A Challenge to the Religious

At http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/which-theology-should-we-respect/ Jerry Coyne describes one of the beliefs of Scientologists. It has to do with Xenu. Only the most highly trained scientologists (presumably including Tom Cruise) are taught these "secrets". It costs more than $100,000 to go through all of the courses needed to get to the point that you learn these things. Note that I am giving them to you for free.

In summary, about 75 million years ago, Xenu was the ruler of a "galactic confederacy" that included Earth. The technology in use was similar to what we had in the 1950's in the United States. Xenu was in danger of being deposed, so he devised a plot where billions of people were paralyzed and frozen. Their souls were stolen (using something called an> "electronic ribbon") from their bodies. These souls (which numbered in the hundreds of billions) were taken to a type of cinema, where they were forced to watch a "three-D, super colossal motion picture" for thirty-six days. This removed their memories and implanted new thoughts. Then the souls were stored in various volcanoes such as those in Hawaii.

It sounds farily bizarre to me.

Here are the challenges posed by Jerry Coyne:

"For the life of me, I can't see how this differs materially — at least in terms of its truth — from the mythology of any other religion. Could somebody please enlighten me? And am I supposed to respect this view? Do you? If you respect the theologies of Catholicism, Judaism, or Islam more, or give their adherents more credibility than you do Scientologists, why?"

I doubt that creationists can answer any of those questions.