Mainstream religions may have some troubling doctrines, but people are at least able to live normal lives for the most part with only modest demands on their time and money.

Sure they are, as long as they consciously decide to ignore the actual crazy tenets of religion, and pick and choose what parts they want to follow, the parts which don’t offend 21st Century societal standards.

That’s not ‘being religious’, that’s being ‘pseudo-religious’ and a phony. The real Christians are the Fred Phelps, wacko racist homophobic Christians. Everyone else is doin’ it wrong.

Scientology has earned its special odium with the harrassment of ex-members, the financial ripping off of families, the denial of medical care, and its abundant lack of concern for anyone outside of it.

Scientologists are amateurs when it comes to harrassment of ex-members, compared to Christians. After Scientology burns hundreds of thousands of people at the stake over the next thousand years for not being Scientologists, we can compare the two.

For the record, I am not defending Scientology, I am just amazed by the claim that Christianity is any better than Scientology.

I think you guys are slightly missing my point. Its possible to poke holes into any religion, but here’s the difference: if a priest was in a tv interview and the interviewer asked “so, when you die, if you’re good, you ascend above the clouds to some nether region where a guy with a long list of people checks to see if your name is there in order to let you in?” the priest wouldn’t storm out of the room like the scientology people. The priest would probably just say “Yes”.

No. Different sects are all over the map with different answers to the question you just posed — among many others. None of these different sects can even agree on what their own dumb book says. If you actually sit there and pick apart the dumb shit that is in the Bible, the way Martin Bashir did to the Scientology guy, a lot of church apologists WILL storm out of the room, or have a hissy fit. Look at Bill Donohue having a stroke any time Christopher Hitchens farts.

Yes, Scientology is retarded, but that’s as far as I go in agreement with this post. It’s definitely NO better than Christianity, and truthfully, it’s not nearly as harmful as Christianity is. That’s because Scientology doesn’t have this false veneer of respectability like Christianity does, that prevents us from making fun of it. We can mock Scientology all day long and rightly so, but Christianity deserves the same mockery, and yet this is considered unacceptable in our society, as your post demonstrates. Scientology is a silly joke, but Christianity is a dangerous virus.

The Xenu story isn’t any dumber than the Jesus story; at least it was written by someone who was a professional writer, and not a bunch of delusional sheepherders in the desert, with no understanding of science or cosmology, contradicting each other every third paragraph.

Mainstream religions are packed to the gills with all sorts of flaws, but at least they largely aren’t about secret levels open only to the rich willing to pony up.

Actually, that’s exactly what they are about. Ever hear of tithing?

Scientology has earned its special odium with the harrassment of ex-members, the financial ripping off of families, the denial of medical care, and its abundant lack of concern for anyone outside of it.

Hey, just for fun, let’s talk about the Catholic church! Dunno if you heard about the former Catholic Italian comedian who was almost thrown in jail after mocking the pope? No? Well she was almost imprisoned for 20 years for calling the pope gay, essentially.

Hey, weird how the Catholic church demands tithing, donation, collections, and a host (pun intended) of other costs, especially if you want to move up in the church.

You want to talk about denial of medical care? There are millions of people dying in Africa right now because a pompous billionaire douchebag says that condoms do nothing to combat the spread of AIDS. Who was said douchebag? I’ll give you two guesses.

Abundant lack of concern for anyone outside of it? I have yet to see a Catholic charity that was not explicitly Catholic, and when they were asked politely to stop trying to convert Muslims in Sudan, they pulled out instead.

Yeah, waaaaaaay better than Scientology.

Look, I in no way want to be construed as defending Scientology; it’s a stupid, expensive and ludicrous waste of time for everyone involved in it. But I also want people to stop thinking that any religion is good, because they’re not.

Whether you’re a Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslims, or miscellaneous, you are just as stupid and deluded as the followers of Scientology, and as a certain shyster once said, “take a look at the log in your own eye before commenting on the speck in your brother’s.”

