Yes. I know.
And I don't like it either. But what are you going to do? I love his music (and his voice... ::sigh::) and that's that.
Anyway, here's an article I found. It makes me feel a little better about it...but I really wish he just thought it was funny to be a Scientologist or something...
Beck, The Scientologist
While I'm not a fan of ANY religion, this one seems particularly stupid because the book it's based on was written in many of its believers' lifetimes AND by a KNOWN science-fiction writer!!! Does that not seem suspicious to these people??? What the hell?! At least for most of the other religions (I say "most of" only because there might be another I don't know about), the "holy books" and whatnot were written so far back that you can't "prove" any of it was fake or whatever.
Ahhhh...I still love him, though. ;-)
The End.
PS And just look at him! Adorable...
10 comments:
Dawkins would have him shut down because he's "ignorant and stupid". After all, some of the money he makes goes to support his "church".
Just playing devil's advocate ... ;)
At least his "church" causes/caused far less harm than Christianity has been doing for hundreds of years... :-P
Tell that to all the people who have lost their friends, family members, bank accounts and so on to this " church".
You can't hold on to principles and pick the lesser of two evils here.
Just saying ... ;)
They've killed people? They've went on crusades and such? If so, then I take it back.
If you've lost money on this "religion" then that's your own stupid fault.
In other words, THIS religion is "acceptable" but Christianity is not?
Not according to Dawkins and the extreme atheists out there.
Just stating my anti-Dawkins case which you've made clear for me.
Nothings black and white but according to Dawkins, an exception anywhere is surrender. Don't celebrate Xmas or Thanksgiving because "they" win and so on.
But it's ok to fund Beck and indirectly his church?
You know my stance. :)
No, I'm just saying its more silly than harmful. But it's not like I'm not watching/listening to/reading things by people of all religions. I would't think Dawkins would say one shouldn't, then we'd miss out on so many things. Does he really?
I've only read the one Dawkins book, but I don't remember him saying anything about celebrating holidays. And anyway, Thanksgiving isn't a religious holiday...
But even by buying a something in a store you can be funding a church. Your payment goes to everyone involved in getting that product to you and one of those people might use some of that money when they donate to their church. Impossible to stop.
Again, I haven't read everything he's ever written. I just really liked that book and what he had to say about a lot of things. (Not all of it, that bit about the pedophilia bothered me...)
Anyway, I'm not a blind supporter of Dawkins, but I do agree that religion can be extremely harmful. IE the stuff I mentioned earlier, like the crusaders. And yes, that the extremists, but it doesn't always start that way.
Who do you think you're thanking at Thanksgiving? Check the origins of the holiday.
But yes, Dawkins, Harris, et al would rather you not celebrate Xmas and Thanksgiving in order that you do not give the Christians more ammo. That's why the Right blanket the whole movement as a "War on Christmas".
By your argument then, there's no guarantee that Scientology is not just at a "starting point" which can then lead to worse.
Pedophilia is not limited to Chrsitians by the way.
And you know me ... I think religion is not for everyone. Definitely not for me. But obviously, I also think that atheism is not for everyone. And unlike the extremists, I DON'T think that's a bad thing.
However, I DO think that Scientology IS a bad thing. Does that mean you can't enjoy his music? No. But you have to know that the money that he makes supports that church. And that's probably just the beginning ...
I don't care whom you worship. Just don't tell me how to do it or NOT do it.
Just to clarify, Dawkins himself has stated that he is a "cultural Christian" so he DOES celebrate the holidays. But he's of two minds about it and he clashes with some of his fellow extreme atheists on this point:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7136682.stm
Now WHY would high-level scientologist JOHN COALE abruptly switch support from the Clintons to SARAH PALIN and JOHN MCCAIN?? Of course, because Palin is a DE FACTO SCIENTOLOGIST by pledging her support to DOMINIONIST CHRISTIAN groups who are in cahoots with the CULT of Scientology via the CNP.
Coale's about-face is a perfect illustration of how his political choices have NOTHING to do with Democratic or Republican party ideals, but WHAT EACH CANDIDATE CAN DO FOR SCIENTOLOGY. We already know the Clintons are in bed with scientology, and so when Hillary lost her bid, Coale switched parties because Palin is connected to scientology and Obama is not.
I was just in LA, and it was kind of weird seeing the big scientology center there on Hollywood Blvd (or Sunset, whichever) because Scientology does weird me out and sounds, well, stupid.
I have trouble taking seriously a "religion" that was created as part of a bet between two sci-fi writers (Herbert and Hubbard) to outdo another writer who was busy espousing a social order in her books (Rand).
There is a lot in Christianity that is stupid too. Most religions have elements of their dogmas, of their "bibles" that sound stupid, but every religion sounds stupid when people get bent out of shape because of their "beliefs" (invoking Rufus from Kevin Smith's excellent Dogma). People will fight, and kill, and do horrendous things in the name of beliefs.
When I tend not to get annoyed with religion is when people live inside of it as a personal choice that they have made for themselves after carefully considering and exploring other perspectives and then committing to adopting that into their life (I'm personally somewhere between Lao Tzu and Alan Moore). I like to think that by the time you finish going through all of that you just have the energy to bother trying to convince anyone else why what you think is "right".
I've been a huge fan of Beck for years. He is of only a handful of artists that innovate and reinvent themselves musically. I never knew he was a scientologist until about 2 weeks ago, so I don't see that changing the way I relate to him as a musician since I've never heard him drone on about it or get really excited and jump up and down on a couch.
Post a Comment