Your thoughts on Scientology

Well I've been brought up by catholics parents in a small town so there really was no other religion. As I grew older I seen it more as a tradition than anything else really. I've started reading on it and all and opened myself to other religion.

I now believe I fit into the agnostic category. Lately I've been reading about Scientology, a new religion I discovered not more than a couple of weeks ago through a talk show. Since then I've been reading about it, taking some, leaving some as I did when I learned about other religion...

What are your thoughts on it? I'm hoping to gather more informations from some of you who may have knowns about Scientology for longer than I.

Thanks

[BluffTHIS!]

Well I am a practicing catholic so naturally I'll be biased against other faiths. But scientology is nothing other than a huge scam. It was started by a science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. You have to pay money to learn about each new level as you advance, with estimates of as high as $250K+ to make it to the top level. The religion postulates that 75 million years ago the evil galactic ruler Xenu killed all these people and dumped their bodies in the volcanoes on earth. The spirits of these people then inhabit us and are the cause of our problems, which of course scientology can help you get rid of. But you are only slowly spoonfed all that rubbish so that beginners aren't immediately put off by the science fiction story. Hubbard was even quoted 10 years before he started it as saying that the best way to make money was to start your own religion rather than getting paid 2 cents a word by writing. Hubbard died offshore on a yacht while avoiding arrest and prosecution for income tax evasion and his death was kept secret for some time by his followers. This is really a cult since they use cultic practices like shunning those who quit and advising you to cutoff contact from any family members who might criticize you if you join. You can search the net for more info, although their actual texts are hard to come by since they have for several years mounted a campaign to sue anyone posting them on the internet for copyright violations.

So you can pay $6.99 for a copy of the Bible and try to reawaken your Christian faith or 250K and make it to the top of the scientology pyramid. Or of course you could just pay nothing and be an agnostic.

I thought bible were free no? Well maybe I'm mistaken from having grown up in a small catholic town but Bibles were free at the curch I attended as a teen.

Thanks for the reply, I'll read a little more sure does sound different than what they preach for now :P

[BluffTHIS!]

Well of course you can get bibles for free from various christian organizations. But it is significant that you cannot purchase or get as a gift up front all of scientology's texts. Yet another sign that they are a cult. All you can buy or get for free is Hubbard's book "Dianetics" which is just a self help book and doesn't really explain the backstory of the evil galactic ruler and all that hokey stuff.

[sexdrugsmoney]

Alot of criticism has been written about Scientology and I'm not going to go into it, but one point is particularly interesting.

L. Ron Hubbard Jnr stood to inherit the whole Scientology empire IIRC but turned away from it, check out this:

[ QUOTE ]

In a 1983 interview, L. Ron, Jr. said "according to him and my mother", that he was the result of a failed abortion and recalls at six years old seeing his father performing an abortion ritual on his mother with a coat hanger. In the same interview, he said "Scientology is a power-and-money-and-intelligence-gathering game" and described his father as "only interested in money, sex, booze, and drugs".

[/ QUOTE ]

It's rather curious when one who can have so much power rejects the offering and walks away, as you can imagine the equal of such rejected power would not be possible in taking another path.

I'm not saying even if this is correct that this alone is sufficient for the rejection of Scientology, but it's definite food for thought.

link

[pzhon]

Religions don't hire so many lawyers for suing critics. Scientology is organized crime pretending to be a religion. It doesn't have the moral values of a cult. Scientology has a huge, aggressive PR engine, but it does not stand up to the light of day.

If you are seriously considering Scientology, please search the internet to find more information. You'll find many shocking things revealed by former members. You'll see how ridiculous the teachings of Scientology appear when you are not brainwashed first. You'll find the pathetic and repulsive facts of the founder's life, in contrast to the Scientologist's fiction. You'll see that Scientology has acted and continues to act like a band of thugs, not clerics.

[David Sklansky]

I've always wondered though why psychologists don't use something similar to those machines that scientologists hook you up to, to determine those things that may be subconsciously bothering you. Seems reasonable to hook someone up to a polygraph while you are administering talk therapy.

[mackthefork]

[ QUOTE ]
Religions don't hire so many lawyers for suing critics. Scientology is organized crime pretending to be a religion. It doesn't have the moral values of a cult. Scientology has a huge, aggressive PR engine, but it does not stand up to the light of day.

If you are seriously considering Scientology, please search the internet to find more information. You'll find many shocking things revealed by former members. You'll see how ridiculous the teachings of Scientology appear when you are not brainwashed first. You'll find the pathetic and repulsive facts of the founder's life, in contrast to the Scientologist's fiction. You'll see that Scientology has acted and continues to act like a band of thugs, not clerics.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds pretty bad, and a lot like other religions.

Mack

Ah! David,

[ QUOTE ]
Seems reasonable to hook someone up to a polygraph while you are administering talk therapy.

[/ QUOTE ]


But is it therapy???

Cheers (and glad I got your books [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )

Polygraph entry on Skedic.com
E-Meter entry on Skepdic.com