Im going to regret this

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by Crayfish
What is scientology?

A very good question.
Quick answer: Just Another Cult
Longer answer: Just Another Cult attempting to gain financial acumen, status and acceptance by attracting the people without the strength of mind to decide for themselves what life is about.
Until Bill Clinton stuck his nose in I do think that the Germans had the right idea in banning it.

It\'s not even all that original taking the \"Self Healing\" concepts of \'Christian Scientists\'.
Sadly, as with all cults/pseudo religions it will attract people looking for answers, no matter how outlandish they seem.

Despite my complete lack of belief in any theology think I can safely say that this has gone beyond the ultra crank level of fundamentalistic belief systems and is sitting quite nicely in the Load Of Bollocks region.

Oh and I do remember quite a lot of complaints about Mr Hubbard nicking other peoples work and publishing it as his own thanks to so-called \"writing competitions\"!

 

[Crackpot]

I do think that the Germans had the right idea in banning it.

Depends what you mean with \"banning them\". The are NOT completely banned or forbidden, but they are no accredited religion, they are just an association. 1997 they were declared as a \"new form of politcal extremism with anticonstitutional targets\". So they are monitored by german public authorities, but still in action... *sigh*

 

[slah]

Well ALL religion is by definition taken on faith, and there are no religion that is any more \"sane\" than another religion. It is the basis of every religion (that I´ve ever heard of at least), that some of it can´t be explained logically.

With scientology the more ludicrous postulate is:

Hubbard said that the modern-day science fiction genre of space opera is merely an unconscious recollection of real events that took place millions of years ago. These events include the story of Xenu, the ruler of the Galactic Confederacy who brought billions of frozen people to Earth 75 million years ago, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs, creating swarms of disembodied alien souls known as Body Thetans. Xenu is only one element of Scientologist beliefs in alien civilizations. Such doctrines have existed in Scientology virtually since its beginning:[3] in the 1950s Hubbard wrote and lectured about civilizations such as Helatrobus, Espinol and Arslychus, and in the 1960s he introduced Xenu\'s Galactic Confederacy. He described repeated instances of their using brainwashing implants on hapless beings. He also spoke of alien invasions of Earth, such as that carried out around 6235 BC by the Fifth Invader Force, who were \"very strange insect-like creature with unthinkably horrible hands.\"[citation needed]

But this is not really any more \"fantastic\" than the tale of the son of god - an omnipotent being who created the universe and earth - and how he died on this planet.

And (some) christians are as literal in reading the bible as scientlogist are when reading whatever L. Ron Hubbard wrote - just look at creationism and intelligent design(the non-science), and how people claim that evolution is a hoax because they KNOW that god created this planet, and that life couldn´t have evolved naturally.

There really is no logical way of defining which religion is the more \"reasonable\" one - it´s all about faith.

The thing that seperates the religions is how they regulate the lives of the people who are faithful, and there scientology does seem to be rather awkward compared to ordinary everyday christianity, BUT if you take Jehovas witnesses who are derived from regular christianity then once again the verdict must be that every religion has the potential to be completely detrimental for the individual.

My advice is go see the movie religulous with Bill Maher and join THIS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxRwQoNv4qA

 

[squig hunter]

True, but I\'d be wary of any religion where the founder has stated before that the quickest and easyiest way to make money is to start a new religion, and then does just that, and oh look, it\'s raking in the cash :]

SQuig

 

[chaos877]

Originally posted by junior elf
When religion was first created (excluding scientology) it was so people could stay on the right path, but today it is completely out of date.
When scientology was created people had only just started to comprehend that aliens might exist and that the earth was not the centre of the universe, so with this new \"religion\" seemed very up to date.... somehow. Anyway I\'m atheist so I think all religions are as incorrect (scientology more so but I regard that as more of a cult).

Umm, no. People were discovering earth was not the center of the universe hundreds of years ago (gallileo). LRH lived in the past century. That statement makes no sense.

