Very interesting article about the culture and inner workings of scientology.

[dennilfloss]

Long article (but well-worth the read) from a respected publication. Lots of details.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_wright?currentPage=all

 

[Malak]

Got bored early on. Fairly pointless article from what I read.

 

[zerocool84]

No different than any other religion.

 

[BrokenVisage]

No different than any other religion.

This, in fact compared to most of the major religions $cientology has A LOT of ground to make up in the evil department.

 

[Ninjahedge]

They have only been around a short time.

They are more than closing the gap in the realm of Religion.Inc.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

cliffs?

 

[SandEagle]

it's all actors and musicians. scientology is for the rich and clueless

 

[Train]

Is there anything I didn't already know from watching Southpark?

 

[Schadenfroh]

No different than any other religion.

Scientology is the SCO / Rambus / RIAA of religions.

 

[Cookie]

I have some family members who are (and others who were) Scientologists. One cousin gave me that book 'Dinetics' a couple years ago when he came to visit, but I haven't read it yet.

About halfway through the article I got to this part:

"“The first thing I noticed that I did, that others didn’t, is the Contact,” Alissa told me, referring to a procedure the church calls Contact Assist. “If you hurt yourself, the first thing I and other Scientology kids do is go quiet.” Scientology preaches that, if you touch the wound to the object that caused the injury and silently concentrate, the pain lessens and a sense of trauma fades."

I remember once at a family reunion one of my younger cousins (6 or 7 years old maybe) tripped and hurt herself. I stopped to ask if she was ok and the others asked me to be quiet and ignore it. The explained the attention would only increase the pain, and the way I understood, increase the likelihood she would 'demand' attention from others due to the perceived pain (the same way a three year old cries and runs to his mommy when he bumps his toe, even though it's not really hurt). I do remember the touching thing too, when I bumped heads with another cousin, we had to touch heads again. Weird.

I don't really have a point... it just struck me as peculiar at the time, and now again when reading this article.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

They have only been around a short time.

They are more than closing the gap in the realm of Religion.Inc.

Not even close to closing the gap, they're falling further and further behind. The Christians and Muslims are out there working hard to up their body count every day and the Scientologists keep refusing to engage in mass murder. That's how you know Scientology isn't a real religion, no easily followed trail of dead.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Faith is an interesting thing. I personally have been taken out of hell by faith in Christ; but I have a hard time insulting anyone for something that they find beneficial, be it an agreement with Hubbard, Young or Dawkins.


There is no body count for Scientology because they don't make up enough of the population.

Dont' doubt it: If we had 80% atheist or scientologist or pastafarian population those ideas would be used to justify war too.

 

[Ninjahedge]

GH, they are pulling in more $ per capita, and are very secretive about it. That is the "Inc" portion of my statement.

As for the "pain" bis, what a bunch of malarkey. They are conflating attention grabbing with pain perception. Being quiet when you are hurt does not make the pain go away any more that putting your finger on the side of your nose.

"Gee, I cut myself with a knife, but I closed my eyes and prayed to XXX. When I opened my eyes 20 minutes later, the cut had stopped bleeding! It MUST be the prayer!"

No scientific study, no base test, no comparison.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

GH, they are pulling in more $ per capita, and are very secreitve about it. That is the "Inc" portion of my statement.

As for the "pain" bis, what a bunch of malarchy. They are conflating attension grabbing with pain perception. Being quiet when you are hurt does not make teh pain go away any more that putting your finger on the side of your nose.

"Gee, I cut myself with a knife, but I closed my eyes and prayed to XXX. When I opened my eyes 20 minutes later, the cut had stopped bleeding! It MUST be the prayer!"

No scientific study, no base test, no comparison.

doesn't quantum physics imply that our attention to something(observation) does impact real world results?

 

[Gibson486]

just put this in P&N.

 

[Ninjahedge]

No.

Please tell me where it says that. AAMOF, it may say the opposite.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

doesn't quantum physics imply that our attention to something(observation) does impact real world results?

That has absolutely nothing to do with anything here.

 

[destrekor]

I've said it before, and will say it again: as time goes on, I grow more and more confident that scientology is nothing but a scientific parody of religion. It's based more around the science of human life, finding the ways to promote living in the most efficient style possible as humans (which is why they rally against some modern approaches, like medications and whatnot). They go out of their way to do it, and they make themselves an annoyance because of it, but the ideas are fairly sound if you take the messages and tone them down. Everything else, they seem like a parody cult. The religious aspects of their beliefs are so radical and comical, it has to be a parody - a parody with modern messages that consist of exaggerated truths.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

That has absolutely nothing to do with anything here.

there was a direct correlation sorry you missed it but I wasn't talking to you anyways.

 

[Whisper]

doesn't quantum physics imply that our attention to something(observation) does impact real world results?

