The Scientology thread - the OG!

[Seb!]

Amusing how fossils of lifeforms have been found which have been dated to earlier than seventy-five million years, but no human remains.

Yeah, there are bigger clues than that. It's easy to complete reject scientific evidence these days.

 

[T.s.e]

It's easy to complete reject scientific evidence these days.

Even easier when there's money to gain by doing it.

 

[monoVertex]

You guys should stop taking exact criteria as reference points in your arguments. Everything in the world is becoming more and more relative. As an example, Buddhism is not considered by some a religion, because it does not have a Church, an actual hierarchy or an organizing council (or w/e you want to call it). Yet, they do have deities and their own doctrine.

Also, I fail to see how atheists and scientologists are related. Atheists have no religion at all, they do not follow a certain dogma and do not believe in a all-powerful being or generally in anything that has no clear evidence of existence. Yet, scientologists believe in a powerful alien. It is irrelevant if that "deity" or how you want to call it is an alien.

As I think of it, God is also an alien! The Christian God is present all-over, right? That means he is on Earth and also outside of it. Doesn't that qualifies Him as an extraterrestrial entity? That means he's an alien as well, right?
So, whether it's shown as a intergalactic ruler or an old-man that has infinite power, it is still a deity, as far as I am concerned. The main difference is that the first is a modern one, while the latter is an ancient one.

And anyway, they say they are a religion and they have a church. They are also classified as a religion by most of the people, regardless of their methods. Some arguments from the Internet won't change that. Also, those arguments won't change that scientologists are not atheists. And people that actually say that they are the same are really misinformed or really ignorant. It's like when a fanatic Christian affirms that Satanism and Buddhism and ________ (insert religion here) are the same because they do not worship the Christian God. And, watching at the things with neutrality, Buddhism as a religion is way closer to Christianism than to Satanism, because both teach the followers to be kind and non-sinners. I hate this kind of fanaticism and ignorance, and I am enraged at it, no matter the religions that this fanaticism attacks, even if I am an atheist myself. I also despise fanatic Atheist, just so you know.

Anyway, to get back on topic, I think that Wikipedia did the right thing, if the Church of Scientology started to abuse it's privileges. Any religion should get that ban, if it starts doing the same as the scientologists, in my opinion.

 

[BANANAMAN]

Personally i think the world needs less religions rather than more.

 

[Undead Me]

Scientology is in my opinion a bit less valid than (for example) Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism. I hold it to be about as valid as neopaganism, satanism, and suicide cults.

 

[KillerChi]

...They only accept rich people, and require mass payments for "cleansing".

That sounds exactly like how Catholicism used to be which caused the Moravian church to form, and 100 years later, the Protestant Reformation(Which created many denominations and caused reform in the Catholic church.)

Let's describe "Cult"
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cult
Cult is mostly derogatory. Except for the leader part, I can't name a religon that doesn't have a leader of some sort.

 

[Ghostwind]

Fuck scientologists. Scientologist isn't even considered a word on Firefox, that's how much they suck.

In my opinion, all religions are "cults". I think religion is outdated, and it's just a way of brainwashing people so they don't actually figure out what they believe based on factual evidence, and instead just give up trying to find out and say there's some magic being controlling everyone.

 

[The Helper]

I was at WalMart the other day shopping and the Scientologists were out front handing out stuff. The funny thing is they looked at me and did not say a word or try to give me anything - both on the way in and out. They even kind of looked at me and checked me off. I guess my Thetans were not in the right alignment LOL!

 

[Weegee]

I'm Atheist but this is ridiculous :nuts:

and @ Ghostwind


I just wish people would believe that though...

but I defiantly agree and I also agree with Smith_S9 on this matter too

 

[ReVolver]

Quick! The church needs moar money, our God will be pleased and my new Ferrari

 

[monoVertex]

I agree with Ghostwind. Religion is a way of manipulating the masses. I am sorry if any religious person here feels offended, but try to understand that this is my atheistic belief and I am not disrespecting you as a person, I am just attacking the religion .

 

[Ghostwind]

Quick! The church needs moar money, our God will be pleased and my new Ferrari

Don't forget the bailout money for that statutory rape case!

 

[Undead Me]

I dunno, Marx said that religion is the opiate of the masses, and to a certain extent it's true. However, religions also do a lot of good in the world (Not crazy one's like scientology, but real ones do a great job as far as charity goes. Further they make quite a few people happy. So I don't think they're really outdated, just some of their teachings are now little better than superstitions. Besides, atheists have done quite a bit of "brainwashing the masses" to disregard science too. Consider the USSR. Under soviet rule, many western scientific advances (Such as some aeronautical development, gene sequencing, and early computers) were dismissed as "borgeoise psuedoscience". So pretty much, any group can do some brainwashing, but any group can be pretty helpful too. It's the groups like the scientologists who are all about brainwashing and don't really help anyone who are purely unnecessary.

 

[The Helper]

PARIS – A Paris court convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than euro600,000 ($900,000) on Tuesday but stopped short of banning the group as prosecutors had demanded.

The group's French branch immediately announced it would appeal the verdict.

The court convicted the Church of Scientology's French office, its library and six of its leaders of organized fraud. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used "commercial harassment" against recruits.

The group was fined euro400,000 ($600,000) and the library euro200,000. Four of the leaders were given suspended sentences of between 10 months and two years. The other two were given fines of euro1,000 and euro2,000.

Church of Scientology Convicted of Fraud in France

A Paris court convicted the Church’s French branch of fraud and fined it $600,000 but stopped short of a ban on the group that was sought by prosecutors.

www.theledger.com

 

[T.s.e]

$cientology is a failure.

 

[The Helper]

Actually, Scientology, if executed properly can be quite profitable. You have to be at the top though and they need a lot of suckers to get cash.

 

[UndeadDragon]

It's about time that someone tried to stop them.

 

[ReVolver]

Xenu is not pleased.

 

[ElderKingpin]

Wikipedia slapped them. and France Bish slapped them

 

[Avaleirra]

They had a South Park episode on this, and yes, I do think this is just one big scam.