What is scientology?

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Rykuu

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I would like to know all I can about Scientology, what it is, what they believe, and why it doesn’t quite fully work.

The reason I ask is cause I am having a religious dissussion with a guy from there, and I need some help in understanding them.

This will be my first ever time at this (unless you include bring back a fallen away Catholic).

Thanks for the help and wish me luck 🙂

~Rykuu Disaga~
 
It seems to be a quasi-religious philosophy founded by a science fiction writer, and charging outlandish fees for its “ministry.”

Locally, we had a homicide case: A young man who was the teenage child of Scientologist parents was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. He was given clay pills instead of psychoactive medication, consistent with Scientology’s view that psychiatry is evil. He went on to brutally kill his mother during a period of psychotic decompensation. Think of it—one life lost, another ruined, because of this kind of chicanery.

It’s pretty telling that Tom Cruise’s soon to be ex wife has registered their daughter at a Catholic school in New York.

The discerning reader will draw his own conclusions.
 
The actual “philosophy” of Scientology is written in L. Ron Hubbard’s book Dianetics. They offer you an “auditing” session with a trained auditor where you’re hooked up to an “e-meter”. Which is basically a lie detector machine. Pulling your skeletons out of the closet. The whole time you’re spilling the beans to this “auditor”, they’re writing it down.

After an auditing process and spending thousands of dollars you’ll advance in “OT” levels. After reaching level OT III, you’ll hear the story of the evil supreme ruler “Xenu” who brought us over here on DC-8 like space ships…the story goes on and on.

That’s just a small portion of some of the mechanics of this “religion”.
 
Before starting the religion, Hubbard wrote that a man who created his own religion could become rich. Scientology makes much money from the wealthy film stars and other celebrities who join the church.
 
Its formal beginnings- at least as far as Hubbard’s initial bid for recognition and legitimacy- are in pseudo-psychology that was and continues to be vehemently opposed to psychopharmacology. Its leaders continue to present it primarily as a health and spiritual/mental wellness alternative (with some special emphasis on the good it can do for your marriage) which is supposed to work much better than anything a therapist, counselor, or (gasp! Devil horns!) Psychiatrist could do for you.

But after being rejected by the APA, the bad sci fi origins story with Xenu and the thetans came into play. The really crazy stuff comes out later on when you’ve advanced though a number of increasingly expensive levels. At the beginning, it’s more of a we-can-help-you alt-psych focus.
 
spockrates said:
Before starting the religion, Hubbard wrote that a man who created his own religion could become rich. Scientology makes much money from the wealthy film stars and other celebrities who join the church.
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I remember seeing a short letter to the editor of one of the pulp sci-fi magazines some 60 years ago by Hubbard to that effect. It was many years later that I finally heard of Scientology and realized that he had gone through with it.
 
Joe_Kelley said:
I remember seeing a short letter to the editor of one of the pulp sci-fi magazines some 60 years ago by Hubbard to that effect. It was many years later that I finally heard of Scientology and realized that he had gone through with it.
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I truthfully don’t understand how anyone could believe in this religion. I think, almost every other religion, I can at least understand why someone would believe in it, even though I disagree with it and think they’re wrong. This one, nope.
 
Among these advanced teachings is the story of Xenu (sometimes Xemu), introduced as the tyrant ruler of the “Galactic Confederacy.” According to this story, 75 million years ago Xenu brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and detonated hydrogen bombs in the volcanoes. The thetans then clustered together, stuck to the bodies of the living, and continue to do this today. Scientologists at advanced levels place considerable emphasis on isolating body thetans and neutralizing their ill effects.
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Ok… they can’t be serious about it, really, can they?? :rolleyes:😊
 
sooo… basicly its a “religion” made by some sci-fi writer, who got the idea he could make major mulah on his books if he made it into a “religion”… At least I keep role playing inside virtual reality 😛
 
Hi, Rykuu,

Welcome to CAF! 🙂

Any serious discussion of Scientology must include a serious look at its founder, Lafayette Ron Hubbard. His real claim to fame was not in founding a religion - but in establishing a confidence game that has perpetuated itself beyond the life of its founder.

Here is an interesting article that mentions his run-ins with the Internal Revenue Service: slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2005/07/l_ron_hubbard.html

Here is a time line on some of antics of this individual: scientology-lies.com/people/executives/l-ron-hubbard.html Describing him early on as being paranoid schizophrenic shows real insight. I have no idea why the Navy did not find this out much earlier.

One learns a lot about any group by looking at its founder. As you look carefully into the life of Hubbard, you just have to wonder why no one did not see through him, and report his activities to the police. The founder of Scientology was a crook who has truly endangered the immortal souls of many people.

God bless
Rykuu said:
sooo… basicly its a “religion” made by some sci-fi writer, who got the idea he could make major mulah on his books if he made it into a “religion”… At least I keep role playing inside virtual reality 😛
Click to expand...
 
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