So....What the hell is scientology?

Recommended Videos

Wintermoot

New member
Aug 20, 2009
6,559
0
0
Darzen said:
Is scientology an actual Religion or is it just a cult? Why are there so many Celebrities involved in Scientology? i'd rather not google it because i have horrible luck on google so i thought i'd ask you guys and girls in the escapist forums,What the hell is scientology and why should anyone care about it?

Edit:i actually think of a religion that actually helps you better yourself somewhat. Most religions have a sort of"code of Conduct" that,if you follow it,will make you a better person in the end. By what i've heard/read so far Scientology just wants your money and there's nothing good you can take from it.Also Scientolog is probably the only religion that has an Author to the book they follow.
Even though most real religions make little to no sense most cults make even less sense.
scientology is a cult started so the founder could make money that,s it in a nutshell I,m not being cynical here thiat is the thruth people need to pay allot of money to reach enlightment
 

JoshTheater

LRR Enthusiast
Nov 20, 2009
81
0
0
miscelaneous said:
JoshTheater said:
Scinetology being a cult has NOTHING to do with what they believe in. All people have the right to believe whatever they want, no matter how silly or crazy.

No, what makes Scientology a dangerous cult is the fact that it is responsible for human trafficking (aka forced labor) in the US, coerced abortions, harrassing/threatening/physically assaulting their critics, the deaths of several of their members due to neglect or murder, and much more. They function more as a business than a church and their most dedicated members (not public members) live in compounds in which they are almost prisoners, forced to completely cut contact with any disapproving family members and often threatened if they attempt to leave.

I have friends in real life who have had to literally escape from this church. If you have to escape from a church, it is a cult.
Are you talking about the unification church serious?
I'm 100% dead serious. I don't joke about Scientology, I know too many people who have had their lives ruined by it.
 

JoshTheater

LRR Enthusiast
Nov 20, 2009
81
0
0
Just want to clear up a huge misconception here:

Very very few Scientologists know of or believe in the Xenu space story, as it's considered highly classified information in the church. Only those Scientologists who have dedicated their full lives to the religion and spent up to $300,000 have been taught that part of the religion (and even many of them don't take it literally). Public Scientologists are not allowed to know about the story beforehand, and if they hear about it, the church simply tells them it isn't true, that the media is making it up to discredit the religion.

The point being, once you've spent your entire life in a religion and invested your entire life's savings into it, you're likely to believe anything to justify the time and money you wasted.
 

ninjajoeman

New member
Mar 13, 2009
934
0
0
I always told my mom wait so you believe in a book that was written 2000 years from now ish. What makes you so sure that this isn't just a fable like harry potter? What scared me was thinking about the people 2000 years from now worshiping harry potter. If your wondering where im going I'm saying that this guy who was a fiction writer wrote a book like this and now a fair amount of people believe it's true and it didn't even take 2000 years.
 

Fraught

New member
Aug 2, 2008
4,417
0
0
Gralian said:
Woodsey said:
Aren't all religions cults?
Aren't all religions about believing in an authority figure deity that hasn't actually been seen by man and putting faith into a book or scripture written long ago during a (scientifically) ignorant time?

Really, i don't know why people go $CIENTOLOGY IS A STUPID EVIL CULT, THEY BELIEVE IN NONSENSE!!11 then start saying how much more sense Christianity or Islam (or any other major religion) makes when it's just as foundless as Scientology on a scientific level.
It doesn't make much more sense, but there's still a difference between a thousands of years old religion that has shaped the whole world to a major extent, and retains some mystical element of wisdom by way of being created such a long time ago, where information wasn't as available and publicized about people as it is today, and (even though I'm an atheist), contains a lot of very philosophical ideas and deep wisdom, as opposed to a religion based upon the works of a sci-fi writer who died only 24 years ago, about some, fucking...aliens.
 

Gralian

Me, I'm Counting
Sep 24, 2008
1,789
0
0
Fraught said:
'Mystical element of wisdom', eh? I call that a fancy way of describing 'ignorance'. I call it lost in translation over time and as the stories got passed down. I call it fantasy drafted from that very lack of scientific knowledge that you decry. I call God an alien as much as you call Xenu or whatever Scientologists worship an alien, because he / she / it certainly isn't native to Earth, is it? God is as much an alien as any other wacky space-god. You seem to perpetuate the idea "ignorance is bliss". Information wasn't as available, and that makes it okay to take on board such bizarre philosophies and wild stories like obeying any form of higher authority without question? That punishing those that do bad makes you just as loving as if you'd forgiven them? That it's okay to threaten and frighten people into obeying you with promises of said punishment if you don't acquiesce? That things like prostitution and violence are an acceptable means to do good? So if you didn't know the Sun was a big ball of gas, it'd be okay to claim that was the eye of a God because - woah, information isn't available! That suddenly makes it valuable wisdom. Right?

Yeah.

Frankly, whether the book was witten 1,000 years ago or 1 year ago, at the end of the day it's still a book written by some guy. Age does not suddenly venerate it into truth or make it any less credible.

Read the story of Job, as an example, and tell me how that is philosophical wisdom, in any way - how on earth you can justify 'God' making a bet with 'Satan' over faith and how the fuck it was fair to Job for suffering through all that and still say 'i am faithful'. Aren't Gods supposed to be above such petty things as this? Isn't the God supposed to be loving? Seems to me a bunch of chaps just decided to apply human emotions and ideals to a superhuman identity and people began to worship it, and just because it's applied to the human experience, people assume it to suddenly be more true than aliens or whatever else 'modern' religions are worshipping now. Hmm.