Ok, so now I'm really going to

The class I went to tonight was really good. It was at the home of one of my sister's friends from HS and her husband. He has worked as a youth minister and is currently going to seminary to be a pastor. It can't actually be called a 'bible study' we actually just talked about religion tonight. We are currently, for the next few weeks covering religion and cults. We will eventually move to the hard questions and things you've always wanted to know about religion that you didn't already know.

There are some religions and questions that we covered that I already knew about, like Islam and Hinduism, but we also talked about Scientology. It's a religious cult, that due to it's growing popularity is being considered a religion by some.

I didn't know, and I still don't really know much about Scientology. I learned that they don't have a definition for their deity, but they do dispute the definition of biblical God.

We talked about Christian Scientists, which is not the same thing. Christian Scientists were founded by Mary Eddy. Their beliefs are slightly out there, but I can definitely see some aspects of them. One of their big things is that sickness or injury are states of mind, and to be healed you have a practitioner (a member of CS who is a liscenced healer, but not necessarily a doctor) who you pay to come in and heal you. No medical procedures are used, but you are prayed over, you are shown how to change your thinking, foods, and actions so that your body will heal. I don't agree with it, but I do think that when patients who are terminally ill with things like cancer could definitely use this type of healing in addition to regular medical healing.

Next week we will be covering Jehovah's Witness and Mormonism/LDS. I'm really interested in what he has to say about each of those. I don't mean that to sound as though I doubt him, at all, because I don't. I just think it's interesting.

Let you know more next week!!