Is Scientology another word for Atheism?

[James]

Or is the latest fad in religion, which we will find ourselves all following within 20 years, and referring to Judaism and Christianity as Pagan relgions/mythology, and causing jihads and forcing our newfound beliefs down their God-worshipping throats?

[sspadowsky]

I think Scientology is just another word for "Extremely gullible Hollywood celebrities."
________
Ship sale

[FS]

What exactly is Scientology about, though? Something about self-improvement, a combination of philosophy and science maybe?

All I know about it is that people affiliated with it pay to look stupid.

[sadie]

http://originalscientology.org/

A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology.

First announced to an enturbulated world in 1950, these aims are well within the grasp of our technology.

Nonpolitical in nature, Scientology welcomes any individual of any creed, race or nation.

We seek no revolution. We seek only evolution to higher states of being for the individual and for society.

[ranxer]

my understanding is that the L.Ron Hubbard techniques are valid ways to get rid of the parts of our character that slow us down.. techniques that liberate a 'true power' by reducing the conflicting pulls of emotional reasoning or bad habits.. to let a person be truly all they can be.. the idea of an 'engram' is central.. engrams are like minds of thier own effecting the concious mind.. kind of like a nicotine addicts pull to have another cigarette not coming from the mind but a chemical addiction of the body.. there's many others like traumatic experiences creating phobias and unusual fears that control the rational mind.
scientology has taken it away from Hubbards belief in helping people for the sake of helping people to a capitalist members only club that has these 'perfected' beings working together to gain power for the club.. which has aspirations to be more than a club.. i don't have the foggiest what thier true goal is, but its at least power and success financially.. those that have gotten out and spoken of the forbidden inner circle get slapped with lawsuits and all manner of slander so they are a bit touchy about criticism :/

[sadie]

a friend and i were discussing scientology a month or so ago. i tried to keep my mind open, even knowing l. ron hubbard was a science-fiction writer who had years before claimed the best way to make money would be to start a religion based on it. even so, i'm left wondering how these people get drawn into such insanity.

the other side:
http://www.xenu.net/

The Church of Scientology is a vicious and dangerous cult that masquerades as a religion. Its purpose is to make money. It practices a variety of mind-control techniques on people lured into its midst to gain control over their money and their lives. Its aim is to take from them every penny that they have and can ever borrow and to also enslave them to further its wicked ends.
It was started in the 1950s by a science fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard in fulfilment to his declared aim to start a religion to make money. It is an offshoot to a method of psychotherapy he concocted from various sources which he named "Dianetics". Dianetics is a form of regression therapy. It was then further expanded to appear more like a religion in order to enjoy tax benefits. He called it "Scientology".

Scientology is a confused concoction of crackpot, dangerously applied psychotherapy, oversimplified, idiotic and inapplicable rules and ideas and science-fiction drivel that is presented to its members (at the "advanced" levels) as profound spiritual truth.

[Vibecrewangel]

Hubbard was a lunatic and a genius. His "self-help" is actually brainwashing. His techniques are/were unbelievable.
The inner circle actually believes that we are decendants of an ailen race placed on Earth as a punishment. At that time we were clusters of energy that eventuually remembered how to be a physical being.
They also believe that any problems you have now are not from this life but from a past one. If you have jaw pain it is because your engram "remembers" being a clam and your current body doesn't know how to handle that feeling. You then must actually remember being a clam to clear the engram from your body.
The method for clearing is a combination some of the most intense brainwashing techniques I've ever seen.
Celebrities don't go the the "real" churches. They go to special churches designed to make scientology look good to the public. The celebs are not only free advertising, they actually pay for the privilage.
Scientology always has, always will be a money making cult.
I speak from experience. My mom bought (and I do mean bought) into it for a lot of years.

WWW.clambake.org exposes a lot of the inner secrets of the organization.

On a side note, there are those that believe Hubbard and Gardner got into a bet over who could create a better religion and get the most followers. The result......Scientology and Wicca.

[sadie]

wow. thanks for that link.

[Skulhedface]

I personally think that if people need religion in their lives, they seek that spiritual connection and can find it through means of "faith" or whatever. I'm not a Christian or religious by any means but I am not out to prove God's nonexistence or anything. People need something to believe in, and if it helps them in their day to day lives, so be it. If it helps, I'm happy for you.

