Any scientologists here?

[Blarg]

Yeah, it's not as if God should be surprised or something. He made him gay in the first place and knew exactly what he was going to do all along. Seems like a stupid exercise from start to finish.

Not that I've read the Old Testament either, just responding to your post.

[[censored]]

I always thought sodom and gomorrah was one of the coolest biblical stories, without dealing with its plausibility.

I don't recall the gay Angel though.

[Blarg]

It was Michael Jackson, who was sent down to save us all. But we were too corrupt.

[A_C_Slater]

We're all brainwashed in some way. We don't even know what it is we don't know.

"Everything you think and feel is a lie" --- Lao Tzu

[PrayingMantis]

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A lot of the stories in the bible really happened. A lot of the stuff is based in fact. The story about Joseph and his coat of many colors is true and there are tons of artifacts to back it up. There is proof that moses existed. You can go on and on.

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The question of what "really happened" and what is myth and imagination, is _so_ complicated, with regard to any known religion (and its main figures), that no one will ever be able to say anything along the lines of what you're saying above.

For instance, there aren't any proofs that moses existed, because it's impossible to prove such a thing. All you can probably say is that there was such a leader, of a certain tribe, or maybe a few leaders, who along the years became to be known as that _one_ mythological leader, who maybe did such and such things and maybe not, some is imagination, some is history, or some combination of the two, etc etc etc. It's really an endless topic, that people (mainly in the academia) spend their lives searching and investigating.

Of course, I agree that still it is very different from the beliefs of the Scientologists: their mythology is 100% pure imagination and 0% what you might call history, and there isn't any point in even trying to see how much of it is truth. However, the core of pure imagination, that exists in any religion, is not different, whether you are talking about Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Scientology, or whatever.

[wacki]

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It's just as plausible to me that life on Earth was created by volcanoes, nukes, and aliens as it was all made by an invisible man in the sky.

That is, very unplausible.

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It's about as plausible as many of Steven Hawkings theories. To be honest, I find many pure atheists just as close minded as fanatic zealots. The truth is we don't know how the earth was made. To claim otherwise is to start a religion yourself. Even if you "think" you are scientific by doing so, you're not.


When it comes to the catholic religion, or any ancient religion, as long as a significant amount of it is based in fact I'm not going to knock the religion as a whole. Humans are notorious for embellishing stories. They are also notorious for screwing up a story told by whispering from ear to ear around a campfire. Now, try handing down a story for thousands of years. Given that, it's amazing how much of the Bible is historically true.

As for the old testament and many of the crazier stories, well you are missing the point. Some religions won't let you eat pork. Some say this was stupid, others say it was very logical back when the didn't have refrigeration. A lot of religion was written simply to change human behavior and it worked.

[wacki]

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You've obviously never read the old testament.

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This is an incredibly stupid comment. I highly doubt you've read the old testament since the very post of mine you quoted references a story in the old testament.

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I think god sending an angel down to test the homesexuality of a man, a test the man fails, and is then punished by having firery rain fall on and destroy his town is equally as ridiculious as the story of Xenu.

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I don't. According to darwinism homosexuality is a catastrophic defect. Back in the day, stories like this served their purpose very well. For a multitude of reasons incest, homosexuality, and polygomy were bad for ancient society as a whole. Whether or not it applies to current society is obviously debated by many.

[Blarg]

No, there are fundamental differences between thinking logically and using the scientific method and merely believing things.

[wacki]

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No, there are fundamental differences between thinking logically and using the scientific method and merely believing things.

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I agree. However, it was the best explanation they had back then (and one that we still can't prove false) and people wanted answers. The number one goal of religion is to change behavior and not to explain why. It served it's purpose.

[sexdrugsmoney]

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but any Christian who says that they're wacko because of the Xenu thing is a hypocrite.

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Eh I disagree. A lot of the stories in the bible really happened. A lot of the stuff is based in fact. The story about Joseph and his coat of many colors is true and there are tons of artifacts to back it up. There is proof that moses existed. You can go on and on.

Yes it's true that a lot of the stuff in the bible is out there but that is going to happen with a book that was slapped together from many independent writings from many different people thousands of years ago.

I don't know that much about scientology so maybe I should keep my mouth shut. Still, it gives the wrong impression.

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You've obviously never read the old testament. I think god sending an angel down to test the homesexuality of a man, a test the man fails, and is then punished by having firery rain fall on and destroy his town is equally as ridiculious as the story of Xenu.

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IIRC That angel wasn't sent to test any homosexuals, they (the two angels) were staying in Sodom (or Gomorah) because Lot and his Wife was there and the homosexual residents of the town wanted to SIITPS.

You can't blame God really, I mean he's got a reputation to protect. When you send your employees out to do your bidding and people try to [censored] em in the ass ... you got to keep it gangsta. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]