{"id":2144,"date":"2011-03-10T09:16:35","date_gmt":"2011-03-10T14:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2144"},"modified":"2011-03-10T09:16:35","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T14:16:35","slug":"the-raelians-are-not-frauds-apparently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2144","title":{"rendered":"The Raelians are Not Frauds&#8230; Apparently"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last night I was pretty surprised to get an e-mail from the executives at Examiner.com. I write for Examiner as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/atheism-in-philadelphia\/staks-rosch\" target=\"_blank\">Philly Atheist Examiner<\/a> to help fund Dangerous Talk. Apparently, they received a complaint about one of my articles and determined that a statement I made might be libelous.<\/p>\n<p>The article was the one I did about the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/atheism-in-philadelphia\/raelians-launch-atheist-billboard-campaign\" target=\"_blank\">Raelian atheist billboard<\/a>. The statement was that I called Rael (the leader of the Raelians) a fraud. I guess if I can\u2019t call him a fraud that might mean that he really did met with aliens from some galactic federation.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, out of fear of receiving the \u201cScientology\u201d treatment of getting sued, Examiner instructed me to make it clear that Rael being a fraud is just my opinion. So fine, it is <strong>my opinion<\/strong> that Rael is a fraud. It is also <strong>my opinion<\/strong> that Scientology is a fraud and that most religious leaders are frauds too.<\/p>\n<p>The thing is that I don\u2019t like this attitude that many religious people from Raelian to Scientologist and even to those of the Abrhamic religions have. It\u2019s an attitude that if you criticize them and call them out as frauds, they will sue you. Everyone knows that some religion (other than their religion of course) is ridiculously fake, but if you say it out loud, you might get sued.<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t tell you have many times some Christian has told me that they think Scientology is a ridiculous religion focused on swindling money from its members. I agree with this, but usually point out that Christianity is no different. The fact is that almost all religions are frauds (<strong>Legal Disclaimer: in my opinion<\/strong>).<br \/>\n<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><br \/>\n<a onclick=\"return addthis_sendto()\" onmouseover=\"return addthis_open(this, '', '[URL]', '[TITLE]')\" onmouseout=\"addthis_close()\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addthis.com\/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;pub=dangeroustalk\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/lg-share-en.gif\" alt=\"Bookmark and Share\" width=\"125\" height=\"16\" \/><\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js?pub=dangeroustalk\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- AddThis Button END --><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"zemanta-related-title\" style=\"font-size: 1em;\">Related articles<\/h6>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/skepacabra.wordpress.com\/2011\/03\/02\/finally-an-atheist-ad-i-can-get-behind\/\">Finally, an atheist ad I can get behind<\/a> (skepacabra.wordpress.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/pharyngula\/2011\/03\/disbelief_in_gods_is_only_one.php\">Disbelief in gods is only one of the beginnings of reason<\/a> (scienceblogs.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/rael-founder-and-spiritual-leader-of-the-raelian-movement-for-his-stance-on-condoms-pope-benedict-xvi-should-be-prosecuted-for-crimes-against-humanity-112467029.html\">Rael, Founder and Spiritual Leader of the Raelian Movement: &#8216;For His Stance on Condoms, Pope Benedict XVI Should be Prosecuted for Crimes Against Humanity.&#8217;<\/a> (prnewswire.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/therecoveringlegalist.com\/2011\/01\/06\/the-raelians-are-coming\/\">The Raelians are Coming!!<\/a> (therecoveringlegalist.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.forbes.com\/andygreenberg\/2011\/02\/07\/wikileaks-ufo-cables-more-about-raelian-cult-than-alien-life\/\">WikiLeaks&#8217; UFO Cables: More About Raelian Cult Than Alien Life<\/a> (blogs.forbes.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/pixy.gif?x-id=8dc62acb-e036-48ae-ad59-916537a2dc4b\" alt=\"\" \/><span class=\"zem-script more-info\"><script src=\"http:\/\/static.zemanta.com\/readside\/loader.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2144\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 317364;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last night I was pretty surprised to get an e-mail from the executives at Examiner.com. I write for Examiner as the Philly Atheist Examiner to help fund Dangerous Talk. Apparently, they received a complaint about one of my articles and determined that a statement I made might be libelous. The article was the one I [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 317364;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[809,523,1254,1225,1618,9,98],"tags":[37,11,1620,2214,1264,1619,2232],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2146,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions\/2146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}