"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion".Steven Weinberg
There is a new profitable enterprise that can ensure financial success to the investors. You can invent a new religion, this is what seems to happen in modern societies lately as for some reason there is always people that will trust that you know the road to salvation.
It amazes me that in this decade people are ready to believe self-claimed prophets that claim that know how people can achieve the salvation of their soul. I never cared for the salvation of my soul especially from people that I think that are more corrupt than the general population. However there are people that believe because those preaching are directed to fragile people that have lost hope .Their preaching exploits individuals that need to escape modern alienation and want to become self-actualised individuals.
This is what new religions like Scientology do. Scientology religion was developed by American author Ron Hubbard and there are now more than 4,200 Scientology groups around the globe. They believe that salvation of the soul is achieved through the practices and techniques of Scientology and the ultimate goal is to become a thetan. A thetan is a spirit that can control matter, energy, time, thought and ultimately life. The way to achieve that is through a process that is called auditing. Auditing is achieved by the use of a specially designed meter (E-Meter) which helps locate areas of spiritual distress by measuring the mental state of the person being audited.
It really amazes me that there are people that believe in a religion that is using a meter that supposedly helps people uncover their distress. People know where their distress lies, it is located inside their daily life that is worsening by the day. It is located in the poverty that is spreading, it is tangled with feelings of loneliness and despair and it is in the daily obstacles of life. Hope can not be located within an enterprise that claims that knows how people can find salvation. Besides people need help in this life, let us worry about after life after we actually die!
(art by krecha)
22 comments:
people is not good or evil
people is good and evil.
Every'men do good and evil things
@gp
true but religious people consider themselves as being good and this is what this quote implies.Supposedly good people that exploit human pain.
This isn't religius,
he likes the rules of mass.
"En toutw nika!"
I truly understand how much some people need religion to give them the hope they miss in their life. And it really saddens me when some people exploit this fact for their own advantage.
Scientology is quite different than other sects. While those can be dangerous for the hopeless person, scientology is dangerous for your wallet as a friend likes to put it. They use psychological ways to force their members to give money to the organization and what is most scary is that it seems like a powerful organization with great wealth gained from their tactics. A friend suggested me the site Operation Clambake which debunks Scientology and reveals several facts about. Too much text in here but rather good try to keep the facts straight. For those who wish to investigate more into it..
It really pisses me off when people think that they actually *KNOW* the mysteries of the universe and at the same time impose their opinion.
have you seen the south park episode "trapped in the closet", which makes fun of scientology? it's sooo funny!
Mmm.. no. I MUST see that!
Κι εγώ που έλεγα ότι ως new-born christian θα γίνω καλύτερος άνθρωπος...
@Optimus
Thank you for the references!I think these new religions and cults are merely business enterprises!
@stormrider
Ι have wathed this brilliant episode about Scientology!I thought that they were exaggerating a bit until I read Scientology's site.What made me really write this article was an article about Scientology in Greece.So far I thought it was only made in USA!
@3parties a day
Ναι,χάσαμε κάθε ελπίδα σωτηρίας!
¨)
@Pixie: Scientology has several departments in various countries. I remember when I was in Germany, there was a stand and a lady approached me trying to sell me Ron Habbard's book 'Dianetics' (Which was translated in as many languages as possible). Then, she tried to preach me about the benefits of Scientology, how it can change your life, and proposed me to attend some meetings there in Karlsruhe where I was. In Greece, they say it started disguised as an organisation named Κ.Ε.Φ.Ε. (Κέντρο Εφαρμοσμένης Φιλοσοφίας Ελλάδος). I remember they tried to ban it's acts then, though I am not aware if it still survived through other ways. I've just found this little discussion that has some more facts and stories about the acts of Scientology in Greece.
Μea culpa, για την ασάφεια.
Η θρησκευτικότητα όπως όλα είναι σχετική.
Οταν κάνει παρέα την ισχύ/εξουσία πράγματι Σ' ευχαριστώ που το προσέχεις, βελτιώνομαι, εκμεταλεύεται τον κόπο και τον πόνο.
Οταν αντιμάχεται την ισχύ τότε την εκμεταλεύονται και οι θρησκευόμενοι μοιάζουν με ευκολόπιστα θύματα (Λουκιανός)
Αλλο οι πρώτοι 3-4 αιώνες και άλλο οι μεθεπόμενοι.
Σ' ευχαριστώ που προσέχεις την ιστοσελίδα, βελτιώνομαι,
σ'αυτή την εποχή τα "πιστεύω" πουλιόνται κι αυτά, απο επιτήδειους που υπάρχουν σε όλες τις θρησκείες.
καλησπέρα σου
@Οptimus
I read the forum and I was surprised as I did not know that they were active in Greece.The bad thing is that this cult-religion has many celebrities at its side (Τom Cruse/Travolta).
@gp
Mην ανυσυχείς το κατάλαβα!Ναι εκμεταλλεύεται τον πόνο και την ελπίδα...
