There's a new blog I've been reading regularly called Apathy Lounge written by Anastasia. I found her through Tink's Golden Spork Awards (yes, I really do try to hit the blogs you all find worthy of reading). I like the Apathy Lounge, primarily because Anastasia's views are quite different from mine (read that as far more liberal leaning - generally - than mine). I always find reading well written opinions that are quite different than mine thought provoking.
Yesterday, she wrote a post asking her readers if they could ever vote for a political candidate who was a Scientologist (you can read the post HERE, but pretty please come back when you are done). Now, I've read some of L. Ron Hubbard's stuff, and although it's not my cup of
My comment on the post was that religion doesn't factor into my vote. Little did I know that most everyone else was operating out of the mindset that Scientology is not a religion. Just for shits and grins, I looked up definitions for both "cult" and "religion" (both listed here are from www.dictionary.com and are the first definition listed):
RELIGION - a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs
CULT - a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies
I don't know, but I'm seeing very little difference in these two definitions. Not only that, but I'd even go out on a limb and say that most (if not all) religions, at least loosely, fit in to this definition of cult.
Before anyone gets their panties up in a bunch here, I'm not knocking anyones belief system. If you go to church/temple/synagogue, and that makes you happy, by all means have a great time, just don't come knocking on my door on Sunday morning because I might just answer it naked!
So let me pose theses two question to all of you. In your opinion, is Scientology a religion or a cult? Why do you define it that way?
