Final Exam

#1 Majed Mohammed M Alarji
#2 majed_s55
#3 one class missed and never been late.
#4 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=737449959867270721&hl=en
#5 Not A Genuine Black Man, and god loves you
#6 "A"
#7 "A" because i worked hard in my Mid-term, and Final also i come to class.


#9 - Autobiography
I am a Sunni Muslim born and raised in Damman, Saudi Arabia. It is located on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is right on the gulf. Because of its long history of being a commerce and trading hub on the gulf, my home city has more religious diversity than most of Saudi Arabia. There are many different Muslim sects in my city as well as some Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu religious groups. However, the majority of my city is clearly like me - Sunni Muslims.
It is important for me to consider my religion of Islam in regards to how it influences my ethnic identity, my cultural heritage, and my religious beliefs. Islam is a religion founded in the 7th century by Prophet Muhammad who received his call to prophet hood from Allah (God) at age forty while meditating and praying in the hills near Mecca which is now part of Saudi Arabia. Prophet Muhammad, who was illiterate, began to receive the Holy Quran via the Angel Gabriel reciting it to him. Us Muslims view this as a divine book written by Allah in Heaven and recited to Prophet Muhammad over the course of his life as Prophet. From the earliest revelations, five major themes emerge that form the doctrinal basis for Islam which I have practiced since I was seven years old: (1) God’s goodness and power; (2) The need to return to God for judgment; (3) Gratitude and worship in response to God’s goodness and pending judgment; (4) Generosity toward one’s own human beings; and (5) Muhammad’s own vocation as prophet to proclaim the message of goodness and judgment.
Prophet Muhammad died around 630 with Mecca and Medina under his leadership and he left behind a legacy of leadership and organization for Islamic communities of the future, including mine. Most important, the Holy Quran was underscored by Prophet Muhammad as the cornerstone of Islamic faith because it was a divine book written by Allah himself. The five pillars of Islam are derived from this holy book. All of us Muslims recognize them. They are: (1) Proclaiming the creed that there is no God but God, and Muhammad is his Prophet; (2) Ritual prayers five times per day; (3) Fasting during the lunar month of Ramadan; (4) Almsgiving to the poor; and, (5) Pilgrimage to Mecca if one can afford to do so.
These five pillars of Islam can be applied to Muslims all over the world. These are the connecting interfaces of all Muslims worldwide from one corner to the next. Muslims here in America and Muslims in my home city are doing the same things. All Muslims are obeying the five pillars. This connects all of us. The simplicity of the Islam faith from the beginning made it very popular. Historically, the Islamic faith blossomed and spread throughout the Middle East after the death of Prophet Muhammad and continued onward into Central Asia, North Africa, and into southern Spain. From the 8th century until the 11th century, an Islamic Empire reigned over this gigantic region. The spread of Islam into the United States began for the most part with the founding of the country although the first Muslims were few in number. The real influx of Muslims into the United States did not begin until the late 1940s and then through the 1950s and 1960s as immigrants from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq arrived to seek out job opportunities and new lives in and around the Detroit area and southern California region. The spread of Islam in the United States therefore was really brought on by these new communities of Muslims from these various countries who would settle here. With their families, these Muslims brought a rich legacy of religious worship and practices that are very unique and distinctive from those practiced by other religious groups in the United States.
In my country, Islam is distinctive from the United States The whole city of Damman except for the small other religious groups are Sunni Muslims. We practice Islam exactly the same simple way everyday of our lives there. On Fridays, there is a call to the mosque and we gather for group prayer as a Muslim community. We are Muslims who think that prayer is one of the most fundamental duties of our everyday life. We are committed to five prayer sessions per day. These prayer sessions are extremely important for my Islamic faith to remain rock like inside myself.
The form of the Muslim prayer ritual I do remains the same as laid down by Prophet Muhammad. Muslims pray five times per day at prescribed times following precise body movements and recitals to convey total submission to Allah and Allah alone. The most obvious benefit in this uniform system of prayers all over the world is that it helps in establishing the uncontested invariable Mastership of One God and the universal brotherhood of man. Muslims from all over the world recite the prayers in the Arabic language and therefore all Muslims pray to Allah in this name and this name alone. The benefit of this universality and uniformity of name and language establishes universal brotherhood of man by impressing on the minds of all the people, whether of one race or another, of one place or another, that although there is difference of color, language, shape, etc., in the inhabitants of one country and raceto that of another country and race, their sentiments, their aspirations, their natural inclinations, and their relations with their
Creator are the same, and so they should all say the same prayer in identical language when they approach a Common Deity.
