Tom Cruise's scientology indoctrination video - Page 3

Also when's the last time you heard a Jehovah's Witness laugh like that?

just a bunch of incoherent babble. WTF was going on?

It's not scary.

It's laughable at parts. But it's also a promotional thing for an award, right? That has to figure in. He's speaking to a certain audience.

To me, he comes across as trying to sound thoughtful and, not unpredictably, that he's using whatever acting skills he has to this end, presenting himself as ultra-together. It's kind of cheesy, isn't it? There's more style here than substance. I agree with the term paper scenario.

For the moment ignoring the actual words he chooses to use and how he phrases thoughts, there is an overriding unbelievability, unnaturalness to the interview. It's like an amalgam of some of his roles transposed to 'real life'. This makes it like an infomercial or an utter bs put-on to any reasonably critical viewer. Very transparent and unconvincing. Big disservice to what he presumably is trying to champion. Then again, I don't know how Cruise behaves and speaks when he's not on camera. If that is how he carries himself and is natural, well OK, but then there are still the actual words to collapse any real hope of crediting for a well-reasoned argument. Some nice words, here and there, but then a vague void in the cohesive department. Mincing key words with emotion. Some phrases seem to be throw-away action film catch phrases.

That said, extracting the idea of 'living life to its fullest' or other simple advice which could be found in many varieties of religions and fables isn't difficult to do here. It may be charitable to do so, given how it's presented, but nonetheless if the idea is the core point, then more than a few ideas, simple as they may be, are probably something with which most people can agree. But, damn, what winding road it took to get to there. Kind of like this post. Sorry 'bout that.

Thankfully, I haven't encountered a Jehovah's witness in quite some time. Are they extinct yet?

Maybe the "church" of Scientology has some big dirt on him and they blackmailed him into being a spokesman. That'd stink eh?

Thank you for my new sig!

I think the mormons and the JH's had themselves some clan wars. I guess we know who brought their special underwear to the fight that day.

No, not one bit.

Plus this thing is edited weirdl, I expect it to be more coherent in full

Honestly...no it isn't. It is certainly no scarier than evangelicals speaking in "tongues".

3 rabbi's are having dinner together, one rabbi looks troubled. He then stops eating and says, "Something has been bothering me deeply. I sent my son away to learn, and he came back a christian."

The second rabbi looks suprised, and after a moments pause, says, "You know that funny because MY son also went away and came back a christian!"

The 3rd Rabbi looks really dumbfounded and stammers out "Thats funny! Because I I sent MY son away too, and he came back a christian!"

So they all decide they must pray for answers.

And God answers back,

"You know thats funny because MY son......

Says the staunch San Francisco atheist.

Well, consider the target audience. They're gunning for people who are already interested, and have probably read Dianetics or something like that. All they want is to see is TC telling them it's all good. He drops a few comments about having knowledge and power, and if 1 of 100 are sucked in, then it did the trick.

Why so vague? Well, lots of religions (or cults if you like) have some degree of 'buy-in' before you get the 'truth', if it even exists. Ever tried to enter a Mormon temple? You can see the gift shop, but you must be temple-ready to actually see the inside. Even if your son or daughter is getting married in the temple. No free rides or special exemptions.

But Mormons get picked on, so how about them Catholics? I went to Catholic school for years and was only once exhorted to actually read the bible - most of the time if you had a question, you asked a priest or a penguin, who were considered to have the 'truth'. It goes from God to pope to bishop...

You can see the Vatican, but only the tour-specific areas. Forget about the archives. What you'll see is a fancy art gallery.

So, of course any video they post is heavily edited and vague.

While evangelicals are pretty startling, mainstream Christianity has had an overall positive impact upon society - religious people donate far more than secular people to charity, are more involved in the community, etc. Also, you don't have to pay to attend church/temple/mosque.

You can hate on big bad Christianity all you want, but I seriously doubt that Scientology will ever produce a Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Norm Borlaug, etc...

And Scientology most likely will never produce Crusades or an Inquisition, either.