Mostly offtopic, but it must be said.

I was reading through some Scientology doctrine, and this is my current (sketchy) understanding. So billions of years ago an alien overlord named Xenu loaded up a ship with aliens, came to Earth and congregrated around a volcano. They then dropped hydrogen bombs down onto the ship, killing the aliens and releasing thetans (their souls) with which Xenu implanted into every living thing. This was called Incident II. Believe me, they probably wanted to call it the Second Impact but Gainax threatened suit..

Durr! This is a real religion?! I'd rather believe in Eva doctrine, it almost makes more sense. And undoubtedly more entertaining.

LOL, you can learn everything you need to know about Scientology in that one episode of South Park. I see scientology recruiters outside of Wal-Mart and malls sometimes, and one time I actually went and messed with them by asking a bunch of questions about "top secret" information from their church. And there was another time when these two cool guys started asking them questions about their cult infiltrating the IRS (which they have done).

I'd imagine that Scientology does not like Evangelion do to the Freudian psychiatry themes. After all, psychiatrists are in league with Lord Xenu, and so are the IRS. They'd say that Shinji should have just joined Scientology and had audit counseling.

LOL, that sounds like a fanfiction waiting to happen!

Timstuff wrote:LOL, that sounds like a fanfiction waiting to happen!

Meh.

I'd rather see Kaji become an ordained SubGenius minister!

L Ron Hubbard, pulp-SF writer invented a religion, partly egged on by John W Campbell and others around Astounding Stories in the 1950s. It was a successor to a diet/yoga sort of thing (Dianetics) that was built around the idea of protecting oneself from harmful radiation, amongst other things.

Anno's pulp-SF benefitted from
a) 40 more years of genre and technoloical development
b) not being meant to be a religion.

Mr. Tines wrote:L Ron Hubbard, pulp-SF writer invented a religion, partly egged on by John W Campbell and others around Astounding Stories in the 1950s. It was a successor to a diet/yoga sort of thing (Dianetics) that was built around the idea of protecting oneself from harmful radiation, amongst other things.

I recall that Isaac Azimov mentioned in his autobiography how L Ron Hubbard was just this regular guy that was part of the AS gang, and went on to describe how his colleagues went from bemusement to being shocked and appalled as this Scientology scam turned into an 'religion' that people (including Hubbard himself) actually took seriously.

Oh man can you guys imagine what Rei's Thetan levels must be like? They've gotta be off the charts!

Why Scientology is an actual problem and generally sucks monkey balls:

http://theunfunnytruth.ytmnd.com/
http://scientologyattack.ytmnd.com/

They also like to scare and censor people, too. :O

*sniff* Poor Issac Hayes and Chef. :cry:

Why sceincetology sucks:

~It's just plain stupid
~It's like a freaking cult, they take all your money and don't want you to assiocate with people who don't go along with that. :roll:

South Park said it best:
"Is it more retarded then God's Son coming to die for our sins? Or Budda sitting under a tree for 20 years?"
"Yeah, dude, it's WAY more retarded than any of that."

I personally don't see it like Eva, but whatever.

Sounds a lot more logical than mormons, methinks.

This thread needs moar Tom Cruise.

I like John Travolta better.

R. Kelly FTW.

AND THEN I PULL OUT MAH GUN

AchtungAffen wrote:Sounds a lot more logical than mormons, methinks.

You've gotta give Joseph Smith props. He is the greatest con man to ever live.

BrikHaus81 wrote:

AchtungAffen wrote:Sounds a lot more logical than mormons, methinks.

You've gotta give Joseph Smith props. He is the greatest con man to ever live.

The greatest conman who ever lived
Dum dum dum dum DUMB

Bwahahaha. I was waiting for that.

Smart smart smart smart smart

HAY GUYS LET'S CUM UP WITH ALL THE SOUTH PARK QUOTES WE CAN

On a serious note, although I don't know a whole lot about either, I think Mormon...ism is a "better" way, for lack of a better term, than JW's. I dunno, something about those guys just seems weird to me. They have that whole "holier than thou" (Ha-Ha) conservative "I'm a true Christian, ha-ha, and you're not" attitude, and yet they don't even believe in the Trinity, which is a biggie in Christianity, regardless of being Catholic or Protestant. (Also, they think Jesus is Michael the Archangel for some strange reason, which he ain't. :shock: In Christianity, Jesus=God in human form, um, hello?*) Besides that, they don't want you associating with people who AREN'T JW and they aren't allowed(?) to vote in elections/etc...
Which just seems weird. Why control something like that?

Granted, ALL religions have some means of controlling their people, that's partly where Spirituality aka your own judgment (what you feel is right/wrong in your heart) should come into play, basically, discard what doesn't feel right to you and keep what does work.)

So, ummm....what were we talking about again?


*Hmmm....is Kaworu meant to be a Christ-like figure? "God" (Adam, the 1st Angel) in human form? Or is that just more Pointless Religious Symbolism??

Sailor Star Dust wrote:*Hmmm....is Kaworu meant to be a Christ-like figure? "God" (Adam, the 1st Angel) in human form? Or is that just more Pointless Religious Symbolism??

I've heard that before, and it doesn't seem like an entirely ungrounded idea. I'm certain Anno and the gang did their homework with these religious connections, even if it was admitted to be a purely aesthetic aspect of the series. It's another layer, anyway, even if it ultimately means nothing.

My biggest beef with mormonism is that it's a scam to sell underpants. You have to buy specially sanctioned mormon underwear, and I'm guessing that's why they used to (and still do, in some communities) promote polygamy-- all of those kids are gonna need underoos at some point, after all.

Well, technically my biggest beef with Mormonism is that they added a third testament to the bible, and since I am a biblical evangelical christian, I take offense to that since the book of revelation forbids adding to the bible. But that's merely a personal reason, and not a just cause for true scruteny. On the large scale, I dislike mormonism because I find many of their practices un-ethical from a social standpoint, not just a religious one.

They are nothing compared to Scientology though.

Being agnostic, I've my own opinions about various faiths, as I'm sure many of you do, but I think that bashing religions for the sake of it is pretty immature. I know both Mormons and Scientologists, and I have to say they're some of the nicest people I've met. Sure, their beliefs may be illogical to say the least, but I'm pretty sure the same case can objectively be made for any religion.

This is a forum to discuss Evangelion, not blather about how the spiritual beliefs of others are stupid or otherwise inferior to your own. Moreover, if this thread belongs anywhere on this website, it's the off-topic section.

Res Novae wrote:Being agnostic, I've my own opinions about various faiths, as I'm sure many of you do, but I think that bashing religions for the sake of it is pretty immature. I know both Mormons and Scientologists, and I have to say they're some of the nicest people I've met. Sure, their beliefs may be illogical to say the least, but I'm pretty sure the same case can objectively be made for any religion.

This is a forum to discuss Evangelion, not blather about how the spiritual beliefs of others are stupid or otherwise inferior to your own. Moreover, if this thread belongs anywhere on this website, it's the off-topic section.

Seconded.

And that truly is a big "IF" as to whether this thread of compassion and tolerance belongs anywhere on this website, off-topic section or not.

Due to my father's military-related job, I spent most of my youth moving from place to place, and several years of that was as a non-Mormon in Utah. All things considered, I have to say that I have rarely lived in a nicer place amongst nicer people.