[ QUOTE ]
Credibility, you choose:

1) The founder of a cult/hoax who was a science fiction writer who made a statement a decade before founding Scientology that the best way to get rich was to start your own religion, and who died on a yacht off coastal waters evading prosecution for income tax evasion, and whose cult requires you to pay to gradually receive all the information upto learning about Xenu the evil galactic ruler of 70 million years ago.

2) A man who preached salvation was freely available for all and was willing to die to make that available for all men.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree that you probably have a point philosophy-wise; which one contains the best guidance for life (although I don't know scientology well enough to be sure).

But I intended to examine the claims regarding God and Xeno, the real basis of the religion.

(If there was a church that went to the extent of saying God was only a metaphor for delivery of their life-philosophy then they would achieve your credibility measure without failing this one).

RJT asked what do we know about the authors?

Part of the reason I asked the question is that I don't know in depth, but broadly speaking (and for the key figures, rather than necessarily the writers) we are considering a cult terrorist and a criminal science-fiction writer.

Both were criminals, both wished to promote life-philosophies, and both described "facts" that cannot be substantiated. What next?