Neil Macdonald, a CBC Reporter, has a very informative article on Scientology. What really caught my interest was where he describes some of the beliefs of Scientology near the end:
“Scientologists believe Earth was formerly called Teegeeack and was populated with aliens by a dark lord named Xenu, who stuffed them into volcanoes and destroyed them with hydrogen bombs. The spirits of these aliens subsequently attached themselves to humans, but they can be shaken free by a series of very expensive counselling courses offered by, of course, Scientology. Such courses can easily eat up life savings, and have.”
I was shaking my head and snickering at their ‘crazy’ beliefs, but then he goes on to add:
“Tens of millions of Americans take other such stories as the literal truth: Mormons with their belief in extraterrestrial life and the supernatural qualities of their undergarments; Christians with their talking snake and virgin birth; Muslims with their flying horse and human ascension to heaven; the Raelians with their group sex, spaceships and swastikas. The list is infinite. But in a democracy, the state must regard all such ideas as equally valid.”
Ouch. I never even thought how people might think about what I believe. Do I think of my beliefs as crazy? Are there people snickering at me because of what I believe? Or as one person in the comments states, “It’s hard to believe people still fall for this stuff, in this day and age.”
Hmm, what do you think? Are my Christian beliefs laughable?