Tom Cruise is the what now?

[truehobbit]

Religion may be a personal thing for an individual believer. But it is also a cultural, societal, and political thing in terms of its impact beyond its believer base.

Exactly. That's why you can't come up with a system of ideas, call it a religion, and have it publicly acknowledged as one.
Of course, you can still privately feel about it as a religion, but there is a difference between what is officially a religion and what isn't.
I don't know myself what criteria have to be fulfilled, but over here the status of Scientology as a religion is by no means confirmed.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Friends, I am probably going to move this thread to Tol Eressëa. It definitely is no longer a "lighthearted" Bag End type thread. But I'm going to wait a while to give people a chance to either: (1) edit anything that they don't wan't moved to a public forum; or (2) try to convince me not to move it.

[axordil]

I keep forgetting that Bag End ISN'T a public forum, or at least not as public is construed at HoF.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Maria]

I can tell you didn't get as far as Xenu, by the way. . . .

Actually, I did... but plenty of other origin myths are just as improbable. This one just isn't old enough to have mythic status yet.


My brain timed out on the "Scientology and Psychiatry" segment- so I did get through most of the article.

I have to admit, though, that when I read about most other religions, there is usually a core (that 15% ) that I intuitively feel is right. Or close. That the originators had hold of a good idea about the nature of the universe and just couldn't express it very well. That words can never express such concepts well. That fragment of most religions resonates with me and feels right.

I don't get that gut feeling about Scientology. So, the logical part of me says that all religions have an equal right for people to participate in them if they want without discrimination. My intuitive side doesn't have anything to say about Scientology at all. Nothing feels *true*, but also nothing sounds *bad*. A red herring, so to speak.

My intuitive side is more reliable than my logical side- for what it's worth. I don't think it will hurt anyone spiritually to be a scientologist. Probably won't help much, either... but you never know. I sincerely doubt you can erase Karma just by wishing it away. That really seems to violate many rules of the game as I see them. But, really... who knows? We all have to go with what feels right in religion. What feels right to me may be completely unworkable for you and vice versa. I must assume that those who are drawn to Scientology see something in it that I don't.

edit: Voronwë, I don't care where this thread is.

[Cerin]

For some reason I feel the need to point out that Mel Gibson, being a devout Catholic, would most likely find the suggestion that he thinks he is the Messiah to be horrifyingly blasphemous.


I'm all in favor of moving the thread, Voronwë.


Maria, it didn't seem to me that the thread contained any criticism of Tom Cruise because of his religion. Rather, there was scoffing at the notion of Cruise as a Christ-like figure (more a reflection of people's feelings about another religion). I think the rest of the conversation to that point had to do with Cruise's acting and public conduct, not his religion.

I point this out because I think it would be a mistake to equate criticism of Cruise as a person or actor with a disparagement of his religion.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Since I haven't gotten any requests not to, I will go ahead and move it.

[yovargas]

You didn't intent to move this to the welcome forum, did you? Not exactly a welcoming thread.

"Welcome! We don't like Tom Cruise either!"

[Primula Baggins]

The Welcome Forum is at the top of the list of forum options when you move a thread, so if you forget to specify the destination, it goes there. I think I've done that at least twice.

[Maria]

I make it a point to NOT find out things about actors lives. It interferes with my enjoyment of the stories they are in.

I was devastated once, when I read an interview with Patrick Stewart and found that he doesn't like sci fi. Every so often, that little bit of unwelcome information intrudes into my enjoyment of watching Star Trek Next Gen and utterly ruins the moment for me.

Similar things have happened with other bits of info about actors.

I know nothing about Tom Cruise other than he's a Scientologist and possibly acts foolishly in public. That's vague enough that I don't think it would interfere with enjoying a movie of his, if I happened to want to watch one.

I don't dislike Tom Cruise. I don't like him either. I've never met him. I don't even watch many of his movies, because he doesn't do much sci fi and my tastes are fairly limited.

In short, I don't care much at all about the topic of this conversation except for the freedom of religion aspect and I really have no business in this thread. See you all later.

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

I was devastated once, when I read an interview with Patrick Stewart and found that he doesn't like sci fi.

Yeah, I heard that John Wayne didn't like Westerns.





KIDDING!

[Maria]

Whew! You should have seen my face fall before I saw the "just kidding"!