Let me explain that there are two basic kinds of prayer among Muslims. One is Farz, mostly said when a congregation is possible, and he other is Sunnat. Since there is no priesthood in Islam, where there is a group prayer, someone leads the group from the congregation. This leader in the prayers is called an Imam. His duty during group prayer is to ensure that the congregation is lined up in the proper manner and that the entire group faces the Holy Place of Mecca while saying their prayers (118). This looking towards Mecca while praying reminds the Muslim faithful of the founding place of their religious faith as demanded of them in the Holy Quran:
We have seen the turning of your (Muhammad’s) face towards
Heaven. Surely, we shall turn you to a Qiblah (prayer direction)
that shall please you, so turn your face in the direction of Al-
Masjid Al-Haram (at Mecca). And whosesoever you people are,
turn your faces (in prayer) in that direction. (Surah 2: 144).
The philosophy behind the Muslim prayer ritual is rooted in the five articles of Islamic faith: (1) Belief in one God Who has absolutely no associate with Him in His divinity; (2) Belief in God’s Angels, (3) Belief in God’s Books, and in the Holy Quran as His last book, (4) Belief in God’s Prophets, and in Muhammad as His Last and Final Messenger, and (5) Belief in life after death. One who believes in these five articles of Islamic faith enters the fold of Islam and becomes a member of the Muslim community/ The prayer ritual is indeed about vowing and committing to Allah’s supremacy as the one and only God, Creator of everything, non-living and living, on this Earth as well as the whole Universe. The Muslim prayer ritual is about submission to Allah by the individual believer as well as the congregation of believers to follow His way and obey His will.
Us Muslims often speak about the spirit of worship (ibadat). This spirit of worship involves this total and complete submission of one’s human self to Allah’s will. This concept is wide ranging with multiple meanings. The use of it by Muslims is evident in all aspects of our lives. For example, when a Muslim obeys Allah as a slave would his master, then one is behaving in ibadat. When one frees his speech from filth, malice, abuse, and falsehood, and speaks of truthful things and goodly things than one has become infused with ibadat.
Thus, my home city of Damman provides me with a setting where the religion of Islam influences every aspect of my life in large part due to the five prayer rituals per day. These prayers are said at appointed times everyday and every Friday the community gathers together to pray as a group. The Islam religion is clearly the most important part of my individual identity and so crucial for my religious value system. The Islamic identity part of my personality is so important because Allah means everything to me. I want to be resonating and reflecting the values of Islamic character everyday of my life. I want to be just like Prophet Muhammad in my honest, straight behavior. I want to be a good person who likes everyone. I am very much a good Muslim who tries to uphold my rituals to a large degree everyday of my life.

#10 - Field Trip to Riverside Mosque
I went to a mosque in Riverside, California and witnessed all the Muslims from the local region pray together led by the imam, Mustafa KoKo. This prayer ritual on Friday afternoons at the Riverside mosque begins with the Muslims cleansing themselves in the washing area to be clean and pure for their prayers. Muslims believe in washing the hands, arms, mouth, and feet to prepare to pray to Allah in a holy, pure state of both body and mind. I was very impressed with the harmony and coordination of the Muslims once everyone was engaged in the prayer with imam Mustafa KoKo. I participated in the prayer ritual since I am a devout Muslim myself. It was a great prayer ritual with everyone really involved and in synch with our body movements and our recitals of the Holy Quran. Then afterwards, I sat down and talked with Mr. KoKo about the mosque in general being more than just a place of prayer.
Mustafa KoKo emphasized that a diverse group of Muslims from all over the world converge to practice the Islamic faith in the Riverside mosque. Mustafa KoKo noted that the Islamic mosque is a special place for the Muslim community to come together to pray on Friday afternoons as a group. However, in addition to this central role on Fridays, Mr. KoKo explained that the mosque serves as an important educational center for all Muslims in the local area. Muslims can come and relax at the mosque’s library any time during operating hours to read and study Islam. Mr. KoKo said that the mosque library has writings from all over the world by Islamic scholars in both Arabic and English. Another function of the mosque is for Muslims to come together for dinner banquets occasionally, especially on Islamic holidays, so that Muslims can strengthen their bonds as an Islamic community called in Arabic, ummah. Mr. KoKo said it can be explained best as a community of God’s people who are living by the principles, words, and laws derived from the Holy Quran.
