The fun thing about Scientology is watching people from more widely accepted religions furrow their brows and pityingly shake their heads while lamenting how silly and unbelievable it all is.

Like me. Scientology makes Mormonism look like the Theory of Evolution.

Does it? Or are they both equally crazy?

@twa: I don't subscribe to an organised religion.

But I disagree that more widely-accepted religions are "equally crazy" to Scientology.

Why should I care about what Tom Cruise believes?

"But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782

Sarg: I understand that Scientology seems more "out there" in many ways... But my question is how much of that is simply a reflection of our cultural conditioning? We've grown up in a world where The Big Three religions dominate our daily lives to the point that even if we disagree with them they still FEEL more organic, and by extension, logical. When it comes down to it, though, I still believe they're equally crazy.
The only thing that separates "cult" from "religion" is popular acceptance.

thatwasawkward when... I decided to point out that Scientology was created by L. Ron Hubbard who admitted he created the religion to make money and that it was all bogus. So the difference between the big three and this one is that the people behind the big three never came out and said "Bwahahahah! You stupid fucks lined my pockets for something I completely made up!" and L. Ron Hubbard did (maybe not in thos eexact words) with Scientology.

^ The thing about belief systems is that no belief system can claim better credibility than another, even if one of its founders is out on the street denouncing it.

Belief systems are just that.

They have faith.

"Faith is absolute belief without proof" - Robert A Heinlein.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. - Hebrews 11:1

Tolstoy, no one is saying that Tom Cruise shouldn't be allowed to believe in Scientology. He can believe whatever he wants, but we get to mock him for it.

This of course ignores the shady shit the Church of Scientology has done over the years.