Now, I'd like to direct you to Manya Brachear's piece in the Chicago Tribune. I think the piece irks me because it is essentially an apologist's take on his rant. Her ending query asking the reader would they be as uncomfortable if it were a celebrity hawking a more palatable religion smacks of "Makes You Think" knowingness.
Do I think that Tom Cruise finds happiness and fulfillment through his religion? Yes, most definitely. In fact, as I was relaying to Risa and Keith this past Sunday, religion tops the polls on what makes people happiest. It surpasses family, friends, food, and other f words.
And why wouldn't you be happy? Religion offers simple history, a plethora of morals,--the good ones we observe, the bad ones we dismiss--and most importantly direction and purpose. A life lived with purpose and all that junk . . .
What turns me off to the whole affair, besides looking as crazy as Tom Cruise, is the willful ignorance necessary to finding that purpose. You have to be willing to supplant fact with fiction (or science fiction). You have to be willing to hold this fantasy up against all others--Thetans vs. Jesus vs. Buddha--and claim its correctness. It is just that sort of effrontery that has caused many of the horrible things that have been done (and are still being done) in the name of religion.
For years I fell back on easy prayers and simple verses because they were comforting and brought a degree of happiness, but I think the calm happiness that accompanies curiosity and thirst for knowledge far surpasses the crazy happniess of the believer.
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