Scientology

[† Anras Rune]

I'm surprised that this thread isn't already on here! Pretty amazing. Anyhoo, what is everyone's thoughts on the "Church" of Scientology and its numerous beliefs. Also what is your thoughts on the amount of controversy surrounding this "religion"? I want honest opinions and hopefully no arguments. I shall post my views after you guys have, to see folks opinions.

PS: I know this can be a touchy subject for some people, especially Americans and Germans. This is strictly a discussion, not a theological debate or attempted act of flaming on my part. I doubt there are actually any scientologists on this forum, but if so I suggest you boycott this thread. Also this has nothing to do with Koby and is not affiliated with his views or opinions or those of the forum, and is strictly the view of people who post here. Better to be safe than sorry.

[lemmingllama]

Scientology isnt that horrible of a religion... Its more of a thing where you pay they lots of money and they make you feel better about your past. Then they pay themselves and a small part of that money goes to charitable work. Honestly, I would never want to be a scientologist, but if the richer people feel the need to pay their way into the heavens or whatever, thats fine with me. Ill stick to being agnostic.

As a side note, the whole thing about souls being reincarnations from alien worlds sounds just like they were trying to throw in some science fiction junk to lure trekkies and such to join...

[nightraven]

LOL need more be said?

[DrumRoll]

one word: unitology.

[Zanco]

It's made up of horse shit, Scientology shouldn't be a religion. Just like Mormonism. But that's just what I think. I don't have any thing against them personally, I just don't see any possible premiss for these religions to exists. : |

[Bluenoser]

I view it as a cult, always have, always will. The actions it takes towards anyone that dares to hold it up to critical examination is bad enough, but what they do to those that dare leave the "church" is even worse. What is worse is that this pattern of behaviour was set by their founder Hubbard himself, so this is basic/inherent to the set-up, not a later add-on after the founder was dead as has happened with splinter factions of different major religions, which of course this is not. My problem is not with their beliefs, when you get right down to it any religion's core beliefs are going to seem weird/strange/freaky to someone outside of that belief system, like the ritual cannibalism of the RC Church which I helped celebrate and as an altar-boy aided in the preparation of growing up, if you didn't know the context and the symbolism involved you would perceive it as something far more gruesome and disturbing. I use the prior as a simple example of why I don't use the beliefs as my criticism point, but rather the actions of those that believe in a faith and in those that lead it as well, and by those standards it is impossible for me to view scientology as anything other than a cult and one of the more dangerous ones out there at that. For those that do not understand what I am talking about look up terms like dead agenting, a practice they have followed since their inception, and follow the links from there.

There is a fundamental difference between religious fanatics of real religions and the behaviour of cultists like scientologists (even if their effects in the end tend to be the same), notably one tends to be a minority of those followers while the other that behaviour is the norm and widely practiced/demanded by the tenets of that "belief"/"religion"/cult. Scientology is a cult that was created as a revenue generator that unfortunately has managed to flourish through underhanded and in many cases proven illegal means over the decades and nothing I have heard/seen about it in my 44 years of life changes my opinion about this and that it is a dangerous one at that to boot as well. Religious fanatics are bad enough, but cults really freak me out because of the deliberate and institutional mind control aspects involved with cults. My core faith/belief structure places free will and free thinking as a core/central element to it and that is also why I have such strong feelings about this particular group (and no, I was never a member, nor lost someone close to me to it) despite having no personal connection to it ever.

That is my 2 cents on this topic, and I hope I haven't brought trouble on me for doing so, it is truly dangerous to be a public critic of Scientology, no matter how minor a voice you are, which is also part of that pattern of behaviour I was mentioning at the outset which differentiates between a religion with extremists within it and a cult that requires extremism as a central requirement.

[Alegend1994]

Well Scientology is a cult and not a religion in my eyes, although I also kind of think that it's an example of how religion started but because it was created in modern times where many questions of the universe have been answered it hasn't taken a hold as well as religion.

But scientology does sound like a very dangerous cult after researching a bit more into. Any cult is suspicious and potential dangerous because the members are usually always brainwashed individuals that seem to have little free thinking of there own. The problem I get with this is that religious followers also have this but to a lesser extent so perhaps religion and cults aren't too different.

But in any case Scientology is a cult and cults are to be not something to underestimate. I know people who are part of cults and they become strange when you talk to them about their cult, the way they describe it is like they have been brainwashed into saying the same unique sentence and they have nothing but that look of desire on their face. Seriously it is frightening to know people think like this.

[† Anras Rune]

Well Scientology is a cult and not a religion in my eyes, although I also kind of think that it's an example of how religion started but because it was created in modern times where many questions of the universe have been answered it hasn't taken a hold as well as religion.

But scientology does sound like a very dangerous cult after researching a bit more into. Any cult is suspicious and potential dangerous because the members are usually always brainwashed individuals that seem to have little free thinking of there own. The problem I get with this is that religious followers also have this but to a lesser extent so perhaps religion and cults aren't too different.

But in any case Scientology is a cult and cults are to be not something to underestimate. I know people who are part of cults and they become strange when you talk to them about their cult, the way they describe it is like they have been brainwashed into saying the same unique sentence and they have nothing but that look of desire on their face. Seriously it is frightening to know people think like this.

Wow dude. I'd love to know what you've been reading...

One of Scientology's main tenets are to remove all threats to the "religion" by any means necessary. Normally that just means public humiliation and destruction of people's lives, but sometimes its boiled down to physical violence. Hence the disclaimer in the first post not implicating Koby or the forums as a whole and that all who post here do so with their own opinions.

Its the main reason Anonymous and various other groups constantly campaign to remove them, and why the Church is banned, yes I said BANNED, in Germany. It is dangerous in more ways than most people imagine. But meh, I don't care as long as they don't go all Nazi on our asses...