@melomenos
Να μια καλή επιχείρηση λοιπόν.Οι αδίστακτοι το έχουν καταλάβει!
we should worry about what we do while alive. That is where our investment should be.A person is trully free when s/he understands the final nature of death. It is only then, one can invest in life. All the rest is postponment and displacement.
Dawkinson αγγίζεις τον πυρήνα αλλά...
καλά, ο οργασμός εξαυλώνει τον άνθρωπο, δίνει θάρος και κερδίζει τη παρτίδα της ζωής με το αίσθημα της φθοράς και το θάνατο.
Αντε να επενδύσεις σε ένα φανάρι σαν τον Διογένη και να ψάχνεις ψύλλους στ' άχυρα. Μάλλον προαπαιτούμενα θάλεγα είναι να καταλάβουμε, κάθε φορά πρίν εξαπατηθούμε.
Νομίζω η ελευθερία σαν προαπαιτούμενο της ζωής, προσεγγίζεται και από τον Πλάτωνα-Πολιτεία-, όταν περιγράφει τις παραισθήσεις μας να προέρχονται από τους ίσκιους μας που προκαλεί το φώς μεστή σπηλιά.
@dawkinson
I agree with your view.We have forgotten to live today and think about the after life.I think the most difficult part of life from an existential point of view is to accept death.The biggest challenge that we face in our lives.Its strange when you think that death is the only certainty in life!
i think it is absolutedly terrifying to see how sects and other para-religious groups thrive in wealthy industrialized and poor rural societies alike; capitalizing on human anxieties and weakness as you quite well pointed pixie, individuals that believe neither in a god or a devil seek to enrich themselves by selling salvation to the needy.
Not only the lucrative aspect of this business but moreover the fact that dozens of people become -consciously or not- powerless subjects is of concern here. The tremendous impact of personal influence channelled through religion can be disastrous to democracy and politics but can be equally detrimental to individuals' personal lives..
Much of the polemic against religion -not only sects and "enterpreneurial faith alternatives" but mainstream religions too- centers in the presumed ability of the "religion" to cause loss of rationality and surpass reasoning. This is the case with such para-religious groups and sadly one sees the trend in mainstream religions too: more often than not it is again some profit-seeking individuals that take advantage of masses for some larger goal. To generalize however and condemn religions on the whole would be a serious misunderstanding and quite unfair too.
@anastasia
Of course this article is not against religion as a faith as every one has the right to believe or not and this is a personal choice.No one can condemn personal choice.This article is about some aspects of religion that can me exploitative and misleading.Thank you so much for your comment!
Συμπέρασμα: Άσε μωρέ να πεθάνουμε πρώτα και μετά βλέπουμε...
pixie- just to clarify I never said this, sorry if you got it out my comment. It was just a thought that crossed my mind and added it at the end.
@syna
:)Great summary!
@anastasia
Sweety your comment was clear.With this thought in the end you gave me the opportunity to comment more on the aspect of religion to ensure that I am not trying to offend faith but being critical on the negative aspects of religion (I know it wasn't your assumption!).Thank you for mentioning this!
@ optimus
Firts of all I don't think this blog post's intention was to libel any religion in particular but it refered to religion generally.
But since you mentioned it...
News flash, Scientology isn't the only religion (or sect if you insist) which is dangerous for your wallet.
Doesn't your local priest charge you for Christening, Marriage ceremony etc?
Don't you pay for the candles you light?
Don't you make 'donations' in the name of some saint?
Doesn't you church make St Something bazaar in the church's front yard charging 600 Euros per bench? Benches that sell anything from Sat dishes to casseroles?
Don't priests refuse to perform a funeral ceremony if you do not pay them?
Don't priests even perform sanctification ceremonies to brand new CARS ?!?!
Doesn't church ask/beg for money to build a new church or renovate an existing one?
Doesn't church avoid paying any taxes (and in effect normal working people pay the deficit).
Didn't church brain-wash old ignorant people to give their hardly earned (if any) legacy to the church instead of their children?
But guess what, the damage to your wallet can be fixed with one way or another, the damage than religions cause to one's brains and inteligence can not be fixed.
I'm refering to Orthodox Church since most of you (i assume) are Orthodox Christians...
Personally i do not believe (a born-again atheist as i like to call meself - btw i just noticed more new-born people here) but if I believed i would not need PDP (Pimp-Daddies Priests) as intermediates between meself and me God.
@ pixie
As for good and evil, for me religion doesn't matter, one is and gonna be evil if he is evil. But the religious evil ones are just hypocrites who you wanna kick in the balls harder than the normal evil ones.
@ Pixie
People always used and were used by each other, but since the establishment of private property it just doesn't happen in equal terms.
@ anastasic
Well said...
I am curious to learn the Orthodox Church link with the Hellenic culture. So I've suggested some readings on my blogsite. Could you help me with your comments?
Έρρωσθε
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