onegoodmove

I hate how most of these programs single out Scientology. Why not make fun of Christianity or Islam or Hinduism or Judaism, which all have ridiculous rituals I am sure. But they dare not. Notice how he says only 'almost' when the guy asks him if all christians are nuts, instead of a simple yes. The fact of the matter is Scientology is a religion to some people. It should have the same respect given other religions, or all religions should be ridiculed equally. Kudos to South Park and the Simpsons for doing that.

I am an atheist/agnostic, yet I disagree. Most of the established religions are at least based on some more or less mythical figurehead, which once did great things or was the founder of some humanistic philosophy.

Scientology is nothing of the kind. It's a big sham, designed to pull money and power from the meek. Its main content is blatantly demagogical, crafted to tell people exactly what they want to hear about themselves. Certainly, christianity, islam, even buddhism has been used for similar purposes by factions...but not by initial design.

What I am saying is not based on what a religion was founded on. It does not matter what a religion is based on. I am an atheist too and for me all religions are scams. When I see Evangelical Christians asking for donations on TV on Sunday morning,m I think that's a scam too. Heaven and Hell? From and Added to that is the fact that Scientology is atleast harmless. They may be crazy, but they do not harm others or ask their members to harm others, like most of the major religions in the world. They are a bit like the flying Spaghetti monster. I would prefer a Scientolgy nut any day over any of the other religious nuts.And I do not think either Jesus or muhammed or any of the other mythical heads did or said anything great or useful. They have infact created a lot of problems for us like death and destruction.

I cannot agree that Scientology is basically harmless. I went through as much of Dianetics as I could stomach before throwing it away; later I did some reading about those involved in the church of Scientology. I just did a quick dig and came up with

It costs $1000's to cross from one level to the next in Scientology. Movie stars can afford this crap, but others either give their life saving to the organization and/or work for the church to become the desirable "clear."

Family members of Scientologists who see the religion for the crap it is and try to get out are shunned at best; never mind the "do what's best for you" saying the church pretends to support. LRH forbid if you actually come down with an illness that actually requires meds to cure, cause you're goning down.

Hell, LRH took meds towards the end of his life. There's this

He also abandoned his first wife and children while he went on these "adventures", cheated on his wife, committed bigamy, tried to kidnap his daughter from his second wife and was himself on medication at the time of his death. If the man lied about himself... and is a "great" Science Fiction writer... ask yourself, can you really trust him to tell you the truth? Why did all his explorations and accomplishments stop when he after founding the Church?

and more here.

Be sure to stop the video when it's done or you'll get redirected to another page.

hmmmm, here's the link as is:

http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=216077

freaky stuff; must be a Thetan messing with my post...heh heh

ack. The first missing link "I came up with ") is http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/TR/critique.html

Scientological mythology is no more or less ridiculous than those of other religions. Nevertheless, what with its e-meters, evil alien overlord Xenu, hydrogen bombs, and radioactive Thetens, Scientology is funnier than other religions! It is as if L. Ron Hubbard sat down one day, got stoned, and made up religious myths and rituals that were designed from the beginning to be a parody of religious myths and rituals! And he did all this in the 'modern' era, without the quasi-respectability that time somehow confers on religious myths. And yet, some people still believe them! If I weren't an atheist (or a 'tooth-fairy' agnostic, if Zaphod cares), I'd be certain that somewhere Hubbard is laughing his ass off. So, James Spader could ridicule other religions, but it probably wouldn't get so many chuckles - even from agnostics/atheists.

Anu,

Just so you know, Scientology is a very influential religion in the entertainment industry and not many people in that industry are as easily inclined to parody it as you seem to feel. Whether it is the small things like Isaac Hayes quitting due to South Park's parody of his faith or the numerous lawsuits against entertainment, media, press and critics for "defamation" of their belief. Just google it to see hundreds of such cases.

Being the "red-headed step child" of religions and being ridiculously wealthy they are prone to lash out and have made their power known to those who dare criticize them. And, if you've ever known anyone who has escaped the clutch of Scientology or even dared an official indoctrination to it you will know they are far from harmless. I'm not saying they are any more corrupt than most major religions but I don't want anyone to underestimate the influence they have in our entertainment and media industries or the harm they inflict on people's lives.

If you want to read a fascinating blueprint of the rise of Scientology and it's use of powerful celebrities and media people to spread just read Gore Vidal's novel from 1954 called "The Messiah." Even though it's fiction, it's almost prophetic in it's accuracy of how this modern religion has come to be.

I am a life-long atheist who grew up amongst a community and large extended family of Christians in a small pacific island nation. Whilst I saw no ill-effects of their brand of Christianity I do think basically all religions are detrimental to continuing human enlightenment and intellectual evolution,as well as being instruments of exploitation and oppression. However I think we (us non-believers) can't use logic and ridicule in some sort of shock and awe approach against the religious majority of this world. Being so confrontational simply achieves nothing and would only further entrench them as well as creating a lot of bad feeling. Whether we like it or not we have to share this world with a great many people 'of faith'. Scientology however is not as established as the major religions so lets stamp it out now with a full arsenal of rationalism and ridicule before it gets too big.

