Matrix-ology

Strangely enough, twice this week people have asked me what scientology is. And quite frankly I really didn't know what they believed in aside from some of Tom Cruises insane rantings. Then lo and behold, this morning on MSN was a brief article describing some of the basics of scientology (sadly I didn't save the link and can't find it now).

For the most part Scientology seems like a cool religion. Man is a spirit and should be cool to one another. Somewhere on their website they talk about the evolution of different faiths and philosophies and they kind of present scientology as the culmination of all of those ideas. Which in and of itself is interesting.

Then all of a sudden, oops! you realize that they believe in aliens and stuff. They believe 75 million years ago, the ruler of the Galactic Confederacy, a dude named Xenu, brought billions of people to earth, placed them near volcanoes and blew them up! With Hydrogen bombs (apparently realizing volcanoes were too slow). They believe that the spirits of these 'sploded human beings cause humanity problems today.

Now like all people I like to keep an open mind about things and feel that I'm accepting of everyone's beliefs yadda yadda yadda... But as someone who's very interested in spirituality and philosophy and a man who's been raised in a Christian family, the incidence of Scientology does raise a lot of questions.

I think when it comes to spirituality the world can be divided in the following way. There's hardcore believers, who blindly do whatever they're told by religious leaders. Then you have people who practice the faith, but are very conservative when they speak about their faith or practice anything that may or may not fall in line with the thinking of the majority. Then you have your skeptics who simply refuse to believe anything that doesn't slap them right in the face. And finally you have people who are beyond skeptical but are actually threatenned by any idea that can't be explained by science and get ornery and uncomfortable if you even mention anything spiritual. And of course, there are the rare people (I've met some) who seem to be genuinely enlightenned and know there is a God because through life experience they have been made to understand a truth that can't be learned from a book or someone telling you.

I think I fall in a gray area that a lot of people do now which is a kind of flaky acknowledgment of the truth of spirituality without any serious commitment or devotion. But I am trying to find a path! I am trying to learn more and more about Christianity and I find the path very rewarding at times.

That said, I'm also very interested in the Matrix. I want that to be my religion so I can run up walls and fly and stuff. For the past 2-3 weeks I have been completely obsessed with everything having to do with the Matrix after watching a documentary that lays out all the philosophy behind the series for you in plain English. I learned a lot. Not to say that the movies were fantastic, but I think the THRILLOGY is jam packed with some ideas, basically rehashed philosophical ideas from thousands of years ago until now. This stuff interests me, I'm a geek. And for some reason I think the Wachowski brothers are geniuses for putting together all these ideas in some cool movies/video games/cartoons.

But above all what's impressive, is people's ability to make money off of ANYTHING! Philosophy isn't really something new, congrats on the Wachowskis for finding a way to make these old ideas lucrative by attaching Kung Fu to it.

Enter Scientology... Xenu, the ruler of the Galactic Confederacy brought billions of humans to earth and blew them up using Hydrogen Bombs??? That's not even a good sci-fi story! And yes, there are hydrogen bombs in that story, but where's the Kung Fu at??? Serious lack of effort there.

And I think at that point it becomes obvious why there are so many skeptics out there when it comes to spirituality. Spirituality is fascinating stuff if you actually study it and try and listen to new ideas critically. But it seems these days that all religions, from Christianity to Scientology have become franchises, each with their own gimmick and somewhere at the top of the ladder is some greedy jerk looking to make a few bucks off of it. I love what they're teaching, but it puts a damper on things to see the hypocrasy present in these institutions. Bush uses Christianity as an excuse to murder people. If you go to the Scientology website you'll see they're selling lots of things. One impression you get is that they're running a business, some kind of self help deal.

It's a shame that something as important as spirituality often reaches us after being tainted by corrupt "teachers"/salespeople. Usually when people say they don't go to church, the first thing they say is, "Oh, why bother going to church? You only see the same hypocrites in there that you see everyday on the streets!" Which is true. Of course the Pastor I listen to on Sunday mornings says, that that is exactly the point of Christianity. A gathering of people who need, and want to be shown a better way to live.

But the feeling is the same. Dissapointment. Deep down inside I've always felt that there was something spiritual about the universe. Maybe ... some kind of ... spirit? I don't know.. As Morpheus from the Matrix said, "You're not sure what it is, but you're always aware of it. Like a splinter in your mind!" The problem is, and I don't think this is something that is unique to me, is when you get dissapointed by the people who are supposed to be observing spiritual beliefs, or you get dissapointed by life and hence God, it becomes a reason to not care about these things anymore.

Good? Bad? As Morpheus says, "There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path." In other words, things happen to us that make us believe or not believe in God but whatever we believe at any given time is part of the path that God has set out for us anyway. So it's all good.

And as Neo said, "I know Kung Fu..."

And isn't that what really matters in the end??

I know I come off as kind of a liberal, wishy washy, kind of guy... But science has done it to me. I believe that no matter what business you're in, the key is to tell a good story. All of these religions are based on stories. People then listen to these stories and decide whether or not they're interesting and whether or not they want to learn more about it and ultimately whether they choose to believe it. A good sci-fi story can be approached in much the same way, (minuse the believing part, though one may argue that there is a kind of truth in fiction when it comes to character psychology). Science is not different. A scientist makes an observation, proposes a model to explain the observation and then people decide whether or not it is true or false. I think learning about any of these three things in a critical manner is beneficial and exciting. Then again I'm a nerd. Live long and prosper suckers!