BBC Expose' of Scientology - Monday 14 May

...being stoned to death...

Hey if you feel like it - go for it!  All is irie!  Far be it from me (or the Scientologists) to stop you... 

Most (not all) religions in the world have caused someone harm at some time - some much more grievously than others.  I just really don't do religion, full stop.  But the Scientologists are one of the freakiest (and certainly one of the most expensive)!

I didn't see the whole thing. Does anyone know if the BBC stated how many people they interviewed, and how they chose who they would interviewed? Otherwise it looked like the BBC started with the already-biased opinion that Scientology was "bad", and edited the report to only show things that supported their viewpoint. There is no way to tell if the few case studies they showed were a representative sample. 

You could do an "expose" on Christianity and just interview people who want to murder abortion doctors or had been molested by priests. It wouldn't be a fair representation, though.

The celebrity "interviews" were just soundbites. By not showing full interviews, you couldn't tell if they were taken out of context. And regarding the "crazy scientology leader guy", there was no to know if anything happened in between the scenes with him that were shown which may have influenced his behavior.

I take this all back if they gave some background about how the research was done in the latter part of the program.

I don't support Scientology, but I think "expose"-type journalism would do as much to hurt the BBC's credibility as Scientology's.

Most (not all) religions in the world have caused someone harm at some time - some much more grievously than others.  I just really don't do religion, full stop.  But the Scientologists are one of the freakiest (and certainly one of the most expensive)!

I'm with you, Carolyn.

Also, Christianity was, at one time, seen as a cult with just a handful of rabid followers. Yes, the Scientologists (particularly Anne Archer's mad son!) seem a bit overzealous in their defense of their religion, but it is a fairly new religion. I'd imagine that most religious followers would feel that way about a moderately new religion coming under such harsh attack. That said, yep, I think they're nuts. 

They said the geeks shall inherit the earth.

I think it was 'Blessed are the cheesemakers'.

Okay... I'm done.

It was "Blessed are the cheesemakers." 

I know what you're saying, sweetpeach. They definitely went into with their mind made up but I think most people already have their mind made up about it too.

They couldn't actually show the interviews because the church changed their mind and no longer gave them permission to use the footage. But, they did tell us what they said and they all said positive things about Scientology and I don't think they tried making the celebrities sound crazy at all....

I was hoping to actually learn something about Scientology when I watched this.

I had a good laugh though. 

I was hoping to actually learn something about Scientology when I watched this.

I had a good laugh though. 

Same here. It was slanted from the start (it seemed more like a Channel 4 show than the BBC) and all it did was confirm what I already thought....actually it made it a bit worse for me.

I was hoping to actually learn something about Scientology when I watched this.

It seems like Scientology won't let people even learn about their church unless you follow one of their courses...which of course, you have to pay for. And they wonder why they're so "misunderstood." 

I just watched it (gotta love that new digital feature 'see the shows that ran yesterday' on the cable service).

By jeebus, they are freaks!  For the love of < >, they were spying on & following that reporter around.  For sure, the Church of England isn't running around doing stuff like that.

Not to mention that I find Scientology's stance against psychiatry and their use of the Holocaust as an argument against psychiatry (WTF?!) utterly appalling.

For the love of < >, they were spying on & following that reporter around.  For sure, the Church of England isn't running around doing stuff like that.

Not to mention that I find Scientology's stance against psychiatry and their use of the Holocaust as an argument against psychiatry (WTF?!) utterly appalling.

Yes...they made themselves look like complete nutters! 

It seems like Scientology won't let people even learn about their church unless you follow one of their courses...which of course, you have to pay for. And they wonder why they're so "misunderstood." 

Perhaps Scientology is just one big, huge pyramid scheme. Think of it. It's brilliant. Only crazy, naive people fall for pyramid schemes, and only crazy, naive people join scientology. Perfect scam.

It seems like Scientology won't let people even learn about their church unless you follow one of their courses...which of course, you have to pay for. And they wonder why they're so "misunderstood." 

Are the church services pay-per-view? 

Perhaps Scientology is just one big, huge pyramid scheme. Think of it. It's brilliant. Only crazy, naive people fall for pyramid schemes, and only crazy, naive people join scientology. Perfect scam.

That's quite a sweeping generalization that simply is not true.  You never know where someone is in his or her life where he/she may feel that THIS is the solution!  THIS is the answer!  THIS will solve ALL my problems!  No matter how intelligent.  I've known too many people personally, intelligent and seemingly quite sound, as well as naive and 'crazy' who have been involved in both those things (not the same person!).
I learned a long time ago, the best way to judge something is to experience it for yourself, and see what YOUR take is on it; not what the media, or word of mouth.  And especially for doing stand-up, if I'm going to make poke fun at something, I'd better do some homework so I actually know what I'm talking about... so I don't sound naive and crazy
I find it all quite fascinating.

Elizabeth, it was sarcasm. Kind of like my other two replies in this topic: one being about the dark side having cookies, the other about pastafarians.

Pardon me.