To Anonymous, if this is the case, then I suggest you start a new topic explaining exactly how our activities here constitute "abusing civil rights and freedoms", so that we can respond to these allegations.

Dr. Stupid

Anonymous (if that is your real name), it is true that many groups outside of the mainstream have been accused of criminal acts. What is also true is Scientology has been charged, tried, and *convicted* of these things in the U.S., Canada, Britain, and France, so let's not confuse being "unpopular" with being criminally convicted, m'kay?

Steve G.

"When one end o' th' bridge tumbles down, where's th' use o' th' other stannin'?"

George Eliot
'Adam Bede'

"The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is."

* Nadine Gordimer

Nice quote about truth - pity (or is it?) people sometimes seem to have a very different idea of what they each call "truth".

"Familiarity breeds contempt. How accurate that is. The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it."
* Mark Twain

It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart; the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you.

- Mark Twain

Freedom *OF* religion includes
freedom *FROM* religion.

And on the 8th day God said,
"Ok Murphy, you take over."

-Email Signature's

___________
te valere jubeo,
Flutterby

"Never in history has humanity faced a crisis so deep, so intense, so pervasive, and so multi-faceted. There have never till now been so many people on earth so dependent on a complex technology, so burdened by its flaws, and so likely to witness a complete breakdown of that technology in a matter of decades. If we are to pull through we must thread our way carefully through the rapids that lie ahead. At every step we'll be depending on our knowledge, grasp and understanding of science, of its potentialities and its limitations... Under these circumstances, what crime is greater than that of misteaching the public about science?...Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition."

--Isaac Asimov

This pretty much sums up my views on both Scientology and Fundamentalist "creation science".

Dr. Stupid

Asimov was truly a great man. Some of his friends, like James "The Amazing" Randi, still carry on the good fight for science, logic, and cold provable fact. Asmiov helped found CSICOP, the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, which remains influential today. They are at http://www.csicop.org/

Assimov had a sense of humor that wouldn't quit. One of my most treasured books is a copy of "Isaac Asmivo's Treasury of Humor". It's invaluable.

Wouldn't you love to get Asimov, Steve Allen, and L. Ron together, have a few drinks, and sit back and watch Ron get intellectually wrestled to the ground? Now that's what I'd call Dinner Theatre.

Steve G.

Sorry for all the misspellings of Mr. Asimov's name. I shouldn't post when I'm tired.

That would be like watching Jackie Chan and Jet Lee fighting the Karate Kid.

Dr. Stupid

It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.

-Chinese proverb

thanks, flutter - I really like that one.