Battlefield: Scientology?

For those of you who haven't been following the ongoing war between the BBC Panorama Film Maker John Sweeney and the Church of Scientology... You guys are missing out.

I first found out about the BBC doing a documentary on Scientology from Digg.com. Most of us have gotten our view of Scientology from South Park... So at the time I did not know much about Scientology, so I decided (like anyone who would rather find potentially boring information by watching something, than by reading it) to look the subject up on Youtube to see what I could find out. Well, that's where I found that during the taping of the BBC documentary, the host John Sweeney had gone ballistic on some Scientologists at one of their compounds. As pointed out in that video there are two separate versions of the John Sweeney outburst: the Scientology version and the BBC Version (Part I, II, III).

The Scientology version of the events makes them seem very passive, that it was actually Sweeney's own manipulative techniques that failed him. I'm a fair guy for the most part, and I can understand not wanting your religion to be referred to as a cult; but that's when I started finding out that the situations Sweeney had gotten into were not far and few between.

Xenutv.com producer, Mark Bunker, had videotaped an international demonstration against the Church of Scientology on March 13th, 1999. By the following day, Scientologists were at his door protesting Bunker as a religious bigot... that was fast. On July 2nd, Bunker decided to go to a Scientology fair being hosted in LA. Guess who Bunker ran into at this fair. Yes, that's right, the same guy that was protesting Bunker at his house. This time Dan, the protestor, was much braver with lackies following behind.

What other religion would try and goad people into becoming angry? There is a clear difference between people like Ray Comfort and Scientologists.

The war online is still raging on... Youtube actually being in the forefront. One of the editors from the BBC, Kevin Marsh, wrote in his blog that he believed the Scientology backlash against the BBC documentary to be a good thing, saying, "Journalism that has integrity and honesty in the first place has nothing to fear." Marsh believes that we should continually question the integrity of the journalists who are feeding us the "facts". Amen to that.

I believe the same should be said of people who follow any religions. While you might not want to question your faith, make sure to continually question those who would try to lead your faith. No matter how you look at it, religion will always come down to personal belief, and because of that, I believe that you should question anyone who would impose their beliefs on you.

Stephen

God: A Social Debacle II? (Sarcasm warning)

Evangelist Challenges Atheists to Bible-Less Debate

Read this, if you like, just to get a feel for what Ray Comfort is saying. You don't have to read it to understand this blog.

Hollywood Blasphemy

In this video, Ray Comfort (stage name? Rays of Comfort?), a man who can give us all proof to God's existence, goes around asking people whether they enjoy a good blasphemy.

"Would you go to a movie that has blasphemy in it?" he asks.

"Yeah, I guess, it's a part of our culture these days," says the unsuspecting Christian.

"Would you go to a movie that used your mother's name as a curse?"

Haha, how witty. He got mostly everyone with that; he's a genius! It's not just that he put a video camera in their faces and approached supposed Christians about their belief in God and their belief in a good time. On May 5th he'll be hosting a debate against two atheists to prove God's existence "once and for all".

I was raised as a good, God-fearing, Southern Baptist... and I happen to recall that God said that there would never be proof of his existence, that only faith alone is needed. Here we have Mr. Rays-of-Comfort coming to prove not only that God was wrong, but that God is also right by being wrong. That's a complex argument, but thankfullly he's good at video editting software.

While I may not be a practicing Christian any longer, I believe that its jackasses like this douche who give Christianity a bad name. People like him are the ones that fuel these debates between Science and Religion; a new crusade. But let's all be honest... no one can PROVE anything. Our world is made up of things that neither science nor religion can explain. The more science explores certain questions, the more questions arise. Does this mean that everything science does is completely evil? Well, I don't think most Christians would refuse a liver transplant if they needed to get one... There is a physical basis in science. Religion is metaphysical. Trying to debate the two only boils down to semantics. This really is a petty squable. Yes, yes, I know everyone wants to have proof, but if it were that easy everyone in the world would believe in one being.

Ray Sunshine is not only an attention seeker, he's also niave. He asks "Why does Hollywood use God's name in vain and not Gandhi or Buddha?" (Gandhi isn't considered a god and Buddha isn't a deity in Buddhism either, dumbass) I think that's a simple question with a simple answer... THE UNITED STATES IS MOSTLY CHRISTIAN. Say you were living in America(you were born and raised here) and you wanted to write a movie script. You have this moment in a movie where your atheist character is about to get into some serious trouble... you're trying to find the right dialogue for the moment--and you stop and think, "I sure do hate Buddha"--suddenly the line of dialogue hits you like a bolt from Zeus' hand itself.

"Buddha damn it!" he cries "Buuuuuuuddddhhhaaaaaa why?"

Perfect! Now, only if Buddha cared about American movies. I'm not a renowned expert on Buddhism but I think that if someone had used his name in vain he would have "turned the other cheek" so to speak... oh, what? That's what Jesus would have done too? Hmm, what we need is a wrathful God, one that comes up with a list of commandments... He could strike down those heathen Hollywood bastards. Screw all this new-age love your neighbor crap, lets try to piss all over their beliefs too, just like ours has been for centuries. I mean, it really isn't like Christians have ruled the world for generations.

Ok, enough with my sarcasm. What I'm really saying is that... the debate between Science and Religion always comes down to your sole (soul?) belief. In this day in age we are able to believe in whatever we want, and I'm not saying that Comfort is completely wrong for what he is trying to do. Seriously though, there is no reason for a good Christian to attack anyone else's faith because there is that Golden Rule. And yes I truly believe that Atheism is a form of religion, a religion of no religion. I just wish everyone would shut up and get along. We can see who's right when we're all dead.