The famed astrophysicist and host of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey told The Daily Beast, "So, you have people who are certain that a man in a robe transforms a cracker into the literal body of Jesus saying that what goes on in Scientology is crazy?"

Good for him...More Christians should hear stuff like this. They have no idea that a lot of people shake their heads that someone could swallow such obvious mythology as "truth." I have a religious Facebook friend who was laughing at Mormonism's beliefs and I pointed out to her that "mainstream" beliefs are just as nutty, but they don't strike people as odd because they're culturally familiar. She did concur and say say: "yes, that's true." (She's not a fundy.)

To me, all religions are a scam, some more scammy than others, but a scam nonetheless.

Although when it comes to religious atrocities, scientologists have a lot of making up to do if they want to compete with the Big Three.

Than there is about the resurrection of Jesus, Moses parting the red sea, Mohammed being teleported out of Jerusalem, or the amazing yarn of flarn that Joseph Smith spun.

That said, NDGT admitted he didn't watch the HBO doc on scientology, i suspect he might have a different take if he had. Because it wasnt so much about "these are ridiculous beliefs" as much as "this is an organziation that behaves in extremely creepy ways".

I'm no big fan of the Catholic Church, for instance, but at least they don't hire private investigators to follow people around when they try to leave the church, etc.

Yikes. That's some scary shit.

But there was one positive spot in the film. Apparently Scientology's membership is dropping. They are down to less than 50,000. Sure, that's still a lot but maybe it's seen it's heyday. They may not make it as long as Xianity or Judiasm.

The downside, is that the church still has a shit-load of money. Over 3 Billion in assets.