When asked about the Muslims’ behavior and ethical standards in the local community of Riverside, Mr. KoKo explained to me that Muslims are good, peaceful people who want to do good for their families and do good for their communities. He told me that all the Muslims that attend Friday prayers are law-abiding, honest, and good hearted individuals who love their families and respect their fellow Muslims. Mr. KoKo explained to me that Muslims throughout the area are devoted to the Islamic laws, doctrines, and principles as Muslims in the Middle East. He said that the five pillars of Islam are followed by Muslims here in Riverside, California as they are followed by Muslims over in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Respect, trust, honesty, and faith are all words that help Mr. KoKo describe some of these principles shared among the local Muslims. He gave me examples of how Muslims helped one another through tough times in the past. He said that during the post-9/11 period, when the mosque was defaced by graffiti, and when threats were levied towards some of its members, the Muslims throughout the area bonded closer together and prayed to Allah on Friday afternoons as a group. In other words, these Muslims were seeking peace and love rather than seeking revenge and violence for these hate crime acts. During natural disasters, like the forest fires in 2003, Mr. KoKo said that the mosque became a relief center for the fire victims’ families and how Muslims throughout the region came to their aid and provided them money relief to start their lives over again. Muslims see themselves as a community of good souls serving and obeying Allah through following the prescriptions and principles clarified for all in the Holy Quran.
Another important insight given by Mr. Mustafa KoKo about Muslims living here in Riverside or anywhere in the United States is that Muslims believe in generosity, honesty, and fellowship in crafting their social relationships and social ties with their communities. Muslims, in other words, are a very tolerant religious group towards people of other religious faiths. Mr. KoKo explained to me that the Muslims in the business community in Riverside are very numerous and that they are contributing to the welfare and advancement of the community all the time. For example, Mr. KoKo said that a prominent Muslim businessman in Riverside recently headed a food drive during the month of Ramadan to help the poor and hungry in the poorest section of the city. This food drive brought smiles to the faces of so many families in poverty throughout the City of Riverside. People were benefiting from this free food being given to them by Muslims who are asked to serve the poor and be especially humble souls during this holy month. The religious community of Muslims in Riverside can be seen as one that can be defined as a group of honest, hard working, and family oriented people that have migrated here at one time or another from all over the Muslim world. They have settled here with their religious beliefs, principles, and values that only serve to benefit not only themselves in their starting over here in the United States but also provides benefits for their local community since they are honest, hard working, and family oriented people.
In response to the general misperception of Americans that Muslim women are secondary members of the religious group, Mr. KoKo explained that most Americans misperceive the role of women in the Islamic community and base their misperceptions on how women are viewed culturally here in the American community at large. Women in Islam are different than women who are not in Islam because of their recognition of their distinctive role as primarily the moral center of the household. Women in Islam indeed represent the moral integrity of the men’s family households. The women understand Allah’s duties and rights given to them are distinctive from men’s duties and rights. As a result, Muslim women fully understand the restrictions and boundaries in their public behavior as women compared to most women who live in the United States. Mr. KoKo underscored that one of the biggest misperceptions of Islam concerns Muslim women. They are indeed the moral stronghold of every family household, very respected.
#11 - Miracle Story of the Lady of Guadalupe
The miracle story of the Lady of Guadalupe is something very important to the Mexican people down in Mexico and the people of Mexican heritage in the United States because it sets them apart and gives them special status as a unique people who had a unique visit from the Mother of Jesus herself, the Virgin Mary, who came to tell a peasant, an Indian Mexican peasant the news that the Mexican people had to convert and accept Jesus Christ as their savior and messiah.
The Mexican people mark the visitation of the Virgin Mary to this peasant as the widespread conversion to Roman Catholicism that took place after it. The Mexican people were able to view themselves as specially designated by this Mother of Jesus and that they were told to become faithful and brave. Even today, this image of the Lady of Guadalupe is so crucial for the people of Mexico and those people of Mexican heritage in the United States. The image of the Lady of Guadalupe is seen by Mexican people as their own source of unique protection from God Himself and a blessed relationship with Jesus Christ the Messiah of humankind. The Lady of Guadalupe is found on all kinds of different things including tattoos on people who think it provides some form of protection. The Lady of Guadalupe is found in the form of statutes, pictures on the wall, and many different other material forms to reflect this acceptance of this unique miracle story as the pivotal background fact of the Mexicans turning into Christians.

