[ QUOTE ]
But after all is said and done, most agnostics, including me, think that any specific religion is RIDICULOUSLY UNLIKELY. Certainly unlikely enough to deserve mocking if Scientology deserves it.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is even more true when Christianity is the religion being discussed. People forget that its core beliefs are as absurd as Scientology. I'll list a few Catholic beliefs:

1. There is an invisible man who created and has power over the entire universe. He gave humans one life on Earth, after which time will be sent to a place of wonder and happiness for eternity. However, he has a list of things he doesn't want you to do. If you do these things without asking forgiveness, you will end up in a place of torture and suffering for the rest of eternity. If you make fun of him, you will also end up in this place.

2. Two thousand years ago, God impregnated a human virgin so that he could have a son. This man grew up to be a prophet. In his life he walked on water, turned water in wine, instantly healed diseases. He was nailed to a cross, allowed himself to die, and three days later rose from the dead. Because of this, people can now go to that place of wonder and happiness.

3. You can perform a ritual whereby rice crackers and fermented grape juice turn into the ACTUAL - THE ACTUAL - meat and blood of that guy who lived 2000 years ago. You can then eat this and be brought closer to the invisible man.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transubstantiation

Looking at this objectively, people who believe these things sound like nutcases, or at least slightly mentally challenged. Can anybody reasonably say otherwise? How are these beliefs fundamentally different from Scientology's (not their practices, the actual beliefs themselves).