Faith eludes the faithful when death comes knocking

This study tells me one thing: The religious aren't less afraid of death and neither are hey more certain about an afterlife. It's just a show.

For awhile, I suspected that religion fills a need for certainty in an uncertain world.

Certainty is a pipe dream. Nothing is fixed and no one knows what happens after death, despite what religion tells us.

Too many willingly believe in an afterlife, but studies such as this give credence to the fact that those beliefs provide little guidance when death calls.

It takes great courage to face death with the knowledge that the end is near. Holding onto beliefs in spite of supporting evidence may be fine while death seems distant, yet when those beliefs get tested the truth hits like a slap in the face.

True courage requires no fantasy of an afterlife to soften the possible truth of existence, viz., that this is all there is.

Beghe story paints a scary picture of Scientology.

I'll probably get a lot of flak for this post, but I think it important. Just so you know, I get very few emails or otherwise related to this blog, so if that changes as a result of this post, I'll be sure to let you know.

I came across this interview on youtube with Jason Beghe. He's an actor that's been around for awhile. Anyway, he was high up in the Church of Scientology, but became dissatisfied and left. Here's a story from a British T.V. show about his very public and very noisy withdrawal from the Church.



I put this up here because I've had some odd experiences with the Church of Scientology. When I was 18, I visited L.A. right after graduation. I was questioning my faith. I got a flyer on my car talking about a free personality test.

As an 18 year old, I didn't have much to do, so I went to check it out. I spent about an hour with those people and they asked all sorts of probing questions, etc.

To make a long story short: Even though I was young and in a vulnerable state, I got the impression it was rather cult-like and had nothing further to do with them.

The Chuch had other ideas. They harassed me for years through the mail and did all sorts of things to get me to come visit them again. I threw it all in the trash. I spoke about it with a friend and she told me of a similiar experience she had with the Church while living in Britain. Scary stuff.

Now, as an affirmed agnostic and secular humanist, I see the Church of Scientology for what it is.

I post this for the edification of anyone who doesn't know.

Some evangelicals are defying the founding fathers in the name of their faith.

Apparently, a number of evangelical ministers think the law doesn't apply to them.

Not surprisingly these ministers support the Republicans.

They've even gone so far as to say a vote for Obama is a vote for immorality.

What I don't get is that McCain voted for a war, based on lies, where thousands of U.S. soldiers died. How is that moral?

It isn't moral, but when an ideology smacks up against the facts, guess what loses? The facts. This is true even for the faithful.

The founders were genius by separating church and state. Now a bunch of ahistorial loonies are trying to undermine the American system for their own political power. I don't think Jesus would have done that...

These ministers are violating a central precept of Christianity, viz., "One cannot serve two masters."

They need to either serve their faith or get out of the ministry altogether. That won't happen though because the need to gratify their egos, like with all nut jobs, will exceed the dictates of their faith.