rules2
July 23rd, 2010
Kind of busy, so thought I’d resurrect this one while Scientology is in the news again.
BTW, Lulu is offering a 15% discount on the latest J&M book, Born Again. Just add the code BEACHREAD305 at the checkout (offer ends Aug 15).
I’m shocked rigid that scientology can be taken that seriously in the UK! When I was a teenager, scientologists were banned from entering the UK for 20 years. Almost as soon as the bann expired, my husband innocently got in their thrall by being sent on a personal development course by his boss which turned out to be run by them and it was the kind of bollo** that hooks the unwordly into an expensive chain of self improvement stuff and misplaced loyalty! My local Citizens Advice Bureau worker got in touch with the National Advice Bureau who said they had a shelf of files three yards long on the complaints worldwide about this dreadful organisation. Its only a ‘church’ in the USA because anything can call itself a church and then gets charitable status. You can’t do that in the UK, you have to prove you’re a proper (proper?) religion here before you can get charitable status. Its a much more wicked fraud than the long established ones; especially in this day and age where we aren’t allowed to voice an opinion without someone shouting ‘hate crime’ all over the place!
“Am I going to get into more trouble for saying that, right now, I’m bigger than Xenu, do you think?”
hahahaha
@ Jantonaitis:
People will say he should return his MBE; has he got one? At least The Beatles had MBE’s.
Ummm… how can you be bigger than something non-existent?
Just noticed the reading material! Do you get carpet burns flying on magic carpets or is it just that one has to shoogle around on one’s knees to get the mat to actually face Mecca?
@ Maggs
Maybe the burns are from gripping too tightly as it passes mach 1. Backrests would really be a sensible optional-extra. Just a thought.
As an avid SF reader I get very embarrassed by the whole Hubbard/scientology thing. It’s kind of like admitting to being related to Roy Chubby Brown or a member of Bucks Fizz.
The ad that popped up on my RSS feeder for this panel was for Scientology.
My irony meter just went “sprung!”
Scientology is bugger-all to do with “religion” and all to do with money. The more going to the top of the cult pyramid particularly, the better…for them.
I’m proud to tell you all that I am a PTS* with the Scientologists, who just love their military sounding acronymns. Scary organization, or org as they call it. Members in clerical garb. Other in militaryish uniforms. Stated goals to infiltrate education and politics. Toss in weird sc fi fantasy and it rivals Christianity for bizarre.
*Potential Trouble Source
If L. Ron Hubbard had just turned his Xenu story into novel instead of a religion, it might have been pretty cool.
As an alternate view- scientology gives us a way to study how religions actually develop in real time. They don’t even hide it- LRH said openly that he was going to create a religion from nothing cos that’s where the money was. It’s hilarious.
Usually we only get to study a religion long after it’s established and they just look like top-down con jobs brainwashing the powerless.
Scientology teaches us that brainwashing is not necessary- a light rinse will do the job. There is a strong need for this kind of guff from most folk.
This implies that those who don’t feel such a need (atheists) are rare (genetic?) freaks…
The thing I don’t get about Scientology is how they dupe the average Joe into joining. It’s one this for John Travolta or Tom Cruise to think that they are in control of their own destinies. Hell its easy when your that frickin’ rich. And as usual its it is hilarious to watch a typical fundie express why Scientology it total BS, irony meter indeed…..
maggs
It’s a fad amongst Egyptian muslims, especially, to solicit admiration for their holy zeal by rubbing or hitting their foreheads against their prayer rugs hard enough to leave a mark. It is known as a zebiba which means ‘little raisin’.
Pathetic, really.
I certainly hope a lot of Muslims and Scientologists get their widdle feewings hurt.
I always thought Scientology was an SF novel and no-one has got the joke yet.
i love scientology, it’s the perfect bridge between the mormon crazies and the flying spaghetti monster sarcastics.
For background on how LRH came up with the idea, check out this (audio only) interview of Harlan Ellison by a very restrained Robin Williams. Ellison praises LRH as a writer. The ‘aha!’ moment doesn’t start until ~5:50 into the seven minute clip which also provides some interesting LRH details along the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9AGVARpqdk
@AchillesAndTortoise Perhaps, but a novel would not have been anywhere near as financially successful.
@Unruly Simian – your question(ish statement) comes very close to answering itself. The way they con average Joes into joining isn’t so much “you are in control of your own destiny” as “you are *potentially* in control of your own destiny, you just need to stop screwing yourself over, we will help you do that, *then* you will be rich and famous like Tom Cruise or John Travolta!”
I actually think it used to have some merit that way and was capable of (and intent on) helping people, despite the quantity of nonsense, but now it’s 100% about protecting and funding itself/the higher-ups. As always, power corrupts. (I know a few people who were into Scientology like 40 years ago and quit when it got stupid; they are still fond of “the good parts” and don’t think those parts are still there. Also they could quit back then!)
Muslims? Scientologists? And Christians? Jesus is revered by his followers just the same way, Hubbard and Muhammad.
“… scientology gives us a way to study how religions actually develop in real time.”
The lives of Joseph Smith Jr and Mohammed were documented well enough for all I needed to know about the early development of religion.
@Simon.
True, but this time you can study it in multi-media!
AchillesAndTortoise – he did that too, it was called Battlefield Earth and it was a stinking pile of excrement.
zep – When you say it has nothing to do with religion and it is all about money, I think you are contradicting yourself. It *is* a religion, hence it is a con job which enriches the priesthood and bilks the poor saps who swallow it.
[…] (and other kinds of religion) Publié le 24 juillet 2010 par Irène Now, who is this cartoon going to offend more? Oooh, I wouldn’t want to wage a […]
Anything passes for science or religion these days. Soon they will have a theological institute at East Anglea who’s dogma will demand blind unquestioning faith from desciples, massive titheing, and sport commandments carved in stone for the chosen to see. The profit will part the red ink on financial statements allowing selected carbon based life forms to pass on to massive returns on minimal investment.
NBH you appear to be another one of those reality deniers I lump with Flat Earthers: the Climate Science Deniers.
Listening to the BBC news today on Conservative MP Philip Hollobone and his trouble with burkas, it occurred to me there is a solution to this mess that just might work: I call it…
Barcodes for Burkas!
Anyone who desires to hide their face in public would be required to display an ID that can be scanned by anyone with a freely available reader.
Just found this comic~ it is way too cool~ and funny as hell~ as for LRH, christians, muslims et al~ I am reminded of a favorite quip from Firesign Theater~ “Power to the people he said, give them a light and they will follow it anywhere” ~LOL ~ so it goes
@Grouchy One
What if another walking tent nicks your barcode?
@ molto_sostenuto
If the book was a stinking pile of excrement, what on earth was the film? I honestly thought that was one novel hollywood couldn’t make worse. Scarily, I was wrong.
@molto_sostenuto: I needed a “sarcastic” smiley. You are quite correct, as was I.
@Maggs
The only difference between a cult and a religion is whether the amateur group (cult) has gone pro (religion).
The only meaningful difference is the degree of control of the members – that what we deem to be a “religion” has a more subtle control over thoughts and behaviours where the people appear to be engaged in the mainstream world than the cults who openly keep members from mainstream and often birth family participation.
After all, the various Church groups that organized the vote against gay marriage in California certainly exerted a lot of control over people.
@Daoloth
It’s also interesting to compare the invention/spread of Scientology with Mormonism, which is also well documented.
I can better tolerate barmy Scientologists than barmy religionists.
At least Scientologists don’t waste their time believing in a god.
🙂