Rocky

Leah Remini posted this to twitter today.

obtuse

https://www.tampabay.com/news/clearwater/2022/04/28/3-former-scientology-workers-sue-saying-they-were-trafficked-as-children/ Local Florida news outlet, Tampa Bay Times. excerpt: Through its highly regimented Sea Org workforce, Scientology officials systematically trafficked Baxter, 39, and others by indoctrinating them as children and making it financially, physically and psychologically impossible for them to leave as adults, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Tampa federal court against Scientology leader David Miscavige and five church entities. The 90-page complaint was filed on behalf of Baxter, his wife, Laura Baxter, and Valeska Paris, who all were raised in Scientology and worked on the Freewinds, where they said the church confiscated their passports and identification documents. They allege six counts of forced labor and peonage in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.

IMO, it's a story, not literal/factual truth/reality. But you raise intriguing questions about the culture(s) in which this story originated and survived up to the present time. Some present day Christian fundamentalists have apparently lamented what they see as a trend toward atheism. Perhaps they could benefit from exercising the brains God gave them rather than subject more than six billion humans to mindless fearmongering. Just sayin'.

Intriguing! FWIW, I neither agree nor disagree. Rather, this thread looks and sounds to me like an entirely philosophical discussion, rather than about religion. Personally, I wouldn't presume to have any idea what God, or whomever dreamt up and put this physical universe in motion, could possibly know or not now. I proceed from the perspective that whatever or whomever that might be knows far more than I ever will... at least in this life.

Mike, it seems you forgot to include the premise. Who is going to have to re-vamp their assessment of Wierwille? Why would they need to do so? Going to have to thus re-vamp IF WHAT? For what purpose. Do you assume we care about the history of his personal ministry or overall mission or purpose in life for some reason? I'm confident that many of us here have made it clear we have no such intention. He lost all credibility in my mind about 35 years ago. Now, if you were to say something to the effect of "if anyone wants to understand where Wierwille got certain of his ideas, such as ... or ... then you may want to read up on this guy George, then I'd be more inclined to check into it/him.

Be that as it may, I don't really think that's the subject of this thread.

To reiterate MY premise for this discussion.

Wow! You see? How could you possibly? I don't think I've seen you ask for clarification on anything I've said that could lead you to such a conclusion. I'm not going to argue or bicker with you.

That seems rational.

I watched the limited series. She definitely was playing a seriously HUGE con game on several levels.

Like I mentioned a couple of days ago... I hope you're okay (especially emotionally). You really do seem to be much more obtuse lately.

Rochester Gas & Electric was using this logo more than half a century ago. Ready Kilowatt, they called it. Of course pets provide comfort to people, often in place of human contact. As to looking at Wierwille... I'd rather not.

I hope correcting my typo clarifies the question some.

I suppose they might... for some people. I don't believe that will change human nature, however.

Bolshevik, questions for you: 1) are you suggesting the introduction of AI robots will supplant the human need for interaction with other humans (social needs); 2) are you suggesting these robots with change human nature such that we will no longer need human interaction?

How do you know I haven't already?

How do you know I haven't already?

From page 2 of this thread: Further, the Big Think topic seems to me to be: we know cults exist and are bad, but can the badness be mitigated into something more benign. Further, we also know the importance to humans of BELONGING socially. Can groups which provide a sense of belonging yet do so without most of the adverse characteristics we have come to associate with cults?

No, neither. I stated no such thing. Are you doing the TWIish tactic of answering a question with a question for the purpose of evasiveness rather than clarifying? or... "If human nature changes over time, there's no reason to think AI can't stay ahead of it." That's an interesting thought experiment. Do you know of any AI research suggesting AI would change the social needs of humanity?

"If the purpose of..." Now you're introducing a new premise? If you'd like to, please let us know how you propose to change human nature and social needs.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4947747/ Review of 99 self-report measures for assessing well-being in adults: Exploring dimensions of well-being and developments over time. Linton, M. J., Dieppe, P., & Medina-Lara, A. (2016). BMJ Open, 6(7), e010641.

Whether you want to answer or not, wellbeing IS a defined term. Well-Being Measurement The World Health Organization’s definition of health clearly underscores the importance of well-being: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Well-being is a broad construct that encompasses multiple dimensions, which can essentially be divided into two large domains: objective and subjective well-being. As a result, various scales and indices have been developed to measure both domains. For a non-exhaustive list of relevant articles on well-being, click here.