Maybe I should have known this already, but Will Smith is a scientologist (link mildly NSFW).
Nuts. I like his acting, and he seems funny and cool. But he’s clearly a lunatic. Scientology is such tremendous garbage it makes the Moon Hoax look like brain surgery.
Of course, Tom Cruise is still a complete freaking nutbag:
Update: Sigh. Scientologists are two things (well, three, if you count pure evil): predictable, and litigious. The video was taken down. Oh well, it just had Tom Cruise rambling on and on about how scientology is wonderful, and can cure and do anything, except save a tanking career and make you not look foolish.
UPDATE II: Gawker.com has the video, and they are promising not to take it down. Go there to have your thetans inflated.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Being a scientologist is one thing, but actually believing that crap (like Tom Cruise does) is…
Can’t find word for it
January 15th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Just out of curiosity, what makes their imaginary friend more repugnant than the imaginary friend most americans believe in?
Is it the fact that the latter is older? More popular?
Maybe it’s that no one in your immediate group of friends and family is a Scientologist?
Is it the fact that everyone who knew explicitly that it was a lie died a long time ago?
Is claiming that calculus is false just too egregious, but claiming evolution is false just egregious enough?
Why wasn’t there a disgusted blog post about him being a baptist?
I don’t really get the distinction between believing one set of fairy tales and another.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Insanity? No doubt about it
What the hell is Cruise trying to say?
January 15th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
huh? I don’t understand…..his beliefs make him a bad person or a lunatic? How did you view him before when he was just a Christian?
January 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
HUh? What did Cruise say? Nothing! Duh.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
What did he say? I was unable to watch all of the video(what with forcing all of the chyme back into my stomach, and all) but that which I did see was unintelligible waffling. I strongly suspect that Cruise, like L. Ron, doesn’t believe this stuff but is in it for the money, as if he doesn’t have enough already.
One of the worst things about Scientology is that the sexy and gorgeous and funny Jenna Elfman is one. Now, I wouldn’t date her on a bet. As, if…
January 15th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Dammit. He always seemed like a down-to-earth kind of guy to me.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Personally I view Scientology as a personal insult because they have the gall to have the word “science” in the name of their religion. It confuses laymen and makes them think it is some sort of science club (I’ve had to dissuade people from thinking that Tom Cruise was a scientist. “But he’s in that science thingie-mabober society! Isn’t it like Mensa or something?? It has science in the name doesn’t it?”)
This is much the same reason I hate the Discovery Institute so much. They maybe be an institute, but they have no interest in discovering anything. They are an institute of suppression, not an institute of discovery.
In both cases the name is just a lie to cover up their true purpose. If Scientology would change their name, I would view them the way I view any other cult.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Deep — Finally we find living proof that Rene Descartes “I think, therefore I am” was worng.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Xenu > Hey, had Cruise/Smith waved the flag of some other religion I can assure you that they would have taken flack for that too.
I don’t know if BA wrote anything about “Expelled” but that guy has taken serious flack from the atheist community.
That being said, all religions are not equal. The degree of distance from reality promoted by the religions vary. The methods for replication and dealing with dissenters vary.
Scientology recruits through out and out deception, promote a mindset similar to schizophrenia and go after critics any way they can.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
I’d say that the difference between Christianity and Scientology is that Christianity is a fairy tale full of magic and fairies and a powerful wizard, where Scientology is a movie worthy of Mistery Science Theater 3000 with exploding volcanos and evil overlords and intelligent clams. It’s sort of the difference between deluded and really-really-deluded.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
That clip is hilarious! It is a higher form of comedy. However, the guy playing the guitar must have had a sore wrist by the end of it.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Scientology is clearly ludicrous because it was invented only within the past 50 years or so, and we therefore know a lot about its founder. Hubbard was a poor science fiction writer, who once claimed that the only way to make money was to found a religion. Then, hey presto, he founds a religion, based on a phenomenally flimsy sci-fi plot.
Christianity was invented a LONG time ago, and the history has gone through so much turmoil that its foundation is vague. It has become so deep-rooted in society that few people question it. Although that is slowly starting to change.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Can’t you still enjoy a Will Smith (or Tom Cruise) movie and not worry about his personal beliefs? After all I enjoyed watching Reggie White, an incredibly talented football player, even though his personal beliefs and politics were at times questionable.
