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What's more believable, Scientology or Christianity?

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Xenu
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25 May 2012, 2:13 am

Scientology is pretty cray-cray but it has just as much historical relevance as Christianity.



shrox
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25 May 2012, 1:08 pm

Xenu wrote:
Scientology is pretty cray-cray but it has just as much historical relevance as Christianity.


You are very young...



Xenu
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25 May 2012, 1:29 pm

shrox wrote:
Xenu wrote:
Scientology is pretty cray-cray but it has just as much historical relevance as Christianity.


You are very young...


I'm a history buff (my special interest) and I being raised to be a pastor have read the bible front to cover several times. I can assure you that my age has nothing to do with what i'm saying.



Thom_Fuleri
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26 May 2012, 4:38 am

Xenu wrote:
Scientology is pretty cray-cray but it has just as much historical relevance as Christianity.


Good grief, even Xenu doesn't believe in Scientology!
That's like Jesus telling us Christianity is all a load of nonsense...



shrox
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26 May 2012, 1:40 pm

Xenu wrote:
shrox wrote:
Xenu wrote:
Scientology is pretty cray-cray but it has just as much historical relevance as Christianity.


You are very young...


I'm a history buff (my special interest) and I being raised to be a pastor have read the bible front to cover several times. I can assure you that my age has nothing to do with what i'm saying.


Do you remember a time before cable and satellite TV? Do you remember a time before cell phones? Just things alone have affected your view more than you can realize.

I can't recall any battles fought over Scientology, or any great works of art commissioned by Scientology, other than a bad movie from a so-so novel. Christianity has great historical relevance, just like Islam, Buddhism and Shinto.



edgewaters
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26 May 2012, 2:02 pm

shrox wrote:
Like I said (and Mr. T. Fuleri noted), it's a first step. Proving the existence of a person (as best is possible) is the first step towards establishing a credible case of circumstantial evidence in historical matters. If more such persons can be established to have existed, it makes some the of the events told in the Torah and Bible to be more credible


None of the supernatural events are made even an iota more plausible by it. When Schliemann uncovered the ruins of Troy, it didn't make any of the Greek gods or the mythical creatures present in accounts of the Trojan War any more plausible at all.

Moreover, its terribly bad historical methodology, working backwards from a conclusion just to "prove" a preconception that was already arrived at before the evidence was in. The level of bias in this methodology makes any conclusions totally suspect and usually invalid.



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26 May 2012, 2:29 pm

edgewaters wrote:
shrox wrote:
Like I said (and Mr. T. Fuleri noted), it's a first step. Proving the existence of a person (as best is possible) is the first step towards establishing a credible case of circumstantial evidence in historical matters. If more such persons can be established to have existed, it makes some the of the events told in the Torah and Bible to be more credible


None of the supernatural events are made even an iota more plausible by it. When Schliemann uncovered the ruins of Troy, it didn't make any of the Greek gods or the mythical creatures present in accounts of the Trojan War any more plausible at all.

Moreover, its terribly bad historical methodology, working backwards from a conclusion just to "prove" a preconception that was already arrived at before the evidence was in. The level of bias in this methodology makes any conclusions totally suspect and usually invalid.


I am speaking of other events as well, such as meetings and observations.



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26 May 2012, 2:58 pm

Xenu wrote:
Scientology is pretty cray-cray but it has just as much historical relevance as Christianity.


Uh... yeah, sure


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26 May 2012, 4:42 pm

They are both equally crazy.


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26 May 2012, 5:03 pm

artrat wrote:
They are both equally crazy.


Anything supernatural is a bit inherently nutty, but Scientology is at least 9000% crazier than most Christian denominations


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26 May 2012, 8:42 pm

Vigilans wrote:
artrat wrote:
They are both equally crazy.


Anything supernatural is a bit inherently nutty, but Scientology is at least 9000% crazier than most Christian denominations


What do you expect from a religion that was started as a joke by a second rate science fiction author?

ruveyn



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26 May 2012, 8:44 pm

ruveyn wrote:
Vigilans wrote:
artrat wrote:
They are both equally crazy.


