Tim Robbins, and all the other members of my biweekly cocaine orgy -- they're just people with opinions. None of them hold elective office or are trying to, and liberals aren't begging them to run. Because we live in the real world, where actors do acting, and politicians do... nothing. But conservatives are like children; they see an actor on TV and think he's really that guy. Fred Thompson plays a stern judge with a folksy charm -- that guy should be president!
A lot of Republican policy ideas are stripped straight from primetime. I wish I were kidding, but in one of the Republican debates in '08, they spent the whole hour arguing about plotlines on"24," asking,"What would Jack Bauer do?" and"If he were here right now, which one of us do you think he'd like to go torturing with the most?"
We progressives love our stars, but we know better than to elect them. We make the movies here, so we know a well-kept trade secret: Those people on that screen are only pretending to be geniuses, astronauts and cowboys. Besides, we can't elect our liberal stars because they're burdened with an affliction that your average conservative celebrities don't suffer from -- regular work. So don't hate. And please, don't ruin the Oscars. We're just like you. And the Oscars are really just our prom: The tuxes are scratchy, the limos are rented, and we go home with 18-year-old girls."

 Had to repost it from Bill's blog.

Progress Versus Tradition

I find traditions abhorrent. You could say it's because I was never held in any traditions, but I would say I was never indoctrinated into any of them. Really, it's a form of oppression. And by the way, I'm not talking traditions like certain people setting the table at dinner time or anything like that. I'm talking religions, "rain dances", festivals immortalizing deities, even something as tied to modern culture as marriage. All started for one reason and now, are something completely different.

I think that, in this age of knowledge and technology, traditions should be a dying breed. It's just something used by the powerful to control the dumb and ignorant. It helps the ignorant focus on little happiness and complacency instead of learning the intricacies of the way our world works and challenging authority. It's a throwback to the old days where many things could not be explained and the masses didn't even want to. The effort and work was not worth it, especially when they would pursue happiness instead. It's just such a perpetual cycle that seeing young people fall to these old ideals, it's a travesty.

Traditions, just like religion, should be understood as mental masturbation and not something to revere.