Doc; So Scientology would make a good MST3K movie- in a lot of ways it sounds like a cross between “Godzilla vs. Megalon” and “Prince of Space”.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
BTW, how reliable is that website that claims WS is a scientologist?
January 15th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I don’t like them because I know that it was completely created by LRH as a money making scheme.
To reinforce my dislike, my wife filled took one of their personality tests at a booth they had set up in a mall and it took until we changed our phone number to get them to stop calling.
Ugh.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I had the same reaction when I heard about it. But here’s an interesting point — Scientology makes a point of going after celebrities, offering them all kinds of perks and benefits. That’s may be one reason so many actors have gone over to it — Travolta, Cruise, now Smith. If you don’t have any deep religious beliefs to begin with, joining up with one or another for trivial reasons doesn’t seem like that bad a thing to do.
That said, I notice the blog evangelical atheists have started their usual chant of “all non-empirical beliefs are equally stupid.” I’m waiting for someone to mention Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Wow, he spent an awful lot of time saying absolutely nothing. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Oh, and let me add that I still enjoy Will Smith’s movies — even terrible ones like “Wild, Wild West.” I was watching “I, Robot” just last night. For that matter, I think Tom Cruise does pretty darn well in MI-III. You can apparently be a scientologist and still be a pretty good actor.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Well, Colbert certainly thought the story to be credible.
http://xenutv.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/will-smith-scientologist/
Also, if you want to see why Scientology is especially nasty and woo-filled compared to the more standard fare, see the venerable Operation Clambake site at http://www.xenu.net
BTW, I just bought the BA’s book, and it is made of win!
January 15th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Forget the silly beliefs. Scientology is evil because of their actions. They’re known for criminal activity, and a having a crazy legal team. You can read about this on http://www.xenu.net/
January 15th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
This gets me about as depressed as when I learned Bob Barker was a hippie against fur vegetarian…
Darnit, come on folks, if every religion of the world was made into a movie before it was made as a religion we would flunk ‘em all at the box office… These are silly stories and Scientology is the worst sci-fi flick of ‘em all.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
What the heck is “KSW” he keeps jabbering about?
January 15th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Scientologies beliefs aren’t any wackier or more ~evil~ than those of any religion… However, their actions speak for themselves – watch the video…
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=rCGP-0545EU
January 15th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
James Dobson, Tom Cruise, Richard Hoagland and Phil Plait walk into a bar, sit down at a table and order a round. As they are waiting for their drinks, a human eyeball comes flying out of nowhere and lands right in the middle of the table. Startled, Dr. Dobson picks up the eye and announces that the perfection of the human eye is proof that God exists and that the universe was created by His hand. Tom scoffs and exclaims that the human eye is a mere illusion created by Xenu. Hoagland shakes his head and says, “Gentleman, you are both mistaken. If you look at these low-res, compressed, false-color jpeg’s of a human eye I downloaded from a friend of a friend who studied biology once, you can clearly see that the human eye was formed by hyperdimension torsion fields eminating from Uranus”. Having been sitting quietly for a few minutes drinking his beer, Phil suddenly spews alcohol and bits of chewed peanuts all over the table, the eye, and his fellow patrons. Hoagland sighs, “I suppose you disagree with that, Phil?”. Phil laughs, “No, it’s not that, I just realized that I don’t have a freaking clue what the hell I’m doing in a bar having a drink with you three!”
January 15th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
@Gareth: I wouldn’t call Hubbard a poor SF author. His reputation is sullied by Battlefield Earth and the Mission Earth series, though there is some doubt about whether he even wrote those, considering that nine of them were published after his death. But his early works, like Fear and The Final Blackout, are perfectly fine works. He wasn’t in the top tier with Asimov and Clarke, but he was a lot better than a lot of the tripe that appeared in the pulps.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Even somebody at Fox “news” thinks he’s a nut –
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,322854,00.html
January 15th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
James, you win. That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in days!
January 15th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Old Muley says: “Can’t you still enjoy a Will Smith (or Tom Cruise) movie and not worry about his personal beliefs? After all I enjoyed watching Reggie White, an incredibly talented football player, even though his personal beliefs and politics were at times questionable.”
Excellent point. Some Disney trivia along those lines: Christian Rub, a German actor who voiced Geppetto in “Pinocchio”, was a huge supporter of Adolf Hitler. Apparently he was constantly proselytizing other people in the studio on the greatness of the Third Reich whenever he came in to do a recording. That may be the reason why he did not get a credit in the movie.
