Tom Cruise is fucking crazy

Those were the words I uttered to my wife after watching about 4 minutes of a youtube video in which Tom Cruise is discussing his faith in Scientology. Among the statements made by Tom were that he believed he is here to save the world; if he drove by a car accident he knew he was the only person who could help; that believers in Scientology were the authority on the mind, and authorities on matters of the soul. In essence, stating that not only is he himself all powerful and can fix any problem, he was also all knowing of the ways of life.
So anyway, I start going on about the obvious insanity of anyone who follows a religion in which the founder has admitted is bullshit. Kami, my wife, points out that his beliefs are no different than a fundamentalist follower of any religion. I agreed with her, but felt compelled to stay on the topic a bit further.
Consider those statements at face value, which is what the speaker wants you to do. They are words that are meant to lure you in. "Are you lost? Well come here and we will teach you all of the answers to life's questions."
As I considered the statements of beliefs held by fundamentalists, I started thinking about a series I saw recently on the History Channel called "The Universe". The series is about what science believes it knows about the universe, from our solar system to the ever expanding end of the universe. The scientists spoke about the different theories there are regarding such unknowns as Black Holes and the possibility of the universe collapsing onto itself in a reverse Big Bang. Although the scientists backed up these theories with the facts that are known about the universe, they admitted that there was no way for them to be sure.
Whenever I see shows like these, I begin to try to picture the universe. The attempts I have made at it have all failed. That is not to say I do not understand the universe in theoretical terms, but that I can not picture it in real terms. Trying to picture how far a light year is to expanding out to hundreds of millions of light years causes my brain to have the equivalent of a circuit overload, and shuts down whenever I attempt this. The awesomeness of the universe is too much to comprehend.
Which brings me back to Tommy boy, sitting there looking both suave and creepy at once. As I listen to him (rather, them), I become overwhelmed with one thought. How can anyone claim they know God's (or if you rather, the HP's) plan. Consider all there is to life. As easily as I am blown away thinking about the universe, I am just as amazed by the life I can see. Consider an all knowing God understanding how weather works, having created every atom within the clouds. Think about the complexity that makes up you and I. Not only are we are a biological miracle, we somehow have an unexplained ability to love and hate, something that has no relation to our survival needs. And while I give credit to the HP, whose to say there is an HP. Perhaps the universe was created strictly from biological and chemical reactions, and any appearance that there is a HP is a coincidence.
This leads to the point that, although similar, faith and belief are different. It is one thing to believe there is a higher power watching over us all, but believing you know what that HP is thinking is something completely different. The argument works the same for atheist, of which there are many fundamentalists as well. It is one thing to believe that there is no HP, but to state that you know beyond a shadow of doubt there is no God is preposterous as well. While this extremists line of thinking is more closely associated with the religions of the world, it only takes watching the preview to "Religulous" to see that there are fundamentalists atheists out there, and they follow the same line of thinking that the religious do.
The more I thought about this, the more my respect level for Tom Cruise dropped (insert joke here). The idea that Tom Cruise is the chosen one with whom was bestowed all answers by the HP is as crazy as it sounds. But it does not sound any crazier than a minister or a priest or a rabbi claiming those same things. Anyone who believes they have been endowed with the ability to understand God's plan for us all is full of shit. To believe that they know anything should be considered blasphemous by the religious and idiocy by non-believers of an HP. And yet the world is full of people who believe this, and full of people who are ready to believe in them.
There is nothing wrong with having faith in an HP, or believing there is no HP. But claims of a greater understanding of the HP's work should immediately cause people to be wary of them. They are out there, and they scare me. And they should scare you.