Mysterious Faiths

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The Today Show had a very interesting (to me) series this week on 'Mysterious Faiths.' I loved it. In fact, I had a totally glorious time 'commenting to my tv' about what I was seeing and hearing as I replayed those segments on my tivo. The subjects were, Mormonism, Kaballah, Scientology, and Opus Dei, which is a subcategory of Catholicism. (I just now blew my nose and found a potential 'Bible Booger' in the paper towel I used. Unfortunately there was no obvious blood in that booger, and so I discarded it. Had it contained some of my blood I would have pasted it inside my copy of the very Old and odius Testament. By the way: the most juicy Bible Boogers seem to have disappeared with my reduced blood pressure. They were plentiful in the old days before Kaiser Permante got my blood pressure under control.)

For what it's worth, the pieces on Mormonism, Kaballah, and Opus Dei pretty much exposed the usual nonsense surrounding these 'mysterious faiths' and I had a jolly old time watching them. But Scientology is new to me, so I was more interested in understanding it. Here is my assessment based on the interview: Scientology is a mixture of science fiction and religious fiction. It takes some of its ideas from L Ron Hubbards fertile imagination, Buddhist religion, Judeo-Christian religion, and possibly others. It is essentially crap.

Probably the best part of Scientology is the focus on 'self-study.' Apparently, if you study your self long enough you will reach a 'clear state.' This is an old idea stolen from Eastern teachings. There is nothing new in it. For example, I refer you to The Fourth Way, which is THE textbook for self-study. I doubt that Scientology can even come close to it.