Jason Lee

Read this. Believe it if you like. I don't know where they got this "on-set" information but it does sound like many things I've heard Scientologists say. And I respect Jason Lee for keeping his faith to himself:
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2006/05/26/jason_lee_sets_the_record_straight_about

Scientologists have beliefs that sound scientific. Like "We believe that a woman screaming bloody murder (during birth) traumatizes the child." An interesting notion, perhaps true - But where is the science to back it up? And haven't 99% of people in the history of mankind - People who have done much better things for the world than a pulp science fiction writer - been born in just that way? Consider how much you are screaming just from the shock of cold air and breathing through lungs for the first time - That's fucking traumatic, too. We are MEANT to come through the world in a way that prepares us for pain. Do they really want us to be that surprised when people hurt us - that FURTHER traumatized when pain comes later in life? Am I wrong, or doesn't it seem slightly off to say you're helping someone prepare for the world by denying them any understanding of its harsh realities?

Sure, if you want to bring a baby into the world ill-prepared, that's your decision. If you want to prepare your young kid for their first party by giving them a glass of ginger ale and having nice, comfortable conversation about what a waste of your life drugs and alcohol are, okay. But the unexposed are innately the more curious and the more easily damaged. Preparation is the key.
This is why I have a problem with the tenets of Scientology. They tell people like Jason Lee, John Travolta and Tom Cruise a bunch of "facts" that sound scientific, that these guys gladly take for face value and tell their friends these things matter-of-factly without considering that no scientific evidence exists for any of it.

I'll be honest - I appreciate a great deal of the tenets of Scientology. The idea of healing one's self is more than respectable. The problem is the degree to which they adhere to these ideas. That if L. Ron said something there is NO possible exception, that the extremes are the only solution. If you are so far to one side that you can't see the middle ground, then you're completely lost, and you're just as likely to wander off further in the direction you were headed than to find your way back.

I personally held a few of the same beliefs as a Scientologist friend when I first met her a few years ago. She's sweet, and expressed to me a few ideas which I happened to relate to. I still do, but as years have gone by, I have personally grown slightly less liberal in order place myself in a position to reason better, even if I disagree with an opposing view. When I first met her, I didn't notice that look in her eyes - intelligent, calm, wondering - but when I noticed her stare it suddenly reminded me of a deer caught in headlights. When confused and unsure we so often push ourselves to believe something we want to, and that's what it said to me.

Surely, I had my own preconceptions of this faith which is, purely, just that - faith. Though not a Christian I have grown up around their stories just as much as anyone who lives in a predominantly Protestant and white American town. Naturally, it's hard even for me, a near-atheist, to cast too much doubt on Christianity, understanding that balance and true understanding of the point of religion - to get along in this often hellish world - are where the true magic lies. But somehow the more I hear about this faith the less I respect it. I don't disrespect its members unless they attempt to punish non-believers. A mark of my friend the Scientologist was that she understood that this was her belief and didn't need to be mine. She only told me what I wanted to know when I expressed interest. I'm aware she might have done the same if I simply "seemed lost" but I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt.

When a faith or religion insist upon loose or false science and then claim that all their tenets are based upon that same "science," there is a problem. If the point of Scientology was "Use your will power to defeat your inner problems," then I could get behind it, even if my individuality would never let me join. If it said "Pills can cause a lot of negative problems for their positive effects, but in some cases, they are a necessity because certain problems are beyond social help," then I could gladly say I don't question my own Jason Lee fanhood. But when he is insisting upon something he doesn't understand - couldn't, in fact, explain to me scientifically even if his life depended on it - I can't help but see more of Earl Hickey in him than he'd ever admit is there: a wide-eyed innocent wanting desperately to make good but completely unaware that this kind of simple-minded idea, as beautiful and perfect as it may seem, only pays off in the movies.