Should Scientology Be Banned?

I have actually considered many different religions, I didn't just go for one that is 'popular' in the UK! I love reading about religion so have looked at quite a few but Christianity is the world that reached out to me and I felt most comfortable with, I think that's a fair reason.



I wouldn't say I am atheist to other religions, just that I have chosen to follow the Christian God. Who's to say there isn't one God and just many different manifestations of Him?



I like to think that Bon Jovi said it all with "In a world that gives you nothing

We need something to believe in"

 

But you did end up with the one religion that happens to be the most popular in the country in which you were born, why do you think it "reached out" to you - how and why? How much research did you actually do on the other faiths before deciding Christianity was correct? Did you talk to spiritual gurus from other faiths? And the question of your atheism depends on what sort of Christian you are - fundamentalist interpretations of the monotheistic faiths tend towards exclusivity - if one is correct, the others must be wrong: "I am the way, the truth and the life, and no-one comes to the father except through me". But this all depends on your particular interpretation of the faith, whether you're a fundamentalist born again or of a more ecumenical bent

 

I chose to be Hindu and my parents are. That doesnt mean they MADE me. That doesnt mean i didnt think about it. I chose it just as you chose Christianity but all it means is my parents are the same religon. And of course its one of the ones im most exposed to... I think Christianity i have been exposed to more because we never were particularly religous and so we didnt go to the temple much but we had the stuff in primary school every week etc. So i would say Christianity was the most, Hinduism second and none of the others were much.

 

Hang on...Why should it be banned?

 

It's a coincidence though, no? It's certainly a mistake to assume that there is a necessary connection between the faith of the parents/culture and the faith of the child in every case. But when it happens in an overwhelmingly large number of cases of religious faith, so that someone choosing a faith that is not native to their social background is the very rare exception and those choosing faiths they were brought up in the overwhelming norm, I think it's fair to deduce a pattern.

 

I don't think it really makes a difference that it is the most popular religion, I decided upon it based on personal factors, not the number of people who follow it.

As for how and why - I found it to help me out when things weren't going brilliantly and it helped me to clarify things and find answers to problems that were bothering me which beforehand I hadn't been able to find.

I did not decide overnight, I have doubted the existence of any God, believing the world would not be like this, there would be more signs, live morally and all is good etc, however, I know how I was/ felt both before and after so to speak.

I did, I have spoken to many leaders of different faiths: Imams,priests, rabbi's, buddhist monks, but I didn't feel anything from those religions on a personal level.

Well I think you would know, if I was here with the sole purpose of preaching Bible and telling you how bad you are etc. I am pretty open minded, there are lot of 'Christian' principles that I don't fully agree with, let's just say I would not fit in with the crowd of a Southern Baptist church!

 

I don't understand, I never said that if one's beliefs are the same as their parents that they "made them". Lithium was saying that 90% of people just choose a religion because it is in the family or it is forced on them, I decided a religion for myself, never said that people who have the same religion as their parents don't decide for themselves in what religion to follow.

 

I'm sure everyone who genuinely follows a faith thinks they do so for the most rational reasons and are convinced that their choice was free. But the hard fact that religious choice is overwhelmingly geographical and cultural and almost always shared with ones parents tells a very different story. Choice between religions is almost entirely an accident of birth.

This is not to suggest that in every single case a choice of faith is not free and unbiased - that is not something anyone can possibly say, and there will doubtless be exceptions in which the choice was entirely free. But the statistics clearly indicate that a large portion of the faithful, if they think their choice was free, are deluded.

 

I don't agree, people are free to make choices and do. It's deluded to think otherwise.

 

Is the geographical and cultural distribution of faith a rather neat coincidence? Did most of the population of India coincidentally all happen to freely choose Hinduism quite independently and most of the population of Saudi all happen to independently freely choose Islam?

Does that hypothesis really explain the evidence?

 

You know I think I am done with this. Just seems to be abusive a lot of the time and I am not one to join in on that!

 

I don't think anyone is being abusive. You said you were willing to debate, but obviously not.

 

This is the response one usually gets when trying to engage in polite debate on this matter with christians, and the reason why I try to avoid bringing it up. It is a really interesting subject and I'm really interested in debating it, as I have been doing - politely, patiently, tolerantly. I really don't think I've been the slightest bit "abusive" here, I was listening to your points and responding with mine - just as you as you, moonbeam, requested earlier on in the thread.

At the same time I'm sorry and disappointed you feel that way and apologise if any offence was caused.

 

I don't think that some of the post here are polite or tolerant. It seems to me that you said you like debating, yet just seem make statements, then if someone doesn't agree appears to be insulting.

I am happy to debate, but I don't want to feel like having a religion was decided upon by someone else and that Christians or any religion are not rational people because they have faith, which seems to be the main theme running in most of the posts!

I spent three years at uni in debate societies with religion being a major topic so I do like to debate! But I don't always end up with the sense of being inferior or some what!

 

"Making statements" and counter-statements is what debating is I'm really interested in listening to your perspective and giving you mine. It sounds to me like you don't really want to listen to or engage with the other side of the debate. It's not for me to say whether I was "abusive" or "insulting", I most certainly hope not, and it's a strong accusation, so I'll not take this any further and once again apologise that you feel that way

 

Lithium already provided the caveat that it cannot be said to be true in all cases that religion is a result of parental influence. But there is such a strong correlation between parental religion and child religion that I think it would be impossible to argue that parental influence (which we can already see affects children in a very wide range of areas throughout their formative years) is not one of the most significant factor. People will always want to think that they arrived at where they are today on their own steam, they own course, their own rationale and motivations. But how much do we ever do that's truly independent of the social forces pulling us in different directions? For some people religion might come to them in life changing 'epiphany' when they feel they need it most. For the vast majority, however, they are born, baptised, christened, circumcised into a faith and live their first years as extentions of their parents' value systems. It is only later in life that people have the choice to accept or challenge what they were brought up to believe....

 

Its not a coincedence - yes, chances are that if i was born into a muslim family i would be muslim. But i dont care because im happy with my religon. If i wanted to i could change but i dont want to. And chances are if i changed it would be to something like Buddhism.

And Moonbeam i was referring to your comment about not being a sheep or something.

 

I didn't say anything about sheep The only I can think of is that she thought I was talking exclusively about her personally, but as Peace pointed out I made clear that I wasn't and it is a given that general trends tell us nothing about individuals, just about propensities and likelihoods. I have no knowledge of or interest in specific cases - that's the other thing about debating, you talk in generalities and don't take it personally.

 

tbh it's not that many people who are able to conceed ground that honourably really

The environment one is raised in creates the "real" world we each perceive, anything we think of as rational has been taught to us directly or indirectly by our peers, to think of any our choices as freethought is a process of a young mind.

A person of faith has an emotional response to the thought of otherwordlyness this creates the reality of it, love exists. The human desire for the reason why is a product of this response, some people perceive a greater than, sure all can be, and is illusion but maybe the perception is real.

 

You can't ban anything people want to do.Especially when it pertains to religion or changing consciencness.Both have been around forever and will probably remain so.