The Pigeon on Scientology

CChan writes:  You may have already noticed the media coverage about the [Scientology] protests.  Here's a writeup of the one outside the Scientology building in Dupont Circle - you may recall walking past it on the way to Ruth's Chris: http://dcist.com/2008/02/11/anonymous_scien.php

Hummingbird writes:  Yesterday [10 Feb] was Lisa McPherson's birthday. There were lots of protests this weekend against the Church of $cientology:  http://www.lisamcpherson.org/

Before I weigh in, here's a short collection of sources for your perusal:

Official Scientology website

Scientology page at ReligiousTolerance.org

Some Christian pastors embrace Scientology 

What is Scientology?  at Operation Clambake

And, of course, the infamous Tom Cruise video

I don't know what to think.

First, remember my two main platforms:  freedom of speech, and freedom of religion.  Of all our rights as Americans, those are the two that I'm most willing to die for... or, to paraphrase General Patton, kill some other poor bastard over.

But what is religion?  Faith in something bigger than our puny selves is almost a universal human trait, but religion is man-made.  And despite all the press Christianity, Islam and Judaism get, none of the three are big enough to capture the entire human race. 

But what makes a religion valid?  What drives a faith from cult status to mainstream?  After all Christianity was just another cult in competition with Mithraism, yet only Christianity still stands (actually, I think it came down to affordability, but I'll save that for another essay).

I consider myself a Christian with an enormous critical and philosophical streak:  I mean, who am I to say that Christ wasn't the biggest fraud in human history?  But historical records prove his existence, and if he really was just a quack he paid one helluva price for telling people to try being nice to one another for a change--an idea that's stood the test of time for billions of believers (although I don't think Christianity's ever been the same since Rome up and decided to make "the kingdom not of this world" a state religion.  Maybe we can mark that date as the honorary beginning of modern Bureaucracy).

And not to be faith-centric, Muhammed's words certainly appealed to more than a few individuals, and the advantage he had over the other Judeo-Christian prophets is his followers started recording his words while he was still alive.  But the cynic in me can make the same argument:  what if Muhammed merely concocted the whole thing?  As with Christ, though, he took great personal risk just for telling people to try being nice to one another for a change (massive armies aside).  And his words united the Arab world unlike any other faith the region had ever seen (and with a seemingly better PR campaign than Christianity).

All that said, I'm not here to debate the various pros and cons of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism Hinduism, or any other major world faith, except to say they're recognized as bona-fide religions. 

Now fast forward 2,000 years (give or take) from Christ's birth, and imagine L. Ron Hubbard crouched over his typewriter hacking out the second draft of "Dianetics."

I've never read it, I don't know what it's about, nor does the main Scientology website talk about Lord Xenu farting out little green aliens.  And about a year ago I read an article about the CoS headquarters in Clearwater Florida that basically made the practitioners out to be normal, clean-cut individuals.  Besides, is the idea of aliens detonating bombs in volcanoes any more bizarre than Christians drinking Jesus's blood, Hindus protecting cows, or Shi'a Muslims slicing themselves open during Ashura?

Yet German courts just approved the German intelligence service's right to conduct surveillance on CoS activities.  And as some of my source articles indicate Scientology may or may not be engaging in some significantly nefarious activity (indeed, here's something else the Hummingbird provided:  http://www.xenutv.com/).

But so have other religions.

As an outside observer, though, what seems most appalling about Scientology is the cost (back to the affordability crisis with Mithraism).  Maybe it's just me, but I don't think faith should rest on installment payments; I mean, can you imagine having to buy the Bible or Koran by the chapter, with each chapter more expensive than the last?  From that angle it makes Scientology look like nothing more than a Ponzi scheme cloaked under the protection of religion.  In my mind, the idea of having to "pay to play" taints any of the good works CoS professes.

In the end, though, my core belief still stands:  as long as our Constitution supports freedom of religion, then I can't play favorites in my service to the state.  That means I may die for the Christian cross, or the right of the Satanic church to hang the cross upside down.  I gleefully eat pork, yet I fight to ensure my Jewish friends can have a kosher table.  I'll work extra hours Friday so my Muslim Airman can go to Mosque.  So even if I disagree with Scientology, even if I think it comes across as more "made up" than my own fundamentally man-made doctrine, even as I weigh the reported Scientology black mailings, brain washings, and deaths over the bloody history of Human faith in general... I'd be an damnedable hypocrite if I said, "I protect everyone; except them Thetan types." 

In other words, I'd rather be here swiping at the various oddities of religion than living in a country where my religion is dictated for me.

Even Muhammed said, "there is no compunction in religion."

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Comments

[Ken Bingham]

Thanks for the trackback and the link. Visit my site anytime.

[D. Ox]

Keep in mind that the Koran also says subjugate all unbelievers. So if you agree we should put a special tax and give second class citizenship to non-Christians, we'd be up there with the Mohammedans.

In the meantime, this business about brainwashing and abandoning families and friends, and turning over assets, buying a ton of books and psych-sessions of some sort, well, it's a fine line isn't it.

It's simply not a religion by classical standards, because it has no belief in a transcendent God.

It is at best an ideology--a belief in this world (duh, including alien worlds) science and power.

No tax break.

[MOGS]

The most disturbing thing about Scientology is the absolutely cynical way L. Ron Hubbard manipulated people - here's an example of a would-be messianic figure (who made a whole lot of money in the deal) who has defrauded people by the bushel and given a home to some otherwise unscrupulous individuals - try looking up Hubbard's bio, the one not sanctioned by the CoS. This is a guy who claimed his own science fiction as "scripture" by saying that it was essences of human "thetan memories". Convenient eh?

[Rosemary]

Scientology is a religion in the same sense that environmentalism is a religion to the far Left. The left couldn't care less about global warming, but they care a whole lot about getting that hard earned money out of your hands...