 

[generulpoleaxe]

scientology is on the same level of scam as global warming. it\'s just yet another method of fleecing people.

 

[jahminis]

just a little tidbit from me...

about 16 years ago i was hanging out with timothy leary alot in venice beach...
we were talking about his research at harvard, with psychedelics like mushrooms and lsd, back in the 50\'s...
he said that l. ron hubbard was a part of the part of the group that came together after leary and his research partner, richard alpert(now known as baba ram das), left harvard...

eventually the law started to crack down on the hippies, and the way that they all came up with to shelter themsleves from the man was to start a religion...
leary\'s was called the church of brotherly love, or something...
l ron hubbard had gone off to canada to start lsd retreats there, and ran into the same legal problems once psychedelics had been made illegal(in the 60\'s-ish)...

the point is, the whole thing started as a way to legitimize gettin\' together and droppin\' a bunch of acid, and trip out on the cosmos...
then the need to make money got involved, and the whole thing went pear shaped...

hope that helps to lend a little perspective...

cheers
jah

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by Trevor

i think religion is rubbish but i can see it\'s value

I like this sentence, is it possible for something to be rubbish and valuable at the same time?.

yes, because i said so! ok to quantify - i think that the idea of a god is ridiculous. i shan\'t go into the whys and wherefores but i acknowledge the benefit it has. the emotional crutch it gives, the moral codes (for fear of eternal retribution)

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by generulpoleaxe
scientology is on the same level of scam as global warming. it\'s just yet another method of fleecing people.

without the evidence t back it up though

 

[darthfoley]

It\'s a \'religion\', and therefore nonsense. Don\'t look for logic.

 

[sanctuary13]

Originally posted by PTS
I\'d like to know what Hubbard gave as evidence to his outragous claims. The story is SO specific with names and such, how could anybody not think he was just pulling this stuff out of his a**?

lollollol

oh and its easy to believe the world was created by the invisible man 6000 years ago, that we are all descended from adam and eve, that the invisible man magically impregnated a woman (and her husband was cool with it) and somehow everyone knew that this star was gonna guide them there (wait, Catholic church admitted that bit is bullshit) then he spends 30 years telling everyone to be cool and gets nailed to a board and comes back 3 days later (google the Mithran cult, same story, centuries earlier)

Religions, all of them, are based wholly on bullshit faerie tales and outright lies. there is no one religion that could possibly satisfy the wants of all men (except maybe the God-Emperor of Mankind).

Don\'t worry, once the aliens land and explain everything, all religions will be done with and we can set about working on space stations finally.

 

[squig hunter]

Also, it is a religion with strong sci-fi elements, created, by a sci-fi writer, hmm, really now?:]

Squig

 

[SonofGrimnir]

Originally posted by sanctuary13


he spends 30 years telling everyone to be cool and gets nailed to a board and comes back 3 days later (google the Mithran cult, same story, centuries earlier)

Score another one for the "christians pinched the Mithras story edited out the cool and changed his name to Jesus club"

As for scientology, as I think everyone has already said its another way of gettin to yo money.
Im my mind their a cross between the catholic church, startrek, starbucks and a sprinkling of the expansionist policies of german national socialism

 

[silverdragonn]

Also, the death and rebirth of a man who willingly sacrifices himself was a significant part of the Germanic tribal beliefs - and that event happened every year at the beginning of spring.
*cougheastercough*

This was discovered during the Roman attempts of conquest in that area so many years ago.

