Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id CAA21142 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 24 Jan 2002 02:58:05 GMT Message-ID: <00f701c1a482$81889440$aa86b2d1@teddace> From: "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <5.1.0.14.0.20020121013659.035280b0@pop.cogeco.ca> <5.1.0.14.0.20020122195748.03522ec0@pop.cogeco.ca> Subject: Re: Scientology Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 18:54:54 -0800 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Keith:
> >and as a result you've become something of a symbol
> >of the anti-Scientology movement. So, how did this come about?
> >Was it just peaceful picketing? Was it your articulate critique?
>
> One of their lawyers, Samuel D. Rosen, made it clear to me in a
> deposition that they would stay on me for the rest of my life no matter
> what I did. I really don't know why. Perhaps it is the horrible
> embarrassment Grady Ward and I cause the leader at a deposition.
> He made a bizarre outburst about public buggery and then his lawyers
> made it public. It gets posted on a.r.s every two months so it should be
> easy to find. Grady has been very low profile for years and they are
> still after him.
What exactly does this mean? Are they harassing him in some way? Death
threats? Stalking? And if so, can't he get the police involved and bring
charges against them? Or is it legal harassment?
[switching threads]
> >if i understand Susan Blackmore's book correctly, then she believes
> >we have no choice whatsoever.
> Susan is *technically* right on this point. It is the direct consequence
> of the fact that everything is either directly caused by something else
> or the result of a random event.
This would seem to render moot your whole case against Scientology. If we
have no freedom to begin with, how could a cult steal it?
> So you can look back and state with confidence that everything that
> happened including any memes you picked up were either caused or
> random. You can even say that the future is the same way. But it
> makes no difference in the operation sense because you will always
> feel you have choice.
Exactly. The central theme of Scientology is freedom. This past summer
they had a bunch of evening concerts, and they always seemed to be singing
about the glories of freedom. It's that perfect reality reversal that makes
cults and clinical narcissists so creepy. But if your argument is correct,
all of us are victims of a cult, specifically the cult of the brain, which,
for reasons of natural selection, makes us believe we have free will.
It's difficult to understand, given your belief in universal mind-control,
why you're at war with the Church of Scientology.
Ted
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