Kupek wrote:Scientology very well could become a mainstream religion in the future, and like all mainstream religions, it will water itself down and most things that people now object to will be absent. A great example of this is Mormonism. In it's original form, it was pretty bad. But now it's no more crazy than other branches of Christianity.
So says you. I think Mormonism is second in the "crazy, let's rob people of their money and sanity" quote-religions-unquote. The goddamn thing was created by an ex-con man, and Mormonism is the only "religion" besides Scientology that demands large sums of money to become a part of their base.
Both religions are filled with blatant bigotry and a creation story that would make any other person's head hurt with how amazingly stupid it is.
Christianity is at least geared towards helping people, and most claims of bigotry in the bible are usually misinterpretations. (The OT still had some hardcore stuff, but Christ was smart enough to separate the two religions. If only they had separated the two bibles, we wouldn't have Christians who think they should follow Jewish beliefs.)
Tessian wrote:I give Scientology points for not hiding the fact that it was invented by a fucked up slightly-above-average science fiction writer (as opposed to being the word of god)... but then it loses all those points and then some for its followers not admitting to that fact.
You get a lot more credit in my book if you're going to be honest about the origins of your religion. Your religion wasn't created by an invisible space wizard or a being that lives in the center of the earth-- it was thought up by a man just like you and me who decided to write their beliefs and teachings in a book and preach it to the world. The quicker you quit pretending it's more than that the better off and happier we all can become.
Most people who buy Dianetics don't know about the connection between it and Scientology. They simply read it and then get introduced to CoS somewhere in the book.
The entire point of "clearing" a person during the first levels is to make their mind so numb and suggestive that when they are finally introduced to the actual creation story (after several months or even years), their mind doesn't immediately reject it as total batshit insanity, like any normal person would. Many people, even with all of the tests, still falter at this story. Some of them don't seem to filter it in well, then get kicked out because the church notices that they aren't going to make it. Others still had a difficult time with it, but eventually accepted the story. Tom Cruise was one of the latter.
Of course, to make it, you have to accept everything completely. The point of the e-meters is to make sure that you unconditionally believe in everything that CoS stands for. Also, the frame of reference for CoS members is that Hubbard "discovered" the truth, and wasn't writing fiction. So, you can't say that they get any points for thinking that it's "invented" because they simply don't believe that.
The Internet has been a crippling thorn in CoS's side because people get educated on how incredibly stupid the creation story is before they get indoctrinated, and thus, they never get suckered into the church in the first place. CoS has tried and tried to censor it out, but it's a losing battle. Pandora's Box is already open.
