What is everyones opinion on Scientology?

Question

1. Good or bad?
2. Why or whynot?
3. Do any scientologists belive in God?

Thank you all for your answers, I'm gonna let this one be put into voting, since I cant decide.

Answer 1

(1) Very bad!

(2) Why? It's a dangerous cult. I'll get to that in a moment.

(3) Some do, some don't. They list "Supreme Being/The Divine" as one of their "8 Dynamics", but... well... let this explain how Scientology relates to God and Christianity: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070324130735AAGhdiD

And now I'll explain why Scientology is so bad. There are multitudes of people who have suffered tragic experiences during their involvement with Scientology. Read about them here:
http://www.lermanet.com/persecution/
http://www.whyaretheydead.net/krasel/
http://xenu.net/archive/personal_story/cheryl_s

Here are more "bad experiences" with the cult including an illegal plot to infiltrate the government, brainwashing techniques, mind control camps, attacks on critics, and DEATHS caused by Scientology doctrine and members:

● Operation Snow White – Under this official program, Scientology operatives committed infiltration, wiretapping, & theft of documents in government offices. This program constituted the single largest infiltration of the United States government in history. Among the 11 prominent Scientologists convicted of this conspiracy was Mary Sue Hubbard, the wife of Scientology’s “prophet”.
http://lisatrust.freewinds.cx/scientology/snow-white/index.html
http://en.allexperts.com/e/o/op/operation_snow_white.htm

● Operation Freakout - Their campaign of sabotage & violence against Paulette Cooper, the writer who published her research & findings on several cults, including Scientology. Scientology’s official plan: to frame Paulette, ruin her career & reputation & get her either incarcerated or locked up in psychiatric confinement.
The official plan: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Krasel/cooper/frk1.html
Her book: http://holysmoke.org/cos/books/scandal-of-scientology-cooper.pdf

● Fair Game - the Scientology policy detailing how the organization may confront & handle critics & perceived enemies. Here is a direct quote: "Enemies may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”
http://www.xenu.net/archive/disk/fairgame.htm
http://www.planetkc.com/sloth/sci/Fair_game_ord.html
http://www.fairgamed.org/

● Physical & psychological punishment: Scientologists who "break the rules" while members of the "Sea Org" must subject themselves to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), which includes regimes of harsh physical punishment, forced self-confessions, social isolation, hard labor and intensive ideological indoctrination.
http://www.xenu-directory.net/practices/rpf.html
http://www.lermanet2.com/scientology/gulags/BrainwashinginScientology'sRehabilitationProjectForce.htm
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rpf/escape_2.htm

● Brainwashing & mind control: Scientology exerts control over its members by means of typical cult tactics, including but not limited to controlling information about internal doctrine & criticism of the organization, severely restricting social contact outside the cult (including the practice of “disconnecting” with any family who question the credibility & trustworthiness of the cult), creating an “us against them” mentality by villainizing a specific out-group (for Scientology, it’s psychiatrists), & claiming all those outside the cult are unenlightened.
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/24/Tampabay/The_unperson.shtml
http://www.factnet.org/Books/SocialControl/scs.html#toc http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/s/scientology/pignotti/
http://xenu.net/archive/personal_story/funkydonny.html

● Violent Kidnapping - Lisa McPherson was a Scientologist, was involved in a car accident & resultantly became mentally unstable. She was kidnapped from the hospital by agents of Scientology, held against her will, refused proper psychiatric treatment & allowed to STARVE TO DEATH.
Video: http://theunfunnytruth.ytmnd.com/
News Coverage: http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/Lisa_McPherson_Scientology_Deaths.html
Website: http://www.lisamcpherson.org/

● Tragic Murder - A CBS “48 Hours” special on Jeremy Perkins, the mentally disturbed son of Scientologist parents who, because of the Scientology doctrine of opposing psychiatry, refused to put him on the anti-psychotic drugs that would have stabilized him & prevented him from killing his own mother.
Video: http://www.scientomogy.com/jeremy_perkins.php
CBS article: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/25/48hours/main2124568.shtml
Website: http://perkinstragedy.org

Answer 2

Bad.

They use religion as an excuse to take money from people. They expect you to attend Scientology related courses if you want to become a Scientologist . They run from hundreds to thousands of dollars and I find most of their teachings to be science fiction. (Probably because the person who founded Scientology was a science fiction writer himself!)

They don't officially believe in the Christian god, but instead believe that A person is an immortal spiritual being, they call it "thetan," who possesses a mind and a body. They think that by following the church's teachings they can achieve total control over the universe around you.

If you actually went to one of their classes you'll see how made up all their stories really are. You'd much rather be a part of something else than a scientologist.

Answer 3

1. Neither good nor bad.

2. Religion helps teach people morals and gives them a grand sense of purpose. As long as that person acts humanely towards other people and proactively interacts with society, I cannot judge the entirety of Scientology.

Do I think the religion seems ridiculous? Of course. And L. Ron Hubbard, its creator, has a very sordid and dubious history.

However, if this religion teaches violence, subjugation, and ignorance, then it is definitely a bad thing. Then again, if its members are happy, tolerant, and peaceful, it works for them.