Anything supernatural is a bit inherently nutty, but Scientology is at least 9000% crazier than most Christian denominations


What do you expect from a religion that was started as a joke by a second rate science fiction author?

ruveyn


Second rate is far more praise then he deserves


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27 May 2012, 1:08 am

Vigilans wrote:
artrat wrote:
They are both equally crazy.


Anything supernatural is a bit inherently nutty, but Scientology is at least 9000% crazier than most Christian denominations


I think that impression is only because most of us grew up with Christianity. If aliens landed and compared the two, I think they would judge them to be equally unbelievable. I see this from the perspective of one who was indoctrinated in one of the *ahem* less conventional Christian religions. Being brought up in Christian Science, my religion (at the time) didn't seem crazy at all. The majority saw it as crazy as Scientology, but reality is not decided by majority rule. I now recognize that mainstream Christianity, Christian Science, and Scientology are all wrong about the nature of reality.


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27 May 2012, 9:16 am

Rocky wrote:
Vigilans wrote:
artrat wrote:
They are both equally crazy.


Anything supernatural is a bit inherently nutty, but Scientology is at least 9000% crazier than most Christian denominations


I think that impression is only because most of us grew up with Christianity. If aliens landed and compared the two, I think they would judge them to be equally unbelievable. I see this from the perspective of one who was indoctrinated in one of the *ahem* less conventional Christian religions. Being brought up in Christian Science, my religion (at the time) didn't seem crazy at all. The majority saw it as crazy as Scientology, but reality is not decided by majority rule. I now recognize that mainstream Christianity, Christian Science, and Scientology are all wrong about the nature of reality.


Certainly they are equally invalid as interpretations of the universe, but the Bible at least references people and locations that actually exist/existed. Scientology has a theology that involves things that cannot even be verified by half-assed archaeology :lol: I mean how will we ever know if Xenu ever existed


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27 May 2012, 11:31 am

Vigilans wrote:
Rocky wrote:
Vigilans wrote:
artrat wrote:
They are both equally crazy.


Anything supernatural is a bit inherently nutty, but Scientology is at least 9000% crazier than most Christian denominations


I think that impression is only because most of us grew up with Christianity. If aliens landed and compared the two, I think they would judge them to be equally unbelievable. I see this from the perspective of one who was indoctrinated in one of the *ahem* less conventional Christian religions. Being brought up in Christian Science, my religion (at the time) didn't seem crazy at all. The majority saw it as crazy as Scientology, but reality is not decided by majority rule. I now recognize that mainstream Christianity, Christian Science, and Scientology are all wrong about the nature of reality.


Certainly they are equally invalid as interpretations of the universe, but the Bible at least references people and locations that actually exist/existed. Scientology has a theology that involves things that cannot even be verified by half-assed archaeology :lol: I mean how will we ever know if Xenu ever existed


It is true that Scientology was created by a fiction writer, but I think Dianetics and the Bible should both be put in the fiction section. If I were forced to go to traditional church or whatever building that Scientology uses, I would go to church. At least they don't harass those who deconvert. I knew someone who tried to leave Scientology, and he experienced just that. It was almost like trying to leave the mob!


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edgewaters
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27 May 2012, 11:41 am

Vigilans wrote:
Certainly they are equally invalid as interpretations of the universe, but the Bible at least references people and locations that actually exist/existed.


That's just because it's the scientology of the Iron Age. In a couple thousand years, if it's still around, scientology will be in the same position. Probably better, actually, because they'll easily be able to document the factual existance of L. Ron Hubbard and numerous other things. Of course, the fact that L. Ron Hubbard actually existed doesn't lend an iota of credibility to the whole thing, but people seem to think establishing these things matters for some bizarre reason. But only after a set period of time. Everybody recognizes LRH's factual existance doesn't matter right now but for some inexplicable reason, if he had died a few centuries ago rather than recently, it would matter.