Used to <3 her, had to kill her.Follow

RPGs and MMORPGs. I still consider RPGs to be my favorite game genre, but it becomes more difficult to keep yo that lie each year. I feel that both genres have stalled, and I find it too frustrating to often play games with what I believe to be glaring flaws that I noticed 10 years ago.

Working out. Late 6th grade of early 7th grade I began working out almost compulsively. I had to believe that physical fitness was the cornerstone of attractiveness, not just sexually but socially as well. Once I had become the most physically fit kid in my grade I realized that personal relationships didn't seem to change for me, so I lost my drive.

Swimming. If the public pool was open on any given day I was either on my way there, currently there, or had been there. Once I reached an age where my friends weren't interested in hanging out at the pool every day I just stopped going. Now I find swimming somewhat boring, because I can't think of too much to do in the water that I having done ad naseum already.

Personally I can't justify throwing out someone's work based on their Scientology beliefs without also necessitating doing the same for a whole heck of a lot of other people. Also, examining the belief system/worldview of every artist or musician would take way too much effort along with needlessly constricting my ability to consume media.

Yeah, but (for example) Scientology is such a fraught topic that all it takes, in many cases, is a "Yes" answer to put people off.

Beck may as well have confessed to being a sex offender, as far as many otherwise reasonable people are concerned.

Lots of 'great' people are also horrible people. While it's not as high in the arts as in politics, it'd be figuratively castrating yourself to cut out anyone who's sieg'd the odd heil or said something horrible about paraplegics. Battlestar Galactica is Mormon propaganda, but it's still worth watc- OK, bad example.

Knowledge of someone's horrible background is relevant to your enjoyment of the text based on the new perspective it gives you. Knowing that C.S. Lewis hated Jews doesn't really affect your perception of his books, but if you learnt that Swift actually ate children, suddenly a Modest Preposal goes from deliciously ironic to a horrifying treatise on cannibalism.

I'm with Joph on that one.

If I learn that an artist, whose work I enjoy, has fucked-up ideas or beliefs systems, it will diminish my enjoyment of his work, possibly to the point where I don't enjoy it at all anymore. Scientology is definitely one of those beliefs that will pretty much nullify my respect. Christianity isn't. Supporting the Tea Party is. Being a Communist isn't. Being a fascist is. Being a Muslim isn't. Etc...


Edited, Feb 17th 2010 5:44pm by RedPhoenixxx

Possibly, I'm not so exposed to the crazier flavours of Christianity.

Having said that, I remember seeing one of the Baldwin brothers on Celebrity Big Brother, and he was a raving lunatic with a passion for Christ. He was asked "If someone had a gun to your daughter's head and asked you to renounce Christianity, what would you do?" and he replied "Tell her I'll see her in heaven". That version of Christianity, I can lump with Scientology no prob.

If someone had a gun to my head and asked my father to renounce Christianity, I sincerely hope he would refuse. It's a scenario that's not realistic in north America, but it very much still happens in parts of the world. Conversely I would not renounce my faith to save someones life.

Why not? Are you a half-wit? Afterall, they're only words and I'm sure God (assuming he's real and omnipotent) would know you were only saying so to save someone's life and seeing as God is supposed to love his people, would he not want you to save them if it meant temporarily pretending not to beleive in him?

Edited, Feb 17th 2010 2:07pm by Uglysasquatch

Ok, this is just weird now. Words are just words. Seriously...

As for Catholicism and Scientology, I still think there is a difference between the two. Monetary cost and pervasiveness of brainwashing being the most obvious ones.

I agree with you, but for some reason I despise Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses, but not Scientologists. go figure as really, all 3 are equally out to lunch.

How far can you take this "pretending". What if you had to pretend to be Muslim, and it wasn't a one time affair, but a continual state. The moment you showed that you hadn't truly renounced your beliefs your family would be killed. At that point you've pretty much renounced your beliefs anyway, especially when you consider what the bible has to say about it. The point is that faith is the most important thing.

Of course having grown up in Canada I can't honestly say too much about myself, having never really experienced anything that comes even remotely close. It's disingenuous to talk about what I would do in these scenarios from the comfort of my life, and so I'll just leave it at that.

I guess asking a Scientologist to tell you about Xenu isn't out of the question, then.