Attention can very much impact the subjective experience of pain. It's why a paper cut hurts significantly more once you stare at it and keep telling yourself, "man, this is going to suck."

 

[Scotteq]

I've said it before, and will say it again: as time goes on, I grow more and more confident that scientology is nothing but a scientific parody of religion. It's based more around the science of human life, finding the ways to promote living in the most efficient style possible as humans (which is why they rally against some modern approaches, like medications and whatnot). They go out of their way to do it, and they make themselves an annoyance because of it, but the ideas are fairly sound if you take the messages and tone them down. Everything else, they seem like a parody cult. The religious aspects of their beliefs are so radical and comical, it has to be a parody - a parody with modern messages that consist of exaggerated truths.

"I'd like to start a religion. That's where the money is." - L. Ron Hubbard to Lloyd Eshbach, in 1949; quoted by Eshbach in OVER MY SHOULDER: REFLECTIONS ON A SCIENCE FICTION ERA, Donald M. Grant Publisher. 1983


"MAKE MONEY. MAKE MORE MONEY. MAKE OTHER PEOPLE PRODUCE SO AS TO MAKE MORE MONEY." - L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 9 March 1972, MS OEC 384


"Let's sell these people a piece of blue sky." - L. Ron Hubbard to an associate in 1950, soon after the opening of the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation. (via Jon Atack, A PIECE OF BLUE SKY: SCIENTOLOGY, DIANETICS AND L. RON HUBBARD EXPOSED, Lyle Stuart/Carol Publishing Group. 1990)




Scientology is living proof that Stupid people can be rich too.

 

[Jeff7]

GH, they are pulling in more $ per capita, and are very secretive about it. That is the "Inc" portion of my statement.

As for the "pain" bis, what a bunch of malarkey. They are conflating attention grabbing with pain perception. Being quiet when you are hurt does not make the pain go away any more that putting your finger on the side of your nose.

"Gee, I cut myself with a knife, but I closed my eyes and prayed to XXX. When I opened my eyes 20 minutes later, the cut had stopped bleeding! It MUST be the prayer!"

No scientific study, no base test, no comparison.

Doesn't matter - when proper blind tests are done to demonstrate prayer's alleged effectiveness, the explanation for the results, which show no statistical correlation, is that others were praying for the test to fail. So I guess they see no problem with the idea that their god is consistently doing whatever he can to cover up even the most tenuous evidence of his own existence.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

there was a direct correlation sorry you missed it but I wasn't talking to you anyways.

How the hell does Quantum Physics have anything to do with brain perception of pain.

In one hand, you have wave functions and uncertainty that dictate how we measure properties of particles and in the other, pain and attempting to ignore it. Yes there are studies that indicate that what you expect from pain changes how you perceive it, but quantum mechanics has absolutely no place in this coversation.

There is no direct correlation. Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200 dollars. I award you zero points.

 

[Ninjahedge]

Jeff, I know. The whole thing about religoin is a denial of any directly measurable amount.

It is the belief that one person praying has more sway than an entire world. It is kind of a backwards form of individual empowerment that both gives power to the individual, but also requires conformation to the mass.

It is a self contradictory ideology.

 

[McLovin]

I have absolutely no problem with someone wanting to start or be part of a religion that teaches you how to live a better life. In fact, this should be the baseline and the guide for moving forward in life on just how to be a good, moral person who does everything to best of their ability to not only better themselves, but the people and world around them.

With that being said, the main issues I have with religion are that there have been many instances where they have justified long, meaningless, and down right despicable wars over what they believe their savior/god/omnipotent overlord wills them to do. If god truly wants all his children to love one another and exist in harmony with one another, with the exception of course demons rising from the earth or some crazy shit like that, then there cannot possibly be a reason to just the killing of other human beings in any gods' name. The second I have is that I have to go to the same place, at the same time every week, and get the same scripture/teaching/lesson and all the while be expected to contribute a portion of my income, which I was told back in earlier part of this century was a whopping 10% (roman catholic), in order to be able to go this church. As if it was a freaking COSTCO membership or something!

Now, I understand that there may be in fact true intentions by these people to actually help people in need or are distressed over things that happen in their life. But knowing that I would have to contribute hundreds of thousands, if not MILLIONS, of dollars is just fucking ludicrous! The fact that my soul is not in fact mine, but a combination of other souls from previous lives is also just plain stupid. So because of some other soul being downtrodden and miserable, that automatically means I will be the same way and this mystical group of people just now realized this over the course of thousands of years of human evolution? Give me a break.

These people are loons and I am grateful for the people who can realize they made a bad choice in joining this religion and are able to break free from it.

Do not forget Scientology is the source of the LARGEST infiltration of government agencies in this country's history just to "purge unfavorable records about Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard."