Sigh... I should be getting ready for work.

Well now I don't feel guilty for idolizing Tom Cruise.

Tom Christ just doesn't have the same ring.

See New Jersey ain't so bad afterall, we export New Religion Messiah wannabe's. Maybe we should change our State Nickname from the Garden State to the Messiah State.

And New York, take that! you may devour half our pro sports teams, but you don't have a New Religion Messiah.. Ha! If you'll excuse me now, I must go exorcise some tortured alien souls. I thought I only had to worry about demons... now the aliens are fighting for control too. All these entities wanting a piece of me... I feel so special.

Note to Katie, I think you shoulda taken that left turn at Albaqurkee when you had a chance (or however you spell it)

You have a point about the movie, but then again the movie would be based on science fiction that somehow became a religion. Christianity on the other hand is based on the Bible, focusing on the New Testament, which is far from science fiction considering there is evidence pointing to the events and people in the Bible actually having existed.

I am assuming you were referring to:

When you say that you feel the same way about Christianity.

I've probably sent this thread on the path to P&C, but someone has to stand up for Christianity every now and then. Seems like it happens less and less nowadays (not here in particular).

Nice catch. That rubbed me wrong, but I couldn't have put it into words like you did.

Wouldn't that lend credence to the whole 'psychiatry is evil' line of thinking?

"Scientologist David Miscavige says Travolta had his plane hijacked by a gang of psychiatrists who forced Travolta to stop using his 'Tech' and start using Zoloft."

"Scientologist Messiah Cruise is reportedly considering removing Travolta from his post as the 'Holy Ghost-like figure of Scientology' as a result."

Yeah.. "Get control, page 547.." large exploding volcano thing... booming voice "DIANETICS! by L. Ron Hubbard."

Forgive me for saying, I don't think even Christ would leave Nicole Kidman.

"The religion's founder, American science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, claimed that extra terrestrial beings were sent to planet Earth by intergalactic ruler Xenu, who then blew up the aliens with hydrogen bombs in a volcano." After playing Black Sabbath at 78 speed..

I think the difference between Christianity and Scientology is that Christianity's been around long enough to have weekend warriors. The statement "not all Christians are fundamentalists" is a truism. The statement "not all Scientologists are fundamentalists" is false. In part due to its youth (few have been born into Scientology, yet,) and in part due to its ultra-strict regulations on what one "may see" (some would call it brainwashing,) Scientology is simply more extreme than the mainstream religions.

I dislike Scientology because I think the upper echelons are still simply frauds - knowing fakes bilking people for money, and no other reason. How long it will remain like that is still to be seen, but if Scientology persists for long, it runs the risk of becoming too earnest for its founders' good, and becoming a legitimate religion! I LIKE Scientology because I think it's a characature of religion - everything wrong with institutionalized faith, blown up to proportions that non-members can't ignore.

In every Scientology thread someone has to come up with the "edgy" comment about Scientology and Christianty being equivalent. And sure, they are exactly the same, the way a legitimate business and the Mafia are exactly the same. I mean they're both businesses, and screw big business rah rah rah....

Except the Mafia kills people, and extorts money, and generally does tons of illegal and immoral things. A legitimate business at it's worst might raid your 401k. There's a world of difference there.

Scientology doesn't preach enlightenment, they sell enlightenment. Christian preachers don't stop in the middle of a sermon and tell you to insert $300k if you want to hear the rest of it. Scientology charges ridiculous sums of money for it's message, and constantly ruins people's lives by slowly ramping them up the ladder until they're millions in debt. Scientology also denies psychological help to it's followers, which has caused the death of several members so far and constant mental problems to several more. Scientology sues people to get them to stop saying anything critical of Scientology, and until lately they successfully kept the lid on their craziness through their ridiculously powerful legal team. It's only through sheer force of numbers that the press can even print articles like the one above. And I can see by several of the respones here that most people still don't know how Scientology really works. It also ostracizes members who leave the congregation, to the point of almost destroying their career, constantly harassing them legally and illegally, and generally trying to ruin their life. To Scientologists, all non-members are "fair game" which means a Scientologists can do anything to them, including murder. To pretend that Christianity and Scientology are equivalent shows a great deal of ignorance about how Scientology actually operates. Christianity is a pet dog, Scientology is a rabid timberwolf.

Just read a little at http://www.xenu.net/ which is a very informative site.

Pyro, your post was neither pointing nor laughing. It's Tom Cruise, man. It all practically writes itself.

What would Tom Cruise do?

Still, isn't this a lot of hoopla based on what is not even a second-hand report?

So some guy heard from someone else that Tom was told he is like Christ. Yeah, I think Tom and the rest of the Scientologists are nuts, but this story is not real journalism.

Isn't he like the only one that could afford to be like Christ? Would he also have to lose that lovin' feeling if he was?