I have been part of an online Pagan community for a while now that I have got along fine with. Other groups I've joined I have quickly left again because of not clicking with the people there very well. This group though has been very friendly and there have been few differences between us. Lately however I seem to be falling out with people there more and I don't know why.
Maybe I got comfortable enough to reveal a bit more about my opinions on things and it turns out I'm just as different from them as I was from other groups before. I'm not great with people, I'm opinionated in a way that most other people aren't and I'm usually guarded about my views because I've had disagreements with people in the past that have ruined friendships.
One of the fallings out recently has been on the issue of Scientology. Very few people will know why I feel the way I do about it because I don't come out and tell people as a general rule, it's not my place to divulge it. I admit to being biased on the subject and last week after the Panorama programme, it came up on this forum.
One of the women I usually get on well with disagreed with me. I was arguing that Scientology is a cult and not a religion, she is of the opinion that the only criteria for a religion is that someone believes it! She's free to believe that, of course, but from an academic perspective it is vastly more complex than that. So we seem to have had this falling out over it, not to mention other members of the forum who are not Pagan, who I do not interact with as much, who are arguing that it is a religion on the basis that all religions are corrupt and guilty of brain-washing etc.
I find it frustrating to deal with people like that. They have their own bias that prevents them from seeing religions in a neutral way, just as I have my bias against Scientology and it simply doesn't make for healthy debate. They gang up on me as the most outspoken person against it on the discussion, no other bugger has stuck around to argue my corner with me, even though plenty of people have put their oar in to say the same as me.
I wish I was more able to back away from these discussions when they get heated, I don't want to appear to be backing away because I know I'm wrong, when that's not the reason for me backing down! I don't believe I'm wrong. Not on this. I believe my opinion is valid. I also think that I have a more healthy view of religions in general and it's hard to get through to people who have decided that all religons brainwash people!
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4 comments:
Oh sod 'em. You're always going to get the "ALL religions are evil" POV on a paganism forum.
But Scientology is fair game, innit? They're evil bastards. Especially Cruise. I *hate* Cruise. And I can't listen to Beck anymore without thinking of Xenu, which is a real shame, and is reason alone to condemn the lot of them!
I actually found myself going onto their website to find out if they have a centre in Bristol. Was considering going down there to cause trouble. But they're not in Bristol... thanks to their not being classed as a religion in this country, thank fuck.
It's not often you get to say this, but on this point, we all need to be taking more of a leaf out of Germany's book I think! They spy back on the Scientologists, and stop them from getting top jobs!
Great!
Heh. It was actually the atheists not the Pagans who were being like that ;-)
But yeah, sod 'em indeed.
Your problem is that the word 'religion' has two meanings.
Christianity is a religion, so are Islam, Judaism etc. They are sets of beliefs. They have no bank accounts, no membership fees, no employees.
In that sense, Paganism and Scientology are both (arguably) religions.
The Catholic Church is also a religion, in a different sense. It does have bank accounts! It is not a set of beliefs but an organisation.
The Church of Scientology is somewhere on the sliding scale between 'religion' and 'cult'. Pagan groups, indeed all religious organisations, are somewhere on that scale. Calling a group a cult is not an attack on beliefs but an attack on what the group does.
Try that on your friends.
Thank you for your comments, Hartley, not a bad way of looking at it. I dunno if it'll convince these people, but it's certainly worth a try!
Ta :-)
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