 

[hestan101]

i know nothing of scientology, bar some relation to aliens. as for it not making sense, show a religion that does. i believe there is no god or gods, and to my mind the only way a god could exist is if his religion ha da tagline such as this
\"Good news, there is a god! bad news, it doesnt much care for you, your race or your material plane of existance. Being the all powerful deity that it is, right now it partying it up in paradise, having far beter things to do than watch over a miniscule world that it created for a laugh on a tuesday night to gigle at its own genius and have a quick cackle when all the little things run around when it hits em with a natural disaster.\"

to me religion seems laregly to be about keeping people scared. im going to end my rant there, but on this bombshell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGDndcxH-O4

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

I have read alot about scientology because its one of those things which can get you really angry. Firstly I am an atheist. To me religion is nothing more than the \"science\" of primitive mankind when we did not understand too much about how anything worked and just made up a load of old bs attributing names to the powers of nature. In todays society its outdated and superfluous. Science is king. If religion was king we would all be illiterate, the world would be flat and I wouldn\'t be scoring double time on Sundays.

Go here to learn stuff from people who grew up within Scientology...

http://exscientologykids.com/

Its an eye opener. There are also tons of clips on Youtube and you can even find a clip with a tv interview with L R Hubbards son who exposes his fathers fraud and hypocrisy - straight from the horses mouth stuff.

They are all a bunch of crazy fruitloops and if you step within 10 feet of them they will have your credit card details and signed up before you know it. There is alot on youtube that is pretty entertaining to watch, including undercover reporters, john sweeneys interview and various others, here\'s a couple of links that will let you witness their strange behavoir.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPol_m8wm8Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvjzDgMmELY&feature=related

Please remember also that scientology is not actually a religion it IS a cult (in reality no difference between the two of course) just dont encourage refering to it as \"religion\"! Even L R Hubbard states that it is not a religion in one of his books, only for the purpose of tax evasion is it classed as religion. Hope this info helps.

 

[Avelorn]

Originally posted by sanctuary13

oh and its easy to believe the world was created by the invisible man 6000 years ago, that we are all descended from adam and eve, that the invisible man magically impregnated a woman (and her husband was cool with it) and somehow everyone knew that this star was gonna guide them there (wait, Catholic church admitted that bit is bullshit) then he spends 30 years telling everyone to be cool and gets nailed to a board and comes back 3 days later (google the Mithran cult, same story, centuries earlier)

hmm.. so you say? I suggest you take your own advice and google the Mithran Cult.

I like these folks

 

[cassar]

religion is just manipulation of the masses by the \"elite few\" thats why royalty, imperial powers , kings queens despots and dictators etc all eventually became closley linked with whatever religious cults were en vogue at the time, and viewed by the aforementioned as threats primative power sharing was the result, its just something from our primative past we havent shaken off yet.have faith but only in yourself, religions a road to nowhere.:twisted:

 

[DrEvilmonki]

Originally posted by Dragon Forge Design

Originally posted by reverend

Originally posted by Spacemunkie
Google it....

Shit, you mean the internet can be used to FIND THINGS OUT? No way, you\'re shitting me! lol lol

And here I thought it was just for Porn...

Damn I\'m going to go look some stuff up...

It is for porn and for looking up porn.

 

[SonofGrimnir]

Originally posted by Avelorn

Originally posted by sanctuary13

oh and its easy to believe the world was created by the invisible man 6000 years ago, that we are all descended from adam and eve, that the invisible man magically impregnated a woman (and her husband was cool with it) and somehow everyone knew that this star was gonna guide them there (wait, Catholic church admitted that bit is bullshit) then he spends 30 years telling everyone to be cool and gets nailed to a board and comes back 3 days later (google the Mithran cult, same story, centuries earlier)

hmm.. so you say? I suggest you take your own advice and google the Mithran Cult.

I like these folks

Although not exactly the same there are certain similarities between the Mithratic mysteries and the Jesus story, Greco/roman Mithratic beliefs included his half god parentage, using a single animal to feed many, dying and being raised from the dead, the significance of the number seven, the use of cave during worship (heavily used in early Christianity) calling religious leaders Pater or father........the list goes on.

Might I add a caution about telling people to Google it, the first site you get is the dreaded Wikipedia, which, having read it, seems to be a mix of misquotes and rubbish
All of this perfectly more believable than trapped brainwashed alien souls making us feel bad