#12 - Latino Religious Experience versus Asian Religious Experience
The Latino religious experience is distinctive from the Asian religious experience because of the fact that Latinos are Christians, Roman Catholics, who may speak a different language, have different cultural customs, and do things different than white mainstream Americans, they do believe in the same three things other Christians believe in - God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The religious closeness of the Latino immigrants and white mainstream Americans is something that becomes important in accepting the Latino communities and people as Christian brothers and sisters more often than not. Today, the Latino communities are well respected and well loved by all ethnic groups including the white majority in the Southern California region. The language barrier is something that is overcome by the similarity in religious beliefs, religious images, religious icons, and religious rituals. Latino Roman Catholics are as Christian as the white Americans in their religious background and habits.
In contrast, Asian immigrants come to the United States with religious beliefs that alienate and isolate them from white mainstream Americans. Many Asian immigrants are Buddhists. They believe that the religious goal is a blissful, peaceful state of meditation known as Nirvana. It is a pleasurable state of mind that makes a person detach from material wants, needs, and cravings. However, the white majority in the United States are all Christians with very few Buddhists. There were no connecting points in the religious traditions, religious rituals, and religious belief systems of the white majority and Asian immigrants. Unlike the Latino immigrants, who at least believed in Jesus, God, and the Holy Ghost, the Asian immigrants were believing in something really strange called Nirvana or a state of perpetual bliss and peacefulness.
The similarity between the Latino religious experience and the Asian religious experience is the fact that both groups usually use their native language to practice their religious rituals and beliefs. For Latinos, the language is Spanish. These religious masses and rituals are practiced within the context of this Spanish language. This means that white Americans who speak only English are not able to participate in the Roman Catholic mass. As a consequence, the white mainstream Americans are not very welcome in these Spanish speaking environments at Mexican neighborhood churches. Likewise, if a white American would patronize a Buddhist Church then the likelihood is very high that some native Asian tongue would be used by the believers during their rituals. This use of a native Asian tongue in the Buddhist Church is something that is expected because of the reality that most white Americans are not members of the Buddhist Church and these Buddhist Churches serve Asian communities.
The Asian immigrants and Latino immigrants came into the United States with their religious traditions, rituals, and customs in the context of their native languages. These immigrants are distinctive because they have their own unique religious traditions and rituals representing their home cultures. They are automatically alienated and segregated from mainstream white America by having their religious organizations separated from the majority group in a complete, total way. By using the native language, including only native immigrant members, and catering to such immigrants, these religious groups from both the Latino and Asian groups are very much home grown organizations. This is a source for immigrants to reconnect with their own home cultures and native cultural ways. These religious organizations are always functioning to retain, reflect, and teach the old traditions, the old customs, and the old rituals of the old time religious organizations from the old countries. The Asian immigrants and Latino immigrants turn to their religious groups to revive their faith in their home cultures and ways of life.

#13 - Role of Buddhist Church
The role of the Buddhist Church is a perfect example of how these religious organizations served to help Japanese make the ethnic adjustment in the racist United States. The Japanese are a very proud people who learn from a young age that they are the superior race in the world. Suddenly, these Japanese immigrants had to encounter harsh racist conditions and racist treatment from the majority whites in the United States. They had their bubble burst. The ethnic identity of Japanese was something bad and negative in the United States. The white majority was very racist towards the Japanese first in Hawaii and then on the mainland when these immigrants came looking for work and a better life in the early part of the twentieth century.
The Buddhist church was a place where the Japanese immigrants could comfort each other, make connections, make business deals, and help each other get adjusted in the racist American society. The Buddhist church was a place where Japanese immigrants understood that religious people were attending and gathering to pray, meditate, and get things right in their lives. It was a positive gathering place that brought people together for all the right reasons. The Japanese could relax, meditate, and engage in their traditional Buddhist ways and rituals, while also meeting up with other Japanese immigrants from their home towns and home cities. It was a social gathering place that allowed the Japanese immigrants to feel less isolated since they were confronted with vicious white racism in the late 19th century and the early 20th century.
The Japanese made the ethnic adjustment as best that they could as Buddhist believers in that state of blissfulness known as Nirvana and by pursuing the eightfold path of the Buddhist faith, the Japanese were able to retain some of their cultural identity from back home and connected with the Japanese people in Japan. The Buddhist faith was usually practiced in their own native language which made it more of a home, cultural thing than anything else that they did once in America. The hard work, long hours, and economic pressures were sucking up all their free time and when they did get out, then it was usually over to the Buddhist church to meditate and socialize with other Japanese.

