Liist

I don't think it's the belief in Scientology that I care about, it's the abusive and destructive power of the Church of Scientology. I don't give a rat's ass about freezone Scientologists.

MetdethGNR

I hate to tell you so bluntly, but you are clearly insulting your intelligence. I know many Atheists and many believers, and let me tell you, there are idiots in the extremes of both: either fundamentalist, blind believers or extreme, I-am-so-smarter-than-these-believers atheists.

I mean, like Liist mentioned, you can't "group" Scientology with Christianity/Islam/Judaism or other movements that make sense.

Right on.

Moodrets

Claims of authorship have no effect on the validity of a proposition; if Ron Hubbard called himself god, would that somehow elevate Scientology in your eyes? What if I call myself God? How dare you question my authority? Certainly, it is no less potent than Ron Hubbard's, Mathews, Gautama's, Luke's or Muhammad's.

Appeal to authority - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Like I said before, the various memeplexes are indistinguishable on their baser levels. All flow from the same source (inspiration!); there is no way to distinguish between their individual veracities if all fulfill the standards of the same epistemology (which itself coincidentally invalidates that epistemology if we are to accept the principle of identity).

Why can't they be grouped together? A glitch in the board system seems to have deleted your justification for asserting that the latter three systems are any more "coherent" than the former...

Regarding scientology's religiosity:

re·li·gion (rĭ-lĭj'ən) pronunciation
n.

1.
1. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
2. A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.
2. The life or condition of a person in a religious order.
3. A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.
4. A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.


---

Scientology fits every one of the above criterion in most of its iterations, so it already is a religion; stating that "scientology is a religion" is tautological.

On that note, pastafarianism, frisbeeterianism, and their ilk are also religions, so long as belief in them is "genuine" given the aforementioned definition.

asian sensation

^ so contrary to popular belief, scientology SHOULD be a religion..

what arguments can be made against that? that Hubbard's intention to create the religion wasn't the same intention Muhammad, Jesus, Gautama, and others had? and that he did it for financial gain?

romanigypsyeyes

Were you there? Most likely not. Therefore, you can't say for sure that that wasn't their intention.

Liist

I put this on another thread.

I consider freezone Scientology to be a religion, but the organization known as the Church of Scientology puts a price on your faith and will charge you humongous amounts of money for further religious learning.

If you become a freezone Scientologist, the Church of Scientology will make your life miserable.

Invoyable

...I hope you aren't serious.

MLK wasn't fighting for civil rights, no, his intentions were to secretly promote the penguins as superior to humans. Of course Locke wanted to spread the lovely idea of using pigs as a way towards spiritual nirvana.

You weren't there, were you?

...

asian sensation

^ ouch ><

but wasn't it mentioned earlier in this thread that Hubbard said that to make millions, create your own religion?

doesn't that hint something?

Liist

I seriously doubt that Jesus got 1 million dollars every week, a whole fleet of ships, and a bunch of girls to tend to him everyday. He was nailed to a plank of wood.

L. Ron Hubbard was rich as **** when he died.

romanigypsyeyes

^^ I've heard that many times, but I don't know for a fact.

^^^ MLK we have actual video footage of. I'm not going to comment on that because I'm not going to start a civil-rights debate too.

And nobody claims that about Locke either way... so not relevant?

And I didn't say that that WAS their intention. I am merely saying that you don't know. The early Christians were ostracized by the "established" Jewish religion. They were considered a "cult". Now they are an established religion and nobody would think of calling them a fringe-religion or something of the like.

Invoyable

I wasn't trying to start a civil rights debate either, but how does a video footage exactly ensure anything about the intentions of a person or the context provided? This isn't an existence sort of thing going on.

You'd be surprised...

Admittedly it's not easy to always trace the exact intentions of historical figures. I was merely trying to point out how ridiculous the "You weren't there, so ______" was. Sorry if it got out of hand. Nothing against you, romani...

romanigypsyeyes

^ Nothing against you either . I was still a little irritated from the last thread so sorry if I came off brash, I didn't mean it.

UnleashedFury

I think South Park explains the Scientologists' beliefs rather succinctly:

YouTube - Scientology outtake from South Park with danish subtitles

piccolojunior

They're the same as christians, jews, muslims etc. to me.

NY_Democrat

If I know someone is a scientologist it usually makes it in my mind more likely that they are slightly off-balance mentally. There is a much lower probability of that with most other mainstream religions.