Anonymous

Post 9

*NOTE*
I have now hit over 500 viewers, not 500 views, but 500 viewers! While that might not seem that important (only 30 or some were repeats, need to work on that), for a blog that has been around for only three weeks now that is a nice deal. I have also been read world wide, if you do not count Africa (hopefully soon) and Antarctica (come on McMurdo, read me).

As you may have noticed I have changed the layout. It is now three columned. If it is showing up incorrectly (it should be tan left, tan blog in the middle, green right) please let me know via e-mail. If you have any concerns or comments about the site, or ones you do not feel like sharing on this site, please e-mail me: barga.24@osu.edu

Also, I am attempting to find code that automatically emails you (provided you consent and give your email) when somebody responds to a post that you also responded to. Currently, it does that if you are a blogger user, but not otherwise. If anybody has this code, please let me know.
*End of Note*



People were recently protesting on a Saturday in downtown Columbus. Were they protesting Global Warming? Were they protesting about Mr. Dann? Were they protesting about religion needing to be in school? No, thy were circling a religious center because they thought that the religion was a cult (fyi, it is not a cult). What religion were they protesting? Scientology. What group is this? Anonymous.

Anonymous is a harassment front of people who do not like the religion of Scientology, and various other things. While I do not believe the Fox News report that they intended to bomb stadiums, post porn, or capture pedophiles; I do believe that they intend to disrupt a religion, harm people in epilepsy forums, and in general, act like middle schoolers. Really, I have three main problems with Anonymous ; They make claims which are illogical and/or do not have backing - They break the law - They take it to far and act like middle schoolers while doing it.


They Make Claims Which are Illogical and/or do not Have Backing -
Anonymous makes several claims which have no actual backing. Furthermore, the way that they make these arguments shows that they are very illogical. Anonymous believes that Scientology kills people (not backed), stalks people (that is backed), and is dangerous to themselves (not backed). Furthermore, the personal attacks they have on certain members, and what I would consider Slander on the organization of Scientology itself. All of these ad hoc attacks clearly have no backing, and, because of how they use them, shows that Anonymous is either intentionally illogical or just not intelligent (ergo thinking that they are logical claims). Anonymous believes that they are in danger from Scientology, without giving proof. Furthermore, they also claim that they have been stalked (which is proven) and their cars have been killed. This has several problems - if Scientology actually did this (which would be illogical as it would harm their reputation) then they would be arrested. Furthermore, they claim to be in danger but still do this, and then join on line groups with their real names (like the ones on Facebook). Clearly Anonymous has some logical failures.

They Break the Law -
Harassment, Slander, Libel - all are illegally, but they are not what I am talking about here. Hacking, last-day attacks, and server based attacks are. Anonymous specializes in breaking the law (along with their /b/ brethren). They hack computers, steal files, violate copyright laws, and the like - all in an attempt to prove that Scientologists are bad. You get the irony, right? Anonymous stalks members of Scientology with an attempt to get their data, to harass their church-members, and to, well, basically, raise Hell. Frankly, it seems as though anonymous is not above breaking the law to show that others break the law, hmmmm.

They take it too far and act like middle schoolers while doing it -
Breaking the law is far enough, but anonymous seems to think that they should also be annoying little middles schoolers as well. The way that they act (attack from behind and unknown) they show that they are very immature (which is sad, as most are adults). Furthermore, their spamming of forums with porn (much like 4Chan (there will be a post on them later)), use of lies and mistruths, and attacks on those unfortunate show this. When they spammed an epilepsy forum with flashing javascript they showed that they are really not worthy of an credence. In the end, it seems as though Anonymous is full of young adults who really have too little to do in their life.


As always, please leave any comments, no matter how large or how small about the contents of this blog post. Also, please leave any comments/suggestions about this site/post as a whole.
Thanks,
Barga


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fad religions

Post 8

'Scientology, Xenos, Kabbalah, New-Age and other 'fad religions''

*NOTE*
There will be a follow of this posted on Friday, dealing with the groups that go after these religions. I am in no way attempting to take a view on the religion itself, only on the method that it uses and what it says to do (outside of it's actual preachings). Furthermore, in the future, I will also be posting entries on the specific religions that I have listed here. Before you accuse me of bias, please make sure to read Fridays posting.
Also, On Monday I will have the circle topic posted, please check back then as well.
Thanks,
Barga
*End of Note*

Before I start this entry I need to say that this post in no way is meant to imply that all believers in these religions, or any other religion that falls under my definition of 'fad religion', do not truly believe in their respective religion. In this post I am merely talking about persons who change their religion, don't know much about their religion, and/or jump week by week (not literally) to a new, usually popular, religion. Good, that taken care of (along with the waiver in the note), I shall continue on to the actual post.

Tom Cruse jumps on a couch! Madonna has special diet needs and drinks special water! News headlines scream the latest news of our beloved celebrities, often including mentions of their religion (or, in both of the above cases, mentioning effects/duties of their religion). These reports and stories increase the perception of these religions. Ranging from Scientology (for the record, I do recommend Hubbard's sci-fi, he was a good author) to Xenos to Kabbalah to born-again to all sorts of new-age religions (http://www.religioustolerance.org/newage.htm) religions are having celebrities flock to them in mass, and in public. Religion, at least those of celebrities, seems to have become common knowledge, a well talked about thing.

Along with the herds of celebrities the masses have been playing the lemming. A cultural leap towards these newly-popular religions seems to be appearing. That is, the religious movements in this country seem extremely fad based, and seem to alter often. Now, some of the people jumping ships might actually find their true religion, might actually find peace, and might actually be happy. However, it seems, more and more often that the lemming effect is in play. Really, this does bother me, as it means that people are not properly thinking. If it is something as important as your religion I think that you should be thinking fully about the choices you are making.

One of the biggest issues that I have with these groups are the fact that they seem cult-like almost. No, I am not calling them a cult (though I reserve the right to do so in a future), just that they, in many aspects, look/feel like a cult. The way that people join these groups (do to a charismatic person), the way that these groups hold people in, and the way that they treat those outside of themselves clearly shows this. However, I do not blame the groups for these people joining. In fact, I blame the celebrities. When you are in the public eye you clearly have a duty to make sure that you do not mislead or harm the public. The celebrities need to fully educate themselves about what they are getting into (AND what the public gets into in the same group (some groups (Scientology) have different rules for Celebrities and the masses)). In the end I think that people need to put down their drinks and think before jumping ship. Find a religion you can join, relate to, and believe in. Then stay there. Celebrities, do the same, and don't make your religion such a big deal.

I bet you thought this was going to be an attack on religion. Let this be a lesson, leave your assumptions at the door (the attack on certain religious groups will come much later).



As always, please leave any comments, no matter how large or how small about the contents of this blog post. Also, please leave any comments/suggestions about this site/post as a whole.
Thanks,
Barga


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