Is Scientology a religion or a way of life?

Answer 1

It's neither... it's a cult.

This is what Scientologists ACTUALLY believe:

Xenu was an alien ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth in spacecrafts resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living. The alien souls continue to do this today, causing a variety of physical ill-effects in modern-day humans. L. Ron Hubbard (a science-fiction writer and the creator of Scientology) called these clustered spirits "Body Thetans," and the advanced levels in Scientology place considerable emphasis on isolating them and neutralizing their ill effects.

To rid ourselves of "Body Thetans" and also “engrams” (past negative experiences stored in our unconscious mind) so that we can become “clear”, we have to go through "auditing" with a member of the “church” who uses an "e-meter" to measure our “reactive mind”...... and we have to pay lots and lots and lots of money for “auditing” and to take courses on Scientology to advance to higher “levels” in the “church”. The “church” has also taken a very hostile stance towards psychiatry and psychiatric drugs irrespective of the fact that some people require medication to remain adequately functional in everyday life and has been known to withhold prescription pharmaceuticals from member (with deadly results).

Scientology is undeniably a cult. Every cult can be defined as a group having all of the following five characteristics:

(1) It uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members. (2) It forms an elitist totalitarian society. (3) Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma. (4) It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds & recruit people. (5) Its wealth does not benefit its members or society.

Cults are extremely harmful. To remain within the strict mental and social confines of a cult for even a short time can have the following disastrous effects:

Loss of choice and free will. Diminished intellectual ability, vocabulary and sense of humor. Reduced use of irony, abstractions and metaphors. Reduced capacity to form flexible and intimate relationships. Poor judgment. Physical deterioration. Malnutrition. Hallucinations, panic, dissociation, guilt, identity diffusion and paranoia. Neurotic, psychotic or suicidal tendencies.

Answer 2

Scientology is neither (in my opinion.)

Any 'religioun' that demands you pay before joining is sick and praying off the minds of the weak. If there is truley a devil then this is his strong hold, making a mockery of those religions that (despite their faults) actually try to make people's lives better and preach some pretty good messages at their heart.

Scientology was invented by bored celebrities who thought it would be cool if they had their own secular religion. It's not a religion though (or it's not my definition of one) neither is it a way of life...It's a horrific con designed to pray on those who haven't found their path in life and are desperate for something...anything, to give them meaning.

It's sick. If I were you I'd study some decent religions. Such as Huduism, Buddhism or Judaism...

Answer 3

First I want to clarify that the story of Xeno is just a fable and no Scientologist believe it to be true. In fact most Scientologist I have meet haven't even heard the story.Scientology isn't a faith system but a series of proceses that a person uses to find his own truth. Here are some of the principles.

1. What is true for you is what you your self observe to be true.

2. Man is his spirit not his mind or his body. This is a common believe with many religions.

3. The spirit creates his own mind. Please do not confuse the mind with the brain that is a physical thing. The mind is composed of mental image pictures as explained in Dianetics. These pictures serve the spirit to give him knowlege and experiance. These pictures are composed of energy. The energy in the picture can affect the spirit. You can feel better by remembering something that you like or angry by remembering something else. These emotions are actually energy waves emanated by the picture. You can actually feel pain by remembering a pain memory. Sometimes this pictures are acompanied by ideas or considerations. Lets suposed that you father beat you mom up in front of you. Your father was the dominating figure so you might conclude that you have to act like your father in some situacions. This is what we call in Scientology an aberation (a conclusion that is impose to you by a mental picture). This picture is what we call a engram; A pain memory that affects your judgement and free will.

4. A spirit is capable of considerations and ideas and this ideas are solely based on uglyness and beautyfullness. The spirit reject ugly things and intends on making everything beautyfull. Do you like your car, you house, your job, your friends? Are you friends nice with you? Can you improve things in your life? All these are ideas based on uglyness and beautyfullness. This is why the spirits rejects the ugly memories and by rejecting the ugly memories (not confronting them) he is unknowingly affected by them.

5. You can discharge the energy in this pictures true communication. This is Auditing, the Auditor directs your attention to this pictures regardless of how ugly they are and you confront the picture and discharge the energy of the picture true the communication line. Is like if you have battery, in order to discharge the battery you need to discharged against something. If you try to discharge it against your self is just going to chock you.

Scientology is a very interesting religion that takes years of study to master. I just mentioned a few fundamentals. Scientology is so advance and so different that people can't understand it. People think that they know everything there is to know about life. And when they see Scientology they jump to conclusions when in reality they don't have a clue what are they talking about. The reality is that man attacks what he can't understand. That's why Scientology gets so much bad press.

Answer 4

Religion means relationship with God. Its very personal and its not about groups and organisations. The kind of perosn who can help you develop your relationship with Gdo is someone who already has a purely loving relationship with him - like Jesus, Mhammed and more recently Caitanya Mahaprbhu (there are others). Hubbard is a science fiction writer and I don't believe he has much of a relationship with God. I think he's pretty envious of God.

Scientology is a way of life only. its a way to become a kind of demigod. i think, a powerful person. They don't seek a relationship with God. Thats religion - how to relate to God. Buddhism is not a religion actually - with all respect to Lord Buddha - he doesnt teach loving God.

Answer 5

It's a moneymaking scam. Think about it; they're only interested in wealthy people (moviestars, producers, designers etc) as their adepts, and it's all based on "courses" that cost progressively more and more money the deeper in you get.
Ron Hubbard is on record as saying the easiest and fastest way to make money is to start your own "religion." This is more like a pyramid scheme.

Answer 6

it's a load of celebrity bullshit. Tom cruise would not let his wife scream in childbirth!!! in case it scared the newborn baby. Have you ever heard of anything soooo stupid, and its members are worse for willingly following a so called religion made up by a sci-fi fiction writer.

Answer 7

its neither its a con. if you are looking for a religion to follow i suggest you look into some real ones i.e. Christianity, Muslim, Buddhism etc

Answer 8

scientology is neither it's a cult

Answer 9

its founder Is L Ron Hubbard
and it started as a novel...they call it a church
to avoid paying tax's

Answer 10

L Ron just wanted money.