Just watched ‘Going Clear’, the HBO Scientology documentary.

The Huffington Post has a nice breakdown of all the dirty laundry as well.

This is about as damning as it gets to this particular brand of insanity. (Of course, gotta love em’, the Southpark folks nailed this several years ago, and quite accurately as well. Heh.)

I was raised “evangelical protestant” as a kid growing up. I spent years after leaving home reading up on and researching the world’s religions in general. I was trying to understand why people believed with all of their hearts and minds what I considered to be utter nonsense. From that perspective, this documentary didn’t give me any real “new” information other than some specifics that I was unfamiliar with.

The only difference I see with this religion/cult over all the others is its age, by which I mean its youth. No “accepted” religion in history as far as I can tell was ever accepted happily by the general population surrounding the small groups that were “true believers”.  The order of the day was to persecute/kill/banish those believers  until things evolved to favor the newer over the older.

From the ancient of days when an Egyptian Pharaoh decided to toss the gods out on their collective ears for an all in one Sun Worshiping Bonanza, in turn freaking out all of the clergy under him, all the way up to ol’ Joseph Smith and his golden Mormon tablets just a short hop back in the scheme of things, most people laughed…or got their dander up at the wacko-upstarts. This scientology stuff is nothing new.

Whether it be Xenu, the angel Moroni, Jesus, Zeus, Osiris, Odin, or ANY of the never ending stream of “gods and saviors”, people (in general) WANT or NEED to believe in something. They always have, and I suspect they always will…regardless of evidence to the contrary staring down upon them every night in the sky.

I say all that without trying to be  disrespectful to people’s personal beliefs. Everyone has to figure out the journey in this life on their own, and if believing in some power helps out, cool beans. (I just have a huge disconnect between “organized religion” and “belief”.)

When it comes to what a TON of religious organizations have perpetrated in the name of their gods and saviors over the centuries, I say a pox on all of em…this one just being the latest in a long line of charlatans and evil people sucking in those who just want some answers to the meaning of life.