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What is scientology?

If you live in a palace with silk robes and a golden throne, you're making off like a bandit.

The poor scientology clergy are also just living on a "stipend", it just happens to be very high. The point is, if scientology is a cult or a corporation instead of another wacky religion, then so is christianity.

This is how he lives? Or this is how he dresses for an audience?
 
If you live in a palace with silk robes and a golden throne, you're making off like a bandit.

That "palace" is almost 500 years old. What would you have them do, tear it down?

For that matter, it provides a place of public worship for millions of devout Christians every year. It is hardly like we're talking about Versailles here.

The Vatican serves a legitimate purpose other than luxury.

The poor scientology clergy are also just living on a "stipend", it just happens to be very high. The point is, if scientology is a cult or a corporation instead of another wacky religion, then so is christianity.

And, again, I think the analogy you're trying to make simply doesn't work.

Scientology exists purely for the purpose of separating fools from their money, and gives nothing of note back to anyone. The same is not true of most Christian denominations, or organized religions in general.

That's a hell of a lot of charitable giving.

Exactly. The Church might very well be wealthy, but it spends that wealth on charitable causes and good works.

What on Earth is the problem?

The RCC is very likely the largest non-profit charitable organization on the planet.
 
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That "palace" is almost 500 years old. What would you have them do, tear it down?

For that matter, it provides a place of public worship for millions of devout Christians every year. It is hardly like we're talking about Versailles here.

The Vatican serves a legitimate purpose other than luxury.



And, again, I think the analogy you're trying to make here simply doesn't work.

Scientology exists purely for the purpose of separating fools from their money, and gives nothing of note back to anyone. The same is not true of most Christian denominations, or organized religions in general.

This statement here is extremely subjective. I think christianity also purely exists to separate fools from their money. I believe it's about power and nothing else. But of course, you believe your god is the only true god, and everyone else is just faking and scammers. I bet a lot of scientologists genuinely believe the bull**** they push.
 
This statement here is extremely subjective. I think christianity also purely exists to separate fools from their money. I believe it's about power and nothing else. But of course, you believe your god is the only true god, and everyone else is just faking and scammers. I bet a lot of scientologists genuinely believe the bull**** they push.

You're not going to see Scientologist missionaries putting their lives on the line to tend to the sick and impoverished in Third World Hell holes.

Just sayin'...
 

OK, here's what they believe:

WE OF THE CHURCH BELIEVE

That all men of whatever race, color or creed were created with equal rights.

That all men have inalienable rights to their own religious practices and their performance.

That all men have inalienable rights to their own lives.

That all men have inalienable rights to their sanity.

That all men have inalienable rights to their own defense.

That all men have inalienable rights to conceive, choose, assist or support their own organizations, churches and governments.

That all men have inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write upon the opinions of others.

That all men have inalienable rights to the creation of their own kind.

That the souls of men have the rights of men.

That the study of the Mind and the healing of mentally caused ills should not be alienated from religion or condoned in nonreligious fields.

And that no agency less than God has the power to suspend or set aside these rights, overtly or covertly.

AND WE OF THE CHURCH BELIEVE

That Man is basically good.

That he is seeking to Survive.

That his survival depends upon himself and upon his fellows and his attainment of brotherhood with the Universe.

AND WE OF THE CHURCH BELIEVE THAT THE LAWS OF GOD FORBID MAN

To destroy his own kind.

To destroy the sanity of another.

To destroy or enslave another’s soul.

To destroy or reduce the survival of one’s companions or one’s group.

AND WE OF THE CHURCH BELIEVE

That the spirit can be saved.

And that the spirit alone may save or heal the body.
 
You're not going to see Scientologist missionaries putting their lives on the line to tend to the sick and impoverished in Third World Hell holes.

Just sayin'...

Well, the scientologists also have a rape problem they spend a lot of money trying to cover up. They may be more like the catholic church than I initially expected!

Scientologists Accused of Covering Up 11-Year-Old Girl's Rape (Updated)
Statutory rape of Alexander Jentzsch | www.scientology-cult.com
The Ex Scientologist: Sexual Abuse Permitted in Scientology
 
Well, the scientologists also have a rape problem they spend a lot of money trying to cover up. They may be more like the catholic church than I initially expected!

Scientologists Accused of Covering Up 11-Year-Old Girl's Rape (Updated)
Statutory rape of Alexander Jentzsch | www.scientology-cult.com
The Ex Scientologist: Sexual Abuse Permitted in Scientology

Just about every institution you can think of which puts adults in regular contact with young children (regardless of religious foundation) has suffered from those kinds of problems at one point or another. It doesn't make it right, but I hardly see a reason to single out the RCC in particular in this regard either.

You anti-theists need to find a new meme already. This one's all dried up. :2razz:
 
South Park will tell you all you need to know. :mrgreen:


 
The predominant attitude most folks seem to have with regard to Scientology is that the so-called "faith" is essentially little more than an Amway-esque pyramid scam which preys upon celebrities.

Most of us do sadly seem to be apathetic toward it.

A few of us have mildly favorable opinions regarding Scientology merely because of the laudatory things the "faith" does, like helping substance abusers and the homeless.

But most of us even more sadly — tragically so, in my humble opinion — are by and large very uninformed, very ignorant of the history of the "religion" and its founder, L.Ron Hubbard.

There is a very dark side to Scientology about which most of us are dangerously unaware.