OK, there are many religions that are dangerous, In my opinion Scientology is not really a religion, and it has some extremely dangerous aspects. It masquerades as a pseudoscience, that heals people. The religious thing allows them to "cure" and "treat" people with their "religious treatments" that of course get no scrutiny due to freedom of religion laws. They charge huge fees for these "treatments"/"courses" They have a history of pretty oppressive behaviour, they basically do psychotherapy ( auditing) on their folks, but there is no guarantee of confidentiality. Most importantly to me they use dangerous and hateful language to malign all psychiatry, all psychology, all forms of counseling except their treatments. They use absolutely crazy pseudo science in their courses, and make people sign wavers stating that they will not get any psychological or psychiatric treatment.

They prevent very ill patients from getting adequate treatment and are basically act like a hate group towards psychiatrists. This is their head guy using pretty violent language towards psychiatry. http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=hfu7Sr50N7U

also if you are really interested this is one of their courses on the anatomy of the human mind. http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=l-22KvyTEhg&feature=related

In my opinion Scientology is not really a religion

That may be your opinion but it doesn't change the fact it is a religion.

In my opinion Scientology is not really a religion. That may be your opinion but it doesn't change the fact it is a religion.

Huh? scientology is not recognized as religion in most countries, in the US it is. There are many experts that feel it does not fit the criteria of a religion and that is why it does not have that status in many countries (including Canada and much of Europe) . There are religious experts on both sides of this opinion if you actually are interested. I can also post links on this issue if you really want. It actually is a pretty interesting question, when is a group with similar beliefs a religion? Could seclular progressives be a religion and get some tax advantage? Should the tax system differ from religions and non profits?

Not a religion in "most countries"??? WTF are you on about? k? Heaps of countries consider it a religion. If not more than those that don't.

In the majority of Europe it is not given the status of a religion, in the UK it is considered "corrupt, sinister and dangerous" Many years ago an official UK Government enquiry (The Foster Report) http://cosmedia.freewinds.cx/foster.html into Scientology exposed deceptive recruitment, strict internal discipline and smear campaigns against opponents.

asastate-recognizedreligion

I might need to stand corrected, it looks, if wikepedia is correct, it stands about 50/50 of countries mentioned recognize it as a religion. I know in Canada it isn't (my hood).

But it is an interesting question, what makes a religion a religion? Is it because the followers of a certain set of beliefs decide to form a religion? Are there standards to what is and is not a religion? Could we form a OGM religion? Norm could be our seclular reality based pastor? Should there be special status for religious organizations of any kind? Or should they all be just treated as non profits?

anyway can't we talk about something other than hillary and obama?

sorry my link did not work http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_as_a_state-recognized_religion

The forming of religion is a very interesting question. I was thinking about it a few days back when I heard something interesting. India has a significant population of Christians. They are the result of the lower caste persecuted hindus who saw a way out of their segregation by converting to a new religion. This happens even today with large scale conversions happening where the lower castes and untouchables convert to a different religion. Would it not be wonderful then, if homosexual people start their own religion. I sympathise with them so much. Denied basic rights just because Religion says so! They should start a religion which allows them to marry and have families and so on. So if a right wing Christian gets in their face about homosexuality being a sin, then they can get right back saying their religion views it the other way around!

The most useful feature of Scientology is the insight that it supplies into phenomenon of the creation of religion.

It cannot be argued that Hubbard did not exist. Unlike Jesus and Moses Mohammed we need not rely upon second and third-hand accounts of their lives and pronouncements mostly produced long after their reported deaths. We have Hubbard's own words, tax returns and the man himself on film to prove that he existed and is the author of his own religion.

And so we can safely stop arguing about whether or not Jesus or Moses or Abraham or Mohammed actually fathered their religions or spoke the words subsequent reports have put into their mouths; it doesn't matter because here we have a perfect example of how actual humans are able to pull tripe out of thin-air and make the credulous to worship it.

fp

a perfect example of how actual humans are able to pull tripe out of thin-air and make the credulous to worship it.

Yep - and that is pretty much what I meant about Scientology being the funniest religion. The mythology is so bat-shit crazy and its origin is transparently bogus in that it was obviously made up by an ordinary slob from Nebraska. Amazing!

For a hoot, go to Hollywood Blvd (Scientology owns about 90% of it, no shit) and find the booth of earnest attractive young men and women at the Scientology Center, all eager to give you a 'free test'.

Stop there, notice the older serious men behind them keeping watch. Then start talking to the pretty kiddies about the "Upper Levels" of scientology. the ones that are CRAZY. The ones it costs 30,000 dollars just to READ, AFTER 'testing' for years to get to that 'level'.

The older men come in and physically stand between you and the young pretty people who look hurt, baffled, curious.

So much fun.

Like telling Self-Righteous Christians that Jesus' name wasn't Jesus.

point: if you want a religion, fine, but learn EVERYTHING you can about it, its founder, etc, before pushing the shit on other people. Knowledgable christians are actually really interesting people, and rarely believe the stuff we all object to here.