Scientology has earned its special odium with the harrassment of ex-members, the financial ripping off of families, the denial of medical care, and its abundant lack of concern for anyone outside of it.

If, as I one day hope, all religions get the kind of stifled giggle treatment that Scientology gets, I would be surprised if more representatives don’t walk off rather than talk about their faiths.

Hell, I’d like to hear a reasonably intelligent rep of Christianity explain how over 70% of the stupid, stupid American population actually believes in angels. Then let the subtle mockery begin, and let’s see how long the interview lasts.

Firstly, you confuse the sciences of cosmology, physics, abiogenesis and evolution in one sentence; that has to be some kind of record. Then you commit a major logical fallacy where you claim that the fact that the written depictions of Jesus’ birth match those written thousands of years previously means that his birth fulfilled some kind of prophecy.

Uh-huh…

It couldn’t possibly be that Jesus’ followers wrote the story of his birth to match the prophecies after the fact, could it? That would make a lot less intuitive sense than that miraclezzz!!11!

Then, to add a stupid cherry on your stupid sundae, you claim “nothing in recorded history has ever contradicted the Bible.” You sincerely cannot be this dense, can you? Geology directly contradicts the account of the flood, as there is literally no evidence anywhere on earth; physics and geology point to the age of the universe greater than 6,000 years, as well as there being more planets, stars, etc. than one; genetics points out that we can’t get striped sheep by having them face a striped stick; physics points out that the world can’t just stop all of the sudden; genealogy points out that human beings actually originated in Africa, not the Middle East; etc. etc.

And the New Testament is contradicted by other non-canon material like the Gnostic Gospels.

So yeah, actually, the Bible’s basically like a really long-winded children’s book, and only intellectual midgets would take it seriously.

Well, without even belonging to his church, I’d hope the priest wouldn’t say quite that. If he’s a Jesuit, he certainly won’t. I don’t know exactly what he’d say, and Jesuits are better than I am at this sort of thing, but it would probably be on the lines of “Let me explain why that’s a serious misunderstanding of what the Church teaches, even though the elements of what you say are very like some of our teachings.”

Which, as you say, is waaay above what you can get from Scientologists. Maybe they need to go out and hire some Jesuits.

You don’t have to believe anything you don’t want to.

Um, thanks?

However, something began life- and if you believe in the Big Bang Theory, you have to have a stronger faith than any believer in Intelligent Design.

Stupid, stupid comment. First off, it’s just wrong. Secondly, it conflates the big bang theory (e.g., the origins of the universe) and intelligent design (e.g., the origins of species). Stupid. The Big Bang did not create life, it created the universe – life came much, much later. Also, intelligent design is wacky nonscientific creationist bullshit.

The fact that the Bible predicted the birth of Jesus thousands of years before it happened- and predicted exactly how it would happen- then goes on to tell us- albeit somewhat cryptically- how this earth will end.

You read the Bible with a motive and desire to interpret it in a certain way. You’re not objective.

Nothing in recorded history has ever contradicted the Bible, but you go ahead and believe what you want.

Right. Which is why there are unicorns, and incontrovertible scientific evidence that the Earth is 6000 years old, and that dinosaurs never existed, and that people can turn into pillars of salt, or that a manmade ark can hold two of every type of animal on Earth, or that the Sun goes around the Earth…

That’s the beauty of faith. You have a free will. And, if you choose to ignore Christ during your life, He will ignore you in death.

Looking forward to being thrown in the lake of fire from this all-loving and caring God you speak of.

Idiot.

Can you offer any actual support for this?

It’s my turn now – just for fun read Leviticus! Chapters 1 through 6 or 7 are all about how to hold a barbecue for your Invisible Spaghetti Monster (honest no shit) – most of the next dozen or so chapters are about who you should stone to death – GREAT STUFF! Interestingly queers should be stoned to death BUT you can’t eat shellfish or rabbits. Great news if you’re a bunny!

I’m not really into making judgements about whose religion is the bestest,

To paraphrase Churchill: all religions are the worst form of religion, except for Scientology.