#14 - Religious Diversity in America
The positive benefits of having a long history of religious diversity and religious tolerance is that new generation Americans automatically accept the existence of diverse religions side by side as a normal, ordinary occurrence in any society. This is not true at all. Most societies have big problems with religious diversity. Religions can’t exist side by side always peacefully and sometimes wars and violence throughout the world break out over religious issues. The United States of America was founded on this principle of religious freedom of expression and absence of religious persecution. As a result, the first U.S. Congress made it legal in 1791 with the passage of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that made it clear that government could not abridge in any arbitrary fashion the freedom of individual religious expression. In addition, the First Amendment makes it very clear that the government could not establish a national religion either. Legally, in this country, since 1791, any religious group can basically set up shop and begin operations within their follower circle as long as they are being private and not harming anyone else with their practices and rituals.
This is an incredible development for religious diversity in America because every religious person in the whole world knows in their hearts that if they can somehow make it to the United States, at least, if anything else, they can practice their religious beliefs freely and without fear of legal retribution. This is how all the ethnic minority groups were able to withstand the most vicious racist era of American history in the 19th century and early 20th century, including immigrant groups, who came for economic opportunities. These minority ethnic groups were permitted in most cases to operate their religious organizations tax-free as the national government recognized religious freedom and no government interference.
The religious diversity in the United States of America is the most positive development of all other things in my opinion because people can be themselves in regards to their religious beliefs, values, and behaviors. The American opportunity in religion is that any group can set up shop and begin practicing their rituals without fear of any government authority of any kind interfering and intervening but actually helping to protect the religious freedom of the group. It is remarkable to also point out that the religious groups of all different kinds can exist peacefully side by side in almost all situations across this country without problems of differences in belief. It is a hallmark to the widespread cultural notion in the United States that religious tolerance is a positive development and thing for everyone to practice. Americans are born and raised learning about the First Amendment in grade school that religious freedom, religious tolerance, and religious diversity are positive and good developments in this free, open society. This is something that makes Americans very special people and makes them very distinctive people in their view points, opinions, and personal values about religious groups other than their own kind.
There are some barriers to still overcome in America despite the religious diversity. The barriers involve conflicts among religious groups that don’t make the front pages of newspapers and broadcasted in the mass media. Some communities have problems with religious diversity. When the 9/11 attacks came down, for instance, the Muslim groups were under threat, attack, and victims of hate crimes in the immediate aftermath. This religious intolerance was brutal and the Americans who engaged in it were grouping all Muslims with the radicalized Al Qaeda terrorists. There is no similarity between the two groups even though Al Qaeda claim to be a religious group, they are not recognized as legitimate by the vast majority of peaceful, honest Muslims. This religious intolerance was also shown by American Christian groups when Joseph Smith from New York launched the Mormon religion in the 1830s. He became the Prophet of the new religious group who practiced polygamy along with other senior members of the organization. These Mormon leaders were taking on multiple wives which horrified the Christians in the region. Smith and his followers fled because of religious persecution over to Illinois and Missouri where they were also targeted with religious intolerance by white Christians living in these areas. Smith was finally killed by a mob. His religion of Mormonism survived by leaving the Midwest and heading to a place called Utah where nobody lived yet.
These examples demonstrate that religious intolerance does spring up in America now and then and when it does there is a slanted white Christian view point involved since the vast majority of white Americans are Protestants or Evangelicals. The white Christians who represent the majority group have demonstrated this religious intolerance when challenged or threatened as in the case of the Mormons’ polygamist values and the radicalized Muslim terrorists’ violent attacks. These challenges to the status quo and cultural values by religious groups of this nature can cause a violent, vicious back lash. The Muslims in this country even today are viewed with suspicions and considered ‘terrorists’ even when they are the furthest thing from terrorists. There is still prejudice and racism about the Muslims in America if people take off their blinders and look really lose to the realities. Muslims have been searched, seized, and arrested in increased ways in all their communities across the country. Part of the Homeland Security policy is to crack down on any radicals in the U.S. Muslim communities, especially any sympathizers and collaborators to al Qaeda. However, in practice, this means all Muslims everywhere are targeted when appropriate and necessary for secret surveillance and spying on their religious practices. Distrust towards Muslims is at an all time high because most of the people in the government are white Christians who view the whole thing in religious conflict terms, especially the evangelicals.

#15 Describe One Religious Movement in America that has Transformed American Life in Unexpected Ways
I am a big fan of the movies so I have shown interest in getting to know more about some of my favorite stars in these movies I like and some of them, like Mission Impossible’s Tom Cruise, as well as Pulp Fiction’s John Travolta, are Scientologists. What is scientology?