> So Scientology would make a good MST3K movie
> in a lot of ways it sounds like a cross between
> “Godzilla vs. Megalon” and “Prince of Space”.
Ooh, “Prince of Space.” A guilty pleasure! BTW, I think that was Gamera vs. Megalon. My favorite episode, though, is “The Day the Earth Froze.” Maybe because it isn’t really a bad movie to start with, just badly dubbed.
“I want…a SAMPO!”
- Jack
January 15th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Don’t forget this great history lesson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2FaY_HdWXE&mode=related&search=
January 15th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
For those of you who didn’t understand what Tom Cruise was saying, here’s a wrap up:
“Blah Blah Blah I’m the only one that can help Yadda Yadda Yadda…”
January 15th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Geez what is scientology becoming a new STD in Hollywood? It sure is acting like some kind of virus, spreading rapidly.. turning your brain into swiss cheese.. OMG… its syphilis!
January 15th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I never liked Tom Cruise or Will Smith. But Jason Lee being a Scientologist really makes me sad. =(
January 15th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Bubba:
I didn’t know either, so I googled it.
“KSW” stands for “Keep Scientology Working” – which is the name of a paper/lecture given by Hubbard that admonishes all members to preserve the “tech” (teachings) of the Church (i.e. Hubbard) without question and to stamp out all other forms of “tech”. It’s basically ingrained subservience to Hubbard that is given in every Scientologist class.
Link:
http://www.xenu-directory.net/practices/ksw1.html
Gah, my brain hurts from absorbing that nonsense. Must purge.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Tom Cruise… meh. Will Smith… I like his movies, and I like that he’s a family man… as far as we know. Perhaps this whole Scientology is just today’s Kabbalah. A whole crap load of celebs signed up for that 5 or so years ago, and now you don’t hear anything about it.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
“He or she has the ability to create new and better realities…”
Did Tom Cruise just admit that they made it all up? ‘Cause it sounds like he did.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Difference is that Scientology involves “interviews” – where personal elements are disgorged. Unlike a psychiatrist or psychologist, there is no oath keeping the interviewer from using any indemnifying information to his own nefarious ends. Kind of like confession, only the priest is free to sell stories to the local tabloids.
You can see the hold that would have on a celebrity, real or imagined.
“No, Will – you won’t leave, or we’ll tell everyone you committed genocide in a previous lifetime!”
January 15th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Scientology targets specific personality types and issues for the purpose of profit and then uses fraud and extortion to hold on to people and then uses the legal system to harass people into bankruptcy to shut down criticism. It is entirely a money scam cult of manipulation. Blackmailing bonks is its life blood. It uses every know brainwashing technique out there and follows it up with lawyers.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
I will still watch will Smith movies but I will never buy a Ron l Hubbard book. I couple years ago a local second hand bookstore was going out of business, so I bought all the sci fi except for one Ron L Hubbard book.
January 15th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Sorry the name was L. Ron Hubbard, I don’t way I get that mixed up.
January 15th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I once took an online Scientology personality quiz, since no personal information was required. It said I was just dandy, and had no need of an audit. I suppose something in it must have triggered a “he won’t buy into this, so don’t even try.”
January 15th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
As I see it, the problem isn’t that otherwise fine actors believe a bunch of crap, but that a bunch of Oprah fans think it matters what actors think.
A friend used to say that opinions are like belly-buttons– everybody has one. I said no, they are like bank accounts. Most everybody has one, but they are not all of equal value.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Posted there:
“I prefer christian religion over scientology. It shows how bad scientology are.”
January 15th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
i never did like tom cruise, and to see him play a service man in that one movie with the line “YOU CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH”. is a joke to our service men and women. but like that line cruise couldent handle the truth of realtiy if it hit him like an invader from mars. and while on that note, i for years thought it would be great to see a modern version of War of the Worlds, but after hius opra couch jumin anti-perscription tiraid i realized how much of a loon his is, so he ruind HG wells for me. i will have to wait another 20 yrs for another remake of that movie
but i have always like Will Smiths movies. i didnt like his tv show though
January 15th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
How completely sure are we that Will Smith is a scientologist? Maybe he passed the personality test around as a gag, and I know Colbert has mentioned that, but perhaps this is one of those media things everybody jumps on, when in fact, it’s complete overreaction.
