Nightline and Scientology

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dalhorn1

1,000+ Posts
anyone catch the report they did last night regarding the recent public backlash from former celebrity and "connected" members? It seems that the web is a great avenue for people to speak the truth about the organization without suffering the torment and slanderous tactics the "church" uses to hush it's critics. In time, I hope more people wise up and start to see Scientology for what it really is-- a tax sheltering, pyramid scheme with incredible resources used to brainwash people.
 
i don't understand the hatred for scientology. how is it any different than any other religion? the whole xenu stuff seems ridiculous to me, but so does the talking snake and parting the sea. i don't see why one is much weirder than the other. both seem like fables to me. one is based in science fiction and the other in fairy tale.

now, the method of payment for enlightenment or more information is downright dirty.... but the christion church has established a 10% tithing suggestion. what is the difference?

do scientologist organize service work in our society? even though i don't understand the whole religion thing, i do recognize that churches have done some wonderful things around the world. do scientologist do these things too?
 
notreally, that tithing is not a requirement is the difference. To practice Scientology you must pay for enlightenment. The problem is not the mythology per se (although I find that retarded) it is the manner it which it must be practiced.
 
Also, the "founder" of Christianity isn't on record as saying "Gee, I think I'd like to make up my own religion, because there's a lot of money to be made there".
 
what I believe in and what someone else believes in isn't the beef I have with it. It's the way you believe in it. Withholding secrets and higher learning of the religious structure in exchange for repeated payment should set off a warning siren that something is afoot in this religion. I'm a Christian, and while I try to offer as much money as I can to help others by tithing, I don't think that I've been kept in the dark about where I stand in the grand scheme of the universe because of my level of "donation".

I also have wondered what Scientologists DO out in the communites. I've never heard of them cleaning up trash in parks, repainting homes in low-income neighborhoods, the kind of stuff that Western Religion is associated with. Also, do scientologists actually meet for any type of foundational services to mature their belief structure?

The more questions I have regarding it, the less benefit I see that it offers society. I know they say that they're about enlightenment and clearing the mind of the negative ills and thoughts that psychology has implanted in me and all of us, but if I have to pay up each time I get in a funk, I'd rather not have it go toward lining the coffers of a "celebrity center" destination.

Color me confused and unimpressed with the good that this religion offers the world.
 
I am against Scientology because they, at their core, deny the reality of mental illness. They are a religious anti-psychiatry movement.
 
When I was at UT I took an 'Interpersonal Communication" class (it was an educational pyschology class). One of the assignments was to spend some time in a cross cultural setting. I went across the street to the Scientology there on the drag. The first thing they did was sell me some books and charge me for a class. Well, they did let me see a free video first. I don't know of any major religion in the world who doesn't say, come in and learn. Here is a free copy of the quran, or the Bible, or the TNK or whatever holy scriptures there are. This is also usually done in a personal manner or come and let's talk about stuff. Scientology is not done that way. As I remember the class it was a workbook to do through. It really creeped me out. I have been to the Middle East to mosques and the entire attitude is very reverent. Same thing in Eastern Othodox Churches, Catholic Churches, Protestant Churches, and Synagogues where I have attended.
This place had a totally different feel.
I also think that the fact that they fed me a history of L Ron Hubbard, which is very easily historically disputed. They say he spend most of his growing up in the far east. That is just not true.
Also the entire bet with Isaac Asimov about starting a religion. that kind of makes me leery also. And the higher you go the more 'classes' you have to PAY to take. I have never heard of such a thing in major world religions.
 
notreally,

i'm not discounting the validity or absurdity of their basis of belief. I was asking if anyone knew or knows of any positives that the CoS offers to society. I'm not baiting, just curious if anyone has heard of any rack their followers can hang a hat on, other than defending their core belief of diety or whatever they aim their lives toward. As much as I would get a kick out of using the South Park defense to validate my stance, that won't happen.

I don't think I've experienced a different consciousness after tithing, but I do get a good feeling that the financial support I offer can go to help those in need of just that. That they may or may not follow standard and modern religious schedules recognized on certain days of the week or in designated locales isn't an argument of mine, either. Again, simply curious to find out things that I cannot seem to locate elsewhere online.

Christianity has admitted to the wrongdoings and ills that it has done in the past, which is a vital step toward firming the tenets of Christian beliefs. As much as I've read, Scientology has not established any decree admonishing the actions of some of their fellows--instead, they seem to contort evidence, engage in smeak tactics, and change the angle of the arguments against their actions.

Simply put, when someone can convince me that there are redeeming qualities to CoS, I'll gladly take a more lax position toward it.
 
yes, the Tom Cruise videos are some of the best stuff on the web. So, I guess it's got that going to for it. Fair enough.
 
the only difference between scientology and other "major" religions is about 2000 years. i'm sure the romans and jews thought the christians were an odd bunch w/ odd practices in their time. i find it funny the people of one religion rolling their eyes at the practices of another religioin. pot meet kettle.

but i'm sure everyone's religion is the "right" religion. you have a book to prove it.
 
It might be true that if the other religions were just starting up, and not culturally absorbed for 2000 years, they might creep me out the way scientology does, but even then, I don't think they are a weird, as harmful to the practicioners, as coersive of "donations" or as cultish. I equate these bizarros right up there with the Jim Jones, or Waco wackos, or the Texas Mormon sect. They seem very harmful.
 
my 2000 years statement was an allusion to the fact that the other religions have a 2000 year head start where their stories have much more time to be refined and accepted. the stories get revised and changed to make it more appealing. throw in some stories of small guys beating the big guys, greed, love, etc. shakespeare stuff. you can't have religion w/out a good solid human drama story.
 
While it is true that other major world religions have had more time to have been thought through/had thoughts refined, it does rule out viewing each religion on their own merits.
It is very easy to lump all religions together, and rule them out as all being crap. This is usually pretty intellectually lazy, as all religions are not the same. If all religions were the same, or even rested upon the same foundations, then all religious people could believe in ANY religion. This is not true, because each religion makes competing truths claims, just as secularism, agnosticism, and atheism also make competing truth claims.
Each religion should be evaluated based on their specific truth claims.
 
2000 years, 4 years, that's not the point of my post. I re-read what I've posted, Crash, and I'm coming up blank trying to find anywhere I referred to my religious beliefs as being "right". I think you're trying to put words in my mouth, when I was trying to look for some opinions or answers to help me figure out what makes the believers of this religion tick.

Is anyone that's responded a practicing Scientologist, or know someone that is? I've met people that are, but I don't know anyone that I could carry on a conversation with about it.
 
the op has nothing to do with christianity, so that usually means that a handul of posters will turn it into a thread about it. y'all are more obsessed than the paracticioners.
 
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