Scientology is officially called a religion by its followers who uphold the truth revealed by L. Ron Hubbard in a best selling book called Dianetics. The organizational branch that rose up around L. Ron Hubbard’s teachings about how to purge or clear the negative elements and vibrations from one’s consciousness. Hubbard was a former successful science fiction writer who had published a whole sequence of novels before writing Dianetics. The book is about human beings having major problems with their lives and self development because of a whole array of blocking mechanisms, negative vibrations, and evil forces. By going through an elaborate procedure that involves ‘clearing’ these things from the consciousness, a Scientologist is able to emerge dynamic, motivated, and powerful in a real way and sense. By having these negative and evil things cleared out of the consciousness, forever broken down, the individual can become whatever his or her potential is as a human being.
Yet, Scientology is highly secretive in its organization about the most truthful secrets left by the deceased L. Ron Hubbard that only the highest developed believers can find out and Tom Cruise is one of those based on the newspaper reports about his activism in the organization. One newspaper article noted that Cruise spends a lot of time out on the Scientology owned estate in Hemet where he is able to practice his beliefs and help other individual believers continue to the elaborate ‘clearing’ process and procedure. After the initial processes begin, the Scientologist believer begins to be hooked up to a ‘truth machine’ that actually measures the responses of the individual through the elaborate question and answer format of the clearing process. The biggest challenge of the individual at this point is facing down one’s darkest secrets, biggest negative experiences, and the sorrow, hate, and anger built up over the growing years from child to adult. Scientologists engage in what is basically a confrontation with all past memories and experiences to clear out the negative vibrations from these experiences. Once these are all cleared out, then the Scientologist believer can proceed to the higher, elevated levels of truth finding that Tom Cruise has reportedly entered at this point. By having elevated himself to the elite group at the top, Tom Cruise has probably been revealed the ultimate secret that a former Scientologist exposed in a book he wrote against the group’s cultish elements. This ultimate secret that only the top elite Scientologists find out is that L. Ron Hubbard was an incarnation of Jesus Christ himself. Hubbard becomes the ultimate religious icon in American Christian tradition and this makes me at least get the chills about this so called religious group.
The ‘clearing’ rituals that cost thousands and thousands at first, then tens of thousands and tens of thousands, and finally hundreds of thousands to find out this ultimate secret that L. Ron Hubbard is Jesus Christ himself. The pyramid scheme set up in this religious organization that sucks all the followers dry is something that has been under fire for years. Scientologists claim that they are giving the money to their religious group because they are ‘clearing’ themselves of all the negative and evil inside themselves. In exchange for the ever higher levels of clearing, these Scientologists are more than willing to pay more and more money and even mortgage and bankrupt their lives to get to the final and ultimate secret that L. Ron Hubbard is an incarnation of Jesus Christ. This secret telling ritual of Hubbard being Christ is done on a Scientology owned yacht in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The trip of course to this ultimate secret telling session runs into the three hundred thousand or more range which means all elite Scientologists are also filthy rich people as well, including Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and a whole line of Hollywood stars and starlets.
This religious group has demonstrated to Americans in my opinion that Christianity is sometimes completely rejected in regards to how you get to the same union and harmony with God that Jesus did. Scientologists are always clearing themselves out of their negative and vibrations. They are all going for the same higher consciousness that their leader, L. Ron Hubbard found, when he wrote Dianetics. This ultimate secret that Hubbard is Christ links Scientology to Christianity in a real sense. It means that Hubbard is a different kind of Christ and one that brought this new message to hook up to these truth machines and begin the scientific-based ‘clearing’ process of the body, soul, heart, and mind to prepare for truth and awareness at higher levels. The assumption in Scientology is that individuals are unable to handle the higher levels of truth without elaborate processes, preparation, and build up to manage the complications.
This is a science fiction adaptation in a way that L. Ron Hubbard devised to apply to the modern times of America where people are attracted to non-Christian rituals and non traditional approaches to religious truth finding and discovery. Hubbard’s techniques are clearly influenced by his science fiction writing. He has human beings possessed by ancient alien energies and blocking mechanisms that can only be cleared out through the Scientology procedure that involves truth machines and mentors who guide the neophyte through the elaborate, scientific process. The fact that the Christian icons, rituals, and traditions are thrown out of the mix makes Scientology a possible preview of the future in the United States’ religious communities. These scientific approaches may grow in number and nature as the traditional religions are totally abandoned by the newer, next generations.