3. Individual practitioners might privately believe in God, yet Scientology, from what I gather, is a self-help faith based upon the mythos created by Hubbard. Check it out.

Answer 4

Bad
False Religion:
While Scientologists acknowledge Jesus Christ as a great spiritual teacher, Scientology doctrine is not based on the teachings of Jesus.
They believe in a god but not The God
They believe that your body is invaded with aliens that were banished from their planet a million years ago. And that when you are born, you have the spirits of about 2,000 aliens that you must rid yourself of. They call them Body Thetan There's a book by Ron L Hubbard, called Dianetics in which this "religion" is based upon....

Answer 5

My opinion on scientology is as follows :

South Park got it right on the money ! It was started by a wacked out sci-fi author who was a child molester. His sci-fi writings were okay (meh.) but then he realized he could get way more money by saing all this crap about "religion"

They don't really have a "god", if you will. The more people you bring in, the more you give ... gives you more power in the 'church'. From what I understand (and I don't want to) you are your own 'god' and how much you make (money is a common theme here) depends on how your afterlife will be. I have a friend whose mom is a scientologist so she's tried explaining it to me, but I'm Catholic so I couldn't stop laughing.

But watch the South Park scientology episodes ... they are priceless !!

Answer 6

1. Its bad
2. Because they belive something that a man (Hubbard) just made up. They have silly thoughts when it comes down to medicine. They put their own lives in danger when they refuse to take medications and refuse to have normal child births. They believe that there are things called Thetans that live inside us, which is a load. They think they are better than everyone else because they have a few celebs backing them up. (TomKat, John Travolta, etc)
3. I am almost 100 percent sure that they believe solely in science and nature, not a God or anything like that!

Answer 7

Scientology is BAD. They are looking to take complete advantage of you. It's a get rich quick scheme... and it's ridiculous. Do some research on it and form your own opinions, of course... but It just seems to me that they try to brainwash you and control your actions and if you don't have the money.. they make you feel guilty and convince you to take out loans... and use whatever means to pay them for their classes because you aren't good enough yet. I don't think they believe in God.. I think they believe in money and hurting anyone that gets in their way.

Answer 8

Everyones opinions...... on this forum.....hmm.
Well I have no problem with opinions either way , but you should understand that opinions may or may not be based on any facts.

Here are some facts in lieu of my opinion:

Scientology is an applied religious philosophy. When I say "applied" I mean you actually use it in your life to change or improve existing conditions. It is a very practical religion.
All religions if you learn about them have a basic philosphy, but they also have certain dogma, rituals and observances, and a certain faith or belief is required. There is nothing wrong with this, but Scientology is not that kind of religion. It does not intrude on anyone’s faiths of beliefs in the area of God , the Supreme Being, or the Infinite. This area is left totally up to the indivdual as part of his life.
It is also not a messianic religion. This means there is no worship of prophets or messiahs in Scientology. It is not belief or faith based. A truth should be true according to ones own observation and experience.
The dictionary definition that applies:
Religion: The spiritual or emotional attitude of one who recognises the existence of superhuman power or powers.

The most basic principle of Scientology is that YOU are your own immortal soul, that this is not a "thing" you HAVE but what YOU actually are.
The whole purpose of Scientology is to increase an individual's understanding and awareness of himself. and life.And to rehabilitate his native goodness, abilities and potential.
When you do this the sphere and zone of his positive influence increases and moves outward into his life, his family ,his friends, his groups and mankind which he is part of.

How this result is achieved is the "technology" of Scientology, which was developed by L.Ron Hubbard after his extensive research and the discoveries he made, about the human spirit. The basic religious philosophy and knowledge of Scientology is very old, going back 10,000 years at least to the Veda or Vedic Hymns from the East. L. Ron Hubbard researched and made new discoveries about the human spirit. He developed technology from these discoveries to apply to increase spiritual awareness and ability.
He completed his research before his death in 1986 and left all of his results and copyrights
to the Church of Scientology along with most of his considerable personal estate, when he died.

He published a book in 1951 to communicate the basic principles he discovered called: " Scientology The Fundementals of Thought"
There are currently over 10 million Scientologists in more than 163 countries world wide. However we are a new religion, only 53 years old.
The true story of Scientology as a religion goes like this:
1. A philosopher developes a philosophy about life and death.
2. People find it interesting.
3. People find it works.
4. People pass it along to others.
5. It grows.

This is just an overview.
L. Ron Hubbard explained fully the theology and technologies of Scientology in more than 500,000 pages of writings, including dozens of books and over 3,000 tape-recorded public lectures.

Answer 9

$cientology is a murderous sectarian organization with an agressive business model, founded by a paranoid low-grade science-fiction writer and notorious liar named Lafayette Ron Hubbard. The Org is severily restricted in several countries, except in the USA where they were able to hide under tax exempted religious statutes.
.

Answer 10

Bad.....You've seen what Tom did to Katie right? She was a normal person, then damn Zombie for ever, nows she is finally a fully converted crazy. If people want to believe rubbish sure--why not? But if they start trying to brain wash others that can't be too good. Southpark explains scientology really well, if you haven't seen their episode on it, check in to it.

Answer 11

Hollywood