What I learned today...

about Scientology. We had a speaker (actually there were two) come in to talk to my World Religion class. There was supposed to have a Native elder type figure (I'm not saying that in a disrespectful way, I honestly don't know exactly what he (she?) is) come in as well to speak to us, but he didn't show up. We had a lovely Muslim woman (she was so frank about everything, it was wonderful), and a Catholic priest (apparently he's the head exorcist in Winnipeg) come in on Monday. So anyways, I was hoping that this evening would help get rid of some of the Tom Cruise version of Scientology that is so popular in the media. However, that really wasn't the case; here's what I learned about Scientology this evening. Along with some of my own commentary.

-even though they aren't supposed to proselytize, they come pretty damn close to saying "Scientology will fix everything that's wrong in your life."

-they begin to answer every question with "Well, in Scientology, we believe that every person is a spiritual being." Yes, we get that. You said at the VERY BEGINNING of the class that that was one of the most fundamental beliefs. Really. We get it. We aren't stupid. Well, most of us.

-kay, the whole thing with Scientologists and anti-depressants, etc. They don't agree with drugs or medical treatments that have negative effects on you. I'm sorry. Hold the phone. So antibiotics are okay, aspirin is okay. But apparently drugs to treat extreme cases of schizophrenia or depression aren't okay because they can result in addiction. Using this logic, chemotherapy to treat cancer isn't okay. Wait a tick. Aspirin thins your blood, which can definitely be negative. Widespread use of antibiotics has resulted in the strain of the AIDS virus that is resistant to pretty much everything. The antibiotics killed everything but that one strain, and now that's pretty much the only one that's still around. So that doesn't hold water.

-It's impossible to sum up the creation story, or even the premise behind it, so you have to read L.Ron Hubbard's book(s) on the subject. I'm sorry, the Bible isn't exactly simple to summarize. There are lots of nuances. But people have. If you put a Christian in front of a class, they'd be able to tell you the gist of the Creation story. If you really wanted to, you could summarize it as "God created the earth and everything on it." Look at that. 8 words. They wouldn't say "Come to our church and purchase a Bible! Only $29.95!" Which is what they came pretty close to saying.

- If I were to become a Scientologist, my spiritual growth would result in me becoming smarter. How would we know? Because they measure spriritual growth with IQ tests. What the poo? I do not understand the correlation. And even so. Correlation is NOT causation. If I learned anything in Sociology, I learned that.

- when one guy in class asked if you had to pay anything to be a Scientologist, they did NOT give a clear answer. They just talked about how anyone can come in and learn about Scientology, and they have all these free lectures and seminars. But really, if they're going to be sticking electrodes to you and trying to find out what you did in your past life to cause you to be depressed now (no lie, they actually do that) , I'm guessing they are going to charge.

I was really hoping to get something out of this lecture. All that it ended up doing in the end is making me really determined to never purchase a book by L. Ron Hubbard.

Yesterday was ridiculous. Janna hurt her elbow (I'm not going to tell you how, I'll let you get that story from her) and after snack, after talking to Megan Enns, and her mentioning that Janna's impaired range of motion and pain sounded like what she had felt like when she broke her elbow, we (Scott, Janna and I) went to Misericordia Hospital to get it checked out. We figured it was better to have it checked out and have nothing be wrong, than to ignore it and find out later that her arm was fractured in 3 places or something. So we get to the hospital at about 10pm. I know this, because our ticket thing for the parking garage was for 10:02. We sat there till about 2, when Janna got to go get an x-ray taken. Then, she had to sit in the waiting room for another 45 minutes. Then she got sent into an examining room, where she got to wait for another half hour.
That makes me angry. I mean, we knew her arm wasn't broken or anything, but there was this woman that had been there for about as long as we were had malaria or something. Janna said she was talking about being in pain everywhere, and I'm sorry, we were waiting for almost 5 1/2 hours. Which means that she was waiting at least 5 1/4. She spent at least 9/10ths of her time in the waiting room draped over a table crying.
Seriously. Ridiculously long waiting time.
Anywho. So I didn't get to go to bed till almost 5am. That was fun. Then I had to get up to study with Ashley for bio. We ended up just doing the assignment due at the start of the lab, and then we went to Wendy's for lunch.
That's all for now. I'm gonna go study more, and then I'm going to go to bed. Cause sleep is good. I like sleep.