"It's Like If You're In A Car Crash,..."

"I went through a very trying situation which few people go through. Immediately after this happened, a bunch of people came out and offered their support to me through various avenues. They all had the same sort of barely-concealed fascination in their eyes. But I noticed something: every time I tried to open up, to tell them what it was really like, this fascination vanished. They stopped calling. They didn't want to hear, down to a man, anything that contradicted their pre-formed opinions. It was too scary. And so I don't really talk to those people anymore, because they weren't interested in me so much as in the situation itself. It's like if you're in a car crash, and there are twenty people standing outside the car you're trapped in, watching the gore, but the minute you scream or ask for help they stand back because the reality is much scarier than the ideology."

- An anonymous post on Salon.com, replying to the question, "A friend is involved in Scientology. Should I interfere?"

Here's more:

"The only difference between cults and 'religions' is that the ones with major followings get more numerous by bending to morals that are socially acceptable, while cults follow more fundamentalist styles of belief, not caring what popular humanist movements have to say on their ethics." -- Karey43

"Seriously, this is not about a reasonable respect for a difference of opinion or belief or even religious freedom, which are all important things. If my friend was being brainwashed and hoodwinked I would not worry about being polite or PC. I would concentrate on being the glaring contrast to the structure of control and manipulation." --Anonymous

"i believe that ALL religions are cults.. as an atheist, that is. one is no better than another. would you try to change the mind of a catholic or a buddhist?" --Anonymous (Note: TMR would - has. Idiots.)

"There's also a difference between "not proven or provable" and "provably false by any reasonable standard." Mormons, who follow a religion founded by a man who was arrested for running a scam based on digging for hidden treasure, then later came up with a new religion whereupon he claimed to have discovered hidden treasure which conveniently declared that he got to sleep with everyone else's wife, fall into the second category, as far as I'm concerned. So do Scientologists." --Anonymous

"Since we atheists know it's ALL false, your trying to differentiate between your false religion and their false religion is pointless and funny. You're blinded by your faith and can't see that claiming your religion is more valid than someone elses is so funny." --Anonymous

"A cult takes the best qualities about you and turns them against you." -- AbbyMay

"If you want to say that alerting people to the potential harm that this belief system can cause is being judgemental, then I guess I'm being judgemental,...If a system of belief is at risk of causing great harm to others, responsible and rational people are well within their rights to voice their objections. Religious freedom goes as far as all our other freedoms: Your freedom extends only so far as you are not harming anyone else." -- SE

"I think it is absolutely wrong that people should feel that they can't criticize religions. Why should this particular irrational belief be considered inviolate? And why is the "burden of proof" about whether there is a god be on people who don't believe in one? If someone chooses to believe somehting like this, they should have darn good reasons to back up their belief. And they should have no problem with stating them. Hint: "Somebody told me it was so" isn't a reason. "I want to believe this because I am afraid of the world and don't want to be repsonsible for my own thinking" is a valid reason because it is honest." -- Meredoo

"Religious control is what we left behind when we founded this country." --Anonymous (TMR calls bullshit: The Pilgrims didn't leave England because England was trying to religiously control the Pilgrims but because the Pilgrims wouldn't stop trying to religiously control the English over Puritanism. Get it right.)

"I lost a dear friend of many years to Mikari, a Japanese cult (she denies it's a cult). I don't know what they do in these places to brainwash people, but for sure they brainwash their followers." -- Davidese

"Hey- many people in Africa and the Middle East believe it is neecessary to cut of the genitals of little girls with no aneasthesia, using a borken piece of glass or a sharp rock. They just hold them down whle they scream and then sew them up. Then they tie the little girl's legs together for several months and they jsut lie there and form scar tissue. or die. It's a religious belief though, so you can't question it, right?

Hey- here's another one. I could go on for page and pages here! Did you read about the muslim woman who got gang raped by seven men? Whell, she is in jail for having been raped, and she is going to get 100 lashes for it too. You see, under Shari'a law (religious law) she is guilty of having had unmarried sex. It's considered her fault, too because she was out of the house in a car with a man she wans't married to.

Just because a belief is religious doesn't mean it's reasonable, or fair, or anything. People can believe any unreasonable , unfair, cruel thing they want. They have the right to believe anything they want. But that doesn't make it okay."-- Meredoo