I have no great love for the Church of Scientology, even though I may like some of its victims adherents, but I find this current wave of persecution to be rather hypocritical.
If the Church of Scientology is to be deemed a "criminal racket," then so must all the other organized religions that behave in the same manner, including and especially Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Do all these great heroes attacking Scientology for "fraud" have the cajones to apply the same language to the Abrahamic religions?
(BTW, There is no logical way that my comments above could possibly be construed as "supporting Scientology." They don't, and I don't.)
Xenophon attacks Church of Scientology
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has used a speech in Parliament to raise allegations of widespread criminal conduct within the Church of Scientology.
Senator Xenophon says he has received letters from former followers of the religion detailing claims of crimes and abuses.
He says he has passed on the letters to the police and is calling for a Senate inquiry into the religion and its tax exempt status.
"Do you want Australian tax exemptions to be supporting an organisation that coerces its followers into having abortions? Do you want to be supporting an organisation that defrauds, that blackmails, that falsely imprisons?" he asked.
"Because on the balance of evidence provided by victims of scientology you probably are."
Senator Xenophon told Parliament the Church of Scientology is a criminal organisation that hides behind its "so-called religious beliefs"
"The letters received by me which were written by former followers in Australia contain extensive allegations of crimes and abuses that are truly shocking," he said.
"Crimes against them and crimes they say they were coerced into committing.
"There are allegations of false imprisonment, coerced abortions and embezzlement of church funds, of physical violence and intimidation, blackmail and the widespread and deliberate abuse of information."...
Comments (15)
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|2009-11-17 23:15:10 Acharya S"You sound like a cult shill " - and that ridiculous remark completely ignores my first sentence.
Right, I know nothing about the Abrahamic religions. And you know nothing about my work, obviously.
So are you a shill for the Abrahamic religions?
"Do the Abrahamic religions hire personal investigators to harass anyone who criticises them?"
Actually, their adherents do - and worse. They actually KILL people for criticizing them. Are you clueless?
The Abrahamic religions are responsible for some half a BILLION deaths over the past couple of thousands years. Is Scientology?
I could not care less about Scientology, but for someone to defend the Abrahamic cults is the epitome of ignorance, frankly.
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The Abrahamic religions make no claims of healing living organisms, anawnymoose. No, of course they cannot do things. You have to DIE first to live forever. Your soul is transparent, my friend. :love:
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|2009-11-18 00:46:02 Jacksonanawnymoose "Do the Abrahamic religions promise you that they have the technology to cure illnesses..."
Actually, the recent health care bill in the House contained language in it that would "Require American taxpayers to reimburse Christian Scientists and other religious sects that deny themselves and their children necessary medical care" for prayer or "spiritual care."
http://www.secular.org/news/health_reform_bill_excludes_spiritual_care 091028.html
anawnymoose "Do the Abrahamic religions hire personal investigators to harass anyone who criticises them?"
What planet do you live on? Ever see the sign that says "Behead those who insult Islam"?
anawnymoose "Do the Abrahamic religions regularly sue people for posting details about their religious beliefs?"
Well, we do have a right to privacy.
anawnymoose "Do the Abrahamic religions demand that followers do whatever it takes to buy the next level of courses, even if it means taking out loans or mortgaging your house?"
Pretty much. Ever hear of tithes & donations? Ever see the movie "Religulous"? Religious institutions pay no taxes either. Why does God need money anyway? Did God have a garage sale in order to create the universe? How did he get funding for that one? Religion is big business ... no matter how much money they get they always want more.
anawnymoose "And before you start complaining about the crusades, have the Abrahamic religions done all this in the last 50 years? Cause Scientology has."
Religion has been tamed by the US Constitution and principle of separation of church and state. However, it doesn't remove the 250 million killed in the name of Christianity nor the 270 million killed in the name of Islam.
So the question still remains:
"Do all these great heroes attacking Scientology for "fraud" have the cajones to apply the same language to the Abrahamic religions?"
Not so far!!!
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|2009-11-18 13:43:16 Jagube 2012 - General replyI wouldn't give you two cents for any of these outrageous cults. They have strangled their followers with fiction they emphaticallly present as the absolute truth. That's the ugly part of their MO. The saving grace here is that God (or whatever you want to call everything that is) is within each of us and we do not need Priests, Rabbis's Mullah's, Gurus, Lamas or any intermediary between us and God. Every day more and more people are waking up to this fact. Religion is dead, but God lives in every one of us.
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|2011-11-17 10:01:57 Robert SchmidtALL RELIGIONS ARE FRAUD THE WHOLE GODAMN LOT (PUN INTENDED)....NICE ARCHARYA
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|2009-11-18 10:36:28 Jeff HansenIf they lose their tax exempt status for this then the Catholic church definitely should in our country. Knowingly covering for their pedophile priests and helping Nazis escape when we were at war with them tops the typical cult stupidity of the Scientology loons. Decent companies do nothing comparable and get tax-raped. Why should invoking sky-genies automatically beat the taxman anyway? Why don't they render unto Caesar like the rest of us mere mortals?