If you want to get a much bigger picture about it, I urge you to read this interview with the founder's son — unabridged, in a 1983 issue of Penthouse magazine:

Inside the Church of Scientology: An Exclusive Interview with L. Ron Hubbard, Jr.

Most people who didn't know especially much about Scientology and its roots prior to having read the Penthouse interview invariably say that it is unequivocally one of the most informative and/ or just outright best interviews ever done in the magazine age.

Given Scientology's adherents' penchants for stalking and persecuting the scam's detractors, I don't know how the heck that link has managed to stay on the Net all these years.

I guess Scientology's inquisitioners can't find the link's source. :fart
 
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Just about every institution you can think of which puts adults in regular contact with young children (regardless of religious foundation) has suffered from those kinds of problems at one point or another. It doesn't make it right, but I hardly see a reason to single out the RCC in particular in this regard either.

You anti-theists need to find a new meme already. This one's all dried up. :2razz:

I am just particularly disgusted with christian exceptionalism. You believe your religion is right, but everyone else is a cult full of scam artists.

All I'm saying is you share more similarities with them than you'd like to admit.
 
I am just particularly disgusted with christian exceptionalism. You believe your religion is right, but everyone else is a cult full of scam artists.

That's generally the way that it goes with beliefs. Only one can be right.
 
I am just particularly disgusted with christian exceptionalism.

What faith doesn't advocate exceptionalism in this regard? There's no point in believing anything if you don't believe it's true.

You believe your religion is right, but everyone else is a cult full of scam artists.

Not necessarily. The way I was taught, it is more a matter of degree. There is some form of deity out there, and all religions have some instinctual awareness of it.

It is simply a matter of which faith has the most complete picture of the whole. Obviously, Christians believe they do.

It is, however; impossible to say for sure, of course.

All I'm saying is you share more similarities with them than you'd like to admit.

Again, you can think that if you like, but the similarities are entirely superficial.

Scientology is a scam. It was built from the ground up to be one, and this fact is blatantly apparent in the way it continues to function to this very day.

The same is not true of many more traditional forms of organized religion.
 
The predominant attitude most folks seem to have with regard to Scientology is that the so-called "faith" is essentially little more than an Amway-esque pyramid scam which preys upon celebrities.

Most of us do sadly seem to be apathetic toward it.

A few of us have mildly favorable opinions regarding Scientology merely because of the laudatory things the "faith" does, like helping substance abusers and the homeless.

But most of us even more sadly — tragically so, in my humble opinion — are by and large very uninformed, very ignorant of the history of the "religion" and its founder, L.Ron Hubbard.

There is a very dark side to Scientology about which most of us are dangerously unaware.

If you want to get a much bigger picture about it, I urge you to read this interview with the founder's son — unabridged, in a 1983 issue of Penthouse magazine:

Inside the Church of Scientology: An Exclusive Interview with L. Ron Hubbard, Jr.

Most people who didn't know especially much about Scientology and its roots prior to having read the Penthouse interview invariably say that it is unequivocally one of the most informative and/ or just outright best interviews ever done in the magazine age.

Given Scientology's adherents' penchants for stalking and persecuting the scam's detractors, I don't know how the heck that link has managed to stay on the Net all these years.

I guess Scientology's inquisitioners can't find the link's source. :fart

Scary stuff. I wonder how much of it is true.
 
I keep hearing about it on the news how it's this evil religious group. but they I hear many actors and rich people are active members. and it's all so confusing.... do they believe in science as a means of learning about god? are they athiests that believe only in science? nothing on the wiki makes sense to me

Take the craziest earthly religion--Mormonism, which promises it's followers a planet of their own in the hereafter, if they give enough money in the here-and-now, of course--and multiply it by a factor which takes space aliens into account. That'll get you in the ballpark.
 
Scary stuff. I wonder how much of it is true.

That was, unincidentally enough, a major point of contention raised by the Scientology brass just after the Penthouse article was published. They claimed that the 60 Minutes-ish story didn't air enough counterpoints from the "church" and its adherents, that the article was essentially a one-sided "hit piece".

I have no doubt whatsoever that everything L.Ron Hubbard Jr. says in the interview is true. He had nothing to gain by doing that interview, by telling us what's really afoot behind Scientology's closed doors.

He had everything — his inheritance, his livelihood, his namesake, his very life — to lose.

Again, Scientology's inquisitors are relentless. Barbarically so.
 
The answer: it's Hubbard's money machine that has now been passed to the next generation. Also it was the tactic that allowed him to dodge the tax evasion and abuse against children laws.
 
Yes all religions are cults (not a euphamism, or maybe it is). Some have just managed to swindle society into respecting them more than others.

I get the comparison with Scientology and Catholicism. Both talk cràp, both exploit the gullible, both like to take your money. Major differences though. Gay catholics tend to go the clergy while gay scientologists tend to go to Hollywood. Thankfully all the self-respecting gays I know don't touch religion - wise folk indeed.
 
When he explains it why does it sound like the plot of a superman movie ?

Coincidentally, the group was founded by a science fiction author.
 
I keep hearing about it on the news how it's this evil religious group. but they I hear many actors and rich people are active members. and it's all so confusing.... do they believe in science as a means of learning about god? are they athiests that believe only in science? nothing on the wiki makes sense to me

Scientology is a super scam. It has nothing to do with atheism or science.
 
No maybe's It's all pretend. A con from start to finish!
 
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