[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Maru

I've seen some atheists who are just as intolerant and bigoted as some religious folk. I'm surprised to see it so often coming from the atheist side but admittedly it's helluva a lot easier to troll religious followers than it is to troll most any other group. If you love trolling people and happen to be atheist, then it's a tempting buffet of self-amusement.

Personally, it's easier to just judge people according to what they do and the values they represent through those actions rather than they go what they actually (or claim to) believe or the # of degrees they've obtained. Usually for the sake of flaunting said belief in lieu of various personal flaws...

In the end, what they do or don't believe has no real bearing for me if the actual person is a horrible human being... life is too short to waste time on it. Most people who quit religion or start a religion do so for personal reasons, which is not really our business unless they somehow make it our personal issue. Things like trauma, chronic harassment, mass suicides, war or murder are problems... not trite things like someone said something religious today and you felt funny.

In that vein, I love watching cult documentaries on things like Scientology and the FLDS. Both groups are ****ed up, but even more interesting how they rope people into their cults and shape the beliefs of their followers. How the US still puts up with Scientology's crap, I don't know, but they managed to beat the IRS for non-profit status... even though there's ample evidence it's nothing more than a pyramid scheme to separate people from their money.

Oh I went through a phase of being totally obsessed with Scientology, so bizarre

But what makes Scientology and "cults" any different from other religions though? Scientologists shape the beliefs of their followers? so does every other religion