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Originally Posted by Dr. Meh
No it wouldn't. Christianity fulfilled numerous prophecies of the Jews. Prophecies that existed for thousands of years.
Scientology sprung up from the mind of a science fiction writer who said to get rich, start a religion. There was no basis or foundational prophecy fulfilled because it's completely fictional. Christianity is factual.
The Bible Unearthed (Finkelstein and Silberman) is a fairly broad, thorough, accessible account of the current consensus on archaeology and the Jews / old testament. The consensus is not that Jewish messianic prophecies existed for thousands of years. There may well have been oral traditions, but the majority of the texts appear to have been composed in something like the 700s bce at the earliest. Not thousands of years before the origin of Christianity.
But what is more, Jews then and historians now do not unanimously agree that Jesus fulfilled prophecy. There is a strong case to be made, logically and historically, that both a) new stories are composed to fulfill popular prophecies, and b) that old stories/texts are combed through to cherry pick theretofore unknown/unnoticed "prophecy" that can then be claimed to have been fulfilled.
Just a very minor point in case: Jewish prophecy said a messiah (a warrior king) would come and he would be of the line of David. David's line was dead. Claiming that a guy who whose parents are not in the Davidian line was miraculously/magically made by god out of David's sperm is not particularly compelling because either 1) it is literally true, in which case who gives a crap what the prophecy says, a real live god came down and just worked magic in front of actual people and blotted out the sun for a couple hours and so on; people will believe and spread the word, or 2) it was mythology, made up (for virtuous or non-virtuous reasons), hallucinated, cobbled together overtime etc., in which case who gives a crap, because saying "god told us this guy is related to David, even though David's line ended already" is an obvious lie to tell/believe, because duh! there is a prophecy you've got to fulfill if you expect to get the Jews on board with you.
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Originally Posted by Detroit187
Do any of you posters have a Church of Scientology in your city? No anyone who's been there? Experiences?
I have to believe that there are some positive aspects in it's teaching in that any true "awakening" starts from within.
In the late 70s / early 80s a bunch of poker grinders and gamblers in Texas (and possibly other places) got into Church of Scientology. Most of them dropped it once the fad passed.
A guy I know who stayed with it reminds me of those guys you sometimes encounter preaching on the street or handing out tracts who say before they found Jesus they were into drink, drugs, and loose women, but now they lead good healthy productive lives. Well, I don't have those problems, thank you very much, I don't need your religion to give me that. The guy I'm thinking of said his life was going nowhere, living paycheck to paycheck, until he got into Scientology, and after that, it was like all the sidewalks were ever so slightly sloping down for him -- he always had a place to live, a car to drive, and cash on hand to play poker. Well, again, I am not a Scientologist, and I have no problems with lodging or transportation or having enough cash to play poker -- what else do you got?!