On the other hand though, some people become so desperate for something to believe, some people get so lost in the shuffle and such that they cling to the first thing they are given to believe in, no matter how radical it may be, and they enjoy the pretense of belonging while in reality they are having their money siphoned from them like a gas tank in a bad neighborhood. Such is my stance on Scientology. Believe in it if YOU want, but don't start bitching if you fell in too deep and lost all your money and yourself in the process.

[Bennett]

I think you should take some peyote and go on a vision quest.
personally that's how I found A-pook the destroyer.

[Skulhedface]

So when will you start handing out pamphlets in airports?

[Vibecrewangel]

Been there, done that, threw up.
Cactus juice out the nose is not a pleasant experience.

[FS]

Go with worshipping Fl'NaQoth. It's great. In the year 2013 his infernal minions will brutally disembowl every person on the planet in order to eat their souls, but followers will only have to give up their forearms.

[James]

They will be most pleased with my forearms. They are quite beefy due to excessive double-fisted masturbation.

[Anonymous]

On a more serious post than you may be used to from me....

We live about ten miles from downtown Clearwater, FL, the headquarters of Scientology. The Church of Scientology owns pretty much all of the city of Clearwater, FL. They are headquartered in a "renovated" hotel named Ft. Harrisoon. No one is allowed in or out, at least not past the first floor. There are over 250 cameras mounted throughout downtown Clearwater which monitor everything. When you "join" the church, you are given a rank... I believe "Cadet" or something. The lower your rank, the more heavily guarded you are.

Every day, there are about 20 to 30 unmarked vans that transport "cadets" around downtown. All cadets wear uniforms, blue pants or skirts and a light blue shirt. They all live in the "hotel."

When you first join the "church" you are out through a series of "trials" to cleanse your body. A large portion of Niacin is administered without niacinimide which eliminates the side effects of niacin. This in turn causes the body to turn bright red. They believe you are expunging all toxins absorbed through life by reversing them out of your body with a series of steam baths, saunas and the such.

The problem is, every year they have people dye of dehydration in the "hotel," because they chain you to the bed in your room, so you cant fall prey to temptation. Many have tried to sue, and they are basically caught up in the court sytem forever.

Scientology is basically a cult. A rich one, albeit, but still a cult.

If you really want to learn about how freaky they are, check out www.sptimes.com or tampatrib.com and run a search for local articles. Google also has a lot of pages written by members who actually escaped the "church" - for real.

[Skulhedface]

Originally Posted by FS

Go with worshipping Fl'NaQoth. It's great. In the year 2013 his infernal minions will brutally disembowl every person on the planet in order to eat their souls, but followers will only have to give up their forearms.

See? See? He's already into the "soul-eating" thing!!

Seriously, even if I was naive, I'd have problems with a religion that even the FOUNDER claimed, to paraphrase, was founded to MAKE MONEY. At least Jesus never hung on the cross saying "Giveth me $10 and thou shalt be saved". Your average priest will do that, when he's not fingering little boys that is.

[Protoclown]

Scientology is another word for STUPIDISM.

[Skulhedface]

The whole thing is, it's been proven that L. Ron Hubbard is:

A. a pathological liar
B. greedy (he has actually been quoted as saying, again to paraphrase, that starting a church is an excellent way to make money)
and C. suffering from delusions, possibly of grandeur.

Sounds like the kind of guy I want to have faith in, especially any ideas he might convert into a religion.

I must say this, it's one hell of a crafty tax dodge.

[Bennett]

D. dead

[Raize]

Yes, Scientology was "created". I have a friend that went into Christian studies and gave me a paper once that had "How to refute Scientology" with like 3 points on it. One was a quote from Hubbard. One was a quote from his books. And the other was a picture of a document someone had written from inside "the system" I guess. I didn't quite understand it, but my religious zealot of a friend did.

But its nothing new. Lots of these cults exist to try and better people with false promises. Take the book "Stranger in a Strange World", by Heinlein. In it, he describes a church that has different levels of "knowing" or "groking" of each other, that ends up being a nested circle structure where in the innermost circles, sexual promiscuity is rampant. So then what happens after the book?

Church of All Worlds: http://www.caw.org/articles/basic.html

Or how about a religion that was started to get out of required college chapel services? http://www.neopagan.net/

Solar Temple members tend to die off too fast to actually promote their religion. http://www.religioustolerance.org/dc_solar.htm

Or one of my favorites: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~tilt/principia/body.html