I’m not defending scientology, cause it’s clearly just a product of poorly constructed sci-fi garbage but let’s make sure this is definitive. Then again, I don’t exactly have my finger on the pulse of the entertainment industry, so it’s possibly Smith came right out, and said, “Yes, I’m a scientologist”.
But is there any concrete evidence that he’s a scientologist? I’m not trying to sound condescending, but maybe someone can better inform me.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I actually like Will Smith as an actor, and I have no plans to stop unless he goes completely batty ahla Michael Jackson. There are some things which just turn you off a person, you know what I mean?
But Tommy boy? I could never stand that man. He blends into the background when he’s on screen. “Wait… I thought Renée Zellweger was suppose to be in this scene with someone? Who is she talking t… oh, never mind. It’s Tom Cruise. No wonder I couldn’t see him.” The man has an amazing chameleon like quality which astounds me. Few other actors can just disappear on a set when the camera is pointed right at them. I’ve never been able to understand why he is such a big star when he’s just so… bad.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Has anyone gotten a hold of Jazz? Please tell me not DJ Jazzy Jeff too…
January 15th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
To BUBBA and anyone else wondering:
KSW is an abreviation for Keeping Scientology Working.
The film was intended for Scientologists to view at a new Year’s Eve party, so everyone there knew awhat that meant.
Keeping Scientology working simply means applying the policies and technologies of the Scientology church.
The film being shown for general public, while not illegal, is not a very good tactic, and is intended to try and make someone look ridiculous, partly because it IS taken out of context.
Well I just thought I would share what the term means.
Every religion and technology has terms. In every book of Scientology there is a glossary and/or the term can be found in a technical dictionary, for anyone studying the subject.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
A non-exhaustive google of this topic led me to a lot of purported confessions of scientology by Smith, but nothing that was all like, “Yeah, I’ve got Thetans flying off of me like rats from a sinking ship.”
Smith gives money to a lot of interesting causes, but the $20K to the scientology literacy fund back in 2004 seems to be his biggest deal with that. Shortly after the Vogue interview that had people convinced he’d given his brain away, he gave another interview where he said that organized religion isn’t his thing, he likes to keep his connection with his god personal. For what that’s worth.
There. I’ve now fulfilled my celebrity gossip quotient for the year.
(Unless David Tennant is coming to town sometime soon and then I so totally want to know about it so I can swoon.)
January 15th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
You can learn everything about Scientology at a place called clambake.com. Too bad about Will Smith as he’s a great actor. Well at least John Travolta is still sane.
January 16th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Looks like the Scientology goons got that video pulled. Is there another source somewhere?
January 16th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Here you go
http://defamer.com/344987/the-tom-cruise-indoctrination-video-scientologists-dont-want-you-to-see
January 16th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Wait … that video was made BY the Scientologists? I thought it was meant to make Tom look stupid and deranged. If they show this stuff internally and mean it to be inspiring or whatever, then they’re scarier than I thought.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Gawker.com also has the video. Sorry, don’t yet know how to provide a highlighted link. Grrr.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:46 am
John Travolta made “Battlefield Earth” into a movie. That does not speak well of his sanity.
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/66409/print/
January 16th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Hrm. “Freaking nutbag”.
…
Yeah, that’s a term that definitely NEEDS to be used more often! Like that freakin’ nutbag kleinman on the ol’ JREF forums.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:49 am
BA — maybe it’s just me, but the “next” button at the bottom of the page now leads to the Noreen article, and nothing further. Can’t get into the comments for that one, either. Check the link?
January 16th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Janine, Battlefield Earth was masterpiece! A work of art! Now, excuse me while I get back to Jerry Springer. This episode is, She’s Rubber, I’m Real.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:17 am
It makes me wonder… L. Ron Hubbard a fiction author didn’t just have a huge sense of humor and his Dianetics, etc is nothing but fiction and intended to be fiction.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Clair writes:
[[L. Ron Hubbard a fiction author didn’t just have a huge sense of humor and his Dianetics, etc is nothing but fiction and intended to be fiction.]]
If what you’re saying is true, and Hubbard didn’t really believe in Dianetics, then his charging people for his form of analysis was conscious fraud. But I think he probably did believe it. He had the grandiosity of an Immanuel Velikovsky or a Wilhelm Reich. “I am going to change the world! Little man, get out of my way!”
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:51 am
NT Bullock has made a great little parody…
http://www.sequentialpictures.com/moviecruiseknows.html
January 27th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
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July 10th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
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