Is cientology the new "TRUE" church?
2007-02-17 13:27:30 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
They are both considered cults. I know that Scientology certainly IS a cult. Of course, I also consider Scientology to be a much greater and immediate threat.
Scientology is 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 & retain its members.
Read here about the use of mind control and brainwashing in Scientology: http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/s/scientology/pignotti/
This article was written by Monica Pignotti, Cult Intervention Specialist and former Scientologist.
Here is more information about Scientology "TR's", or Training Routines (which are billed as a way to improve communication skills, but whose real purpose is to plant the seeds for thought control): http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/TR/
(2) It forms an elitist totalitarian society.
It is official Scientology policy to label anyone who disagrees with the practices of or questions the validity and/or benignity of Scientology as a “Suppressive Person”. The policy also requires members to “disconnect” from them.
(3) Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable & has charisma.
Meet L. Ron Hubbard:
http://www.xenu.net/entheta/entheta/media/tv/secret/secret.html
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/Bare%20Faced%20Messiah.pdf
http://slate.msn.com/id/2122835/?nav=ais
(4) It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds & recruit people.
Absolutely. After all, Hubbard DID create his own religion on order to scam people out of their money: http://lisatrust.freewinds.cx/scientology/hubbard.htm
Scientology is, in fact, seen as nothing more than a business in many countries (which is why, in those countries, it is appropriately NOT regarded as a religion). Here's the Wikipedia article on "Scientology as a business": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_as_a_business#
And nothing is too low for them: if people leave the church under unfavorable conditions, the church then charges them a "free-loader debt" which is basically retroactive billing for any auditing received or any Scientology training received while in the Sea Org, which can run into tens of thousands of dollars.
http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?p=scientology+freeloader+debt+kent&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&x=wrt&u=www.rickross.com/reference/scientology/history/history15.html&w=scientology+freeloader+debt+kent&d=QbtxEuxsOMXw&icp=1&.intl=us
(5) Its wealth does not benefit its members or society.
The only "benefit" to society that Scientology claims is it's drug rehabilitation program (which is utterly ineffective and whose "success" statistics have been manipulated or outright doctored by Scientology) and it's "stand" against psychiatry.
This is a site that takes a critical look at their drug rehabilitation program which goes by the name of "Narconon": http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/index.html
And here's an article entitled "What's Scientology's beef with psychiatry? Adherents say people can cure own ills; critics say the church is a cult":
http://www.rickross.com/reference/scientology/psychiatry/psychiatry9.html
2007-02-17 13:29:29 · answer #1 · answered by ZER0 C00L ••AM••VT•• 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'd have to study the Book of Mormon to answer this question.
It is definitely on my "To do" list.
I'm not aware of any similarities, only possibly the concept of
our individual spiritual nature and potential seems similar.
But I really would have to look in depth.
Scientology is definitely a new religion but it's not in competition
with older existing religions.
2007-02-18 01:02:30 · answer #2 · answered by thetaalways 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ummm...no. The mormons have their own intersting things going on, but I did research the scientology beliefs and there are no similarities.
2007-02-17 21:29:52 · answer #3 · answered by KS 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In that they are based on fantasy books written by an individual, yes.
2007-02-17 21:32:12 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
They both made for great episode topics on South Park. And they both freak people out by having so many "I heard they do THIS to their members!" rumors.
2007-02-17 21:30:48 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
They share no common beliefs.
2007-02-17 23:10:58 · answer #6 · answered by mourning my dad 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
not even remotley close
2007-02-17 21:29:16 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No...they are not.
2007-02-17 21:29:46 · answer #8 · answered by stimulating conversations 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