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|2009-11-18 22:00:20 JH Chrestos - There are few groups more dangerous than scientoloWhat's wrong with scientology?...It has a huge body count
http://www.whyaretheydead.info/
This next link is a video describing many suicides by scientology followers by a grieving friend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF07ywWY0m0
Almost all religions have many cultist characteristics.
This one is Jim Jones 'Peoples Temple' dangerous.
The problem with this one is that it were created as a tax dodge and as marketing tool to fool the 'woo' community into thinking that it is legitimate. How many followers of Dianetics would there be if without the magical story of Xenu surrounding it.
The Church of Scientology is a vicious and dangerous cult that masquerades as a religion. Its purpose is to make money. It practices a variety of mind-control techniques on people lured into its midst to gain control over their money and their lives. Its aim is to take from them every penny that they have and can ever borrow and to also enslave them.
It was started in the 1950s by a science fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard in fulfilment to his declared aim to start a religion to make money. It is an offshoot to a method of psychotherapy he concocted from various sources which he named "Dianetics". Dianetics is a form of regression therapy. It was then further expanded to appear more like a religion in order to enjoy tax benefits. He called it "Scientology".
Scientology is a confused concoction of crackpot, dangerously applied psychotherapy, oversimplified, idiotic and inapplicable rules and ideas and science-fiction drivel that is presented to its members (at the "advanced" levels) as profound spiritual truth.
The Harm it Does to a Person
The results of applying their crackpot psychotherapy (called "auditing"
is to weaken the mind. The mind goes from a rational state to an irrational one as the delusional contents of the subconscious mind are brought to the surface and are assumed to be valid. It also makes a person more susceptible to suggestion since it submerges the critical thinking faculties of the mind into a partial subconscious state. It results in a permanent light hypnotic trance and so from thenceforth that person can be more easily controlled. The person will, to a much greater extent, believe and do whatever they are told. And of course this is used to the full in persuading them to hand over further money and dedicating themselves further to the cult.
The results of applying their oversimplified and inapplicable rules in life is to lose the ability to think rationally and logically. A person loses the ability to think for themselves and so they lose the ability to challenge incorrect ideas. This makes them easier to control. It also isolates and alienates the person from society so that they withdraw from normal society and into their "Scientology" society. This further increases their susceptibility to the influence of their group. They end up being afraid of society, believing all society to be controlled by a group of drug companies, psychiatrists and financiers all of whom report to more remote masters. In other words they are in a state of mass paranoia. They therefore avoid reading newspapers and the like since they fear it will disturb their safe Scientology world.
The science fiction content of Scientology is revealed to them after they have reached the state they call "Clear", meaning freed from the aberrations of the mind. However, perhaps "brainwashed" would be a more applicable word to describe the mental state of someone who has survived the near entire delusional contents of their subconscious mind brought to the surface and presented to them as "truth". On the "advanced" levels (called OT levels) above the state of "Clear" they encounter the story of Xenu. Xenu was supposed to have gathered up all the overpopulation in this sector of the galaxy, brought them to Earth and then exterminated them using hydrogen bombs. The souls of these murdered people are then supposed to infest the body of everyone. They are called "body thetans". On the advanced levels of Scientology a person "audits out" these body thetans telepathically by getting them to re-experience their being exterminated by hydrogen bombs. So people on these levels assume all their bad thoughts and faulty memories are due to these body thetans infesting every part of their body and influencing them mentally.
There are many suicide associated with this cult.
Many members including numerous children have died from medical neglect at the hands of this wonderful concept.
http://www.whyaretheydead.info/http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF07ywWY0m0
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While we can cite numerous examples of Scientology harming people, we can, and many people have filled numerous volumes of the Abrahamic religions harming people. Wow anawnymoose must have his head firmly between his buttcheeks. How do you think these religions were started. They copied their competitions gods and gave them new names, then they tortured and murdered their competition. Priests, men, women, children. The first crusade was launched with "Deus Vult", God wills it. Then they marched through the Rhineland and dragged thousands of Jews from their homes and burned them alive.
Second Crusade..Saint Bernard of Clairveux "The christian glories in the death of a Pagan thereby Christ himself is glorified."
1209 Pope Innocent III..Armed crusade against Albigensis - murdered 20,000 men, women, and children. Many blinded first, mutilated, dragged behind horses. That's one of your infallible Popes that ordered that.
Open your Eyes this is your Abrahamic Religion you shill. This is how it was started and this is how they turned humans like you into mindless sheeple. I could go on for several million more murders but I have to make dinner. Not sure if you can tell but cherry-picking hypocrites really piss me off.
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|2009-11-19 01:54:41 lee - A question of law and finances - not religion"Do all these great heroes attacking Scientology for "fraud" have the cajones to apply the same language to the Abrahamic religions?"
Why do they have to attack the Abrahamic Religions in order to deal with Scientology? Cant we deal with this organisation and its crimes without getting into a debate on religion? Regardless of beliefs cover ups and brash disregard of the law must be addressed and investigated.
Scientology cant get away with crimes or paying taxes on the basis of religion.
Its a cult designed to scam money and pay no tax. Hubbard has written this himself.
This organisation suceeded in top level fraud inside the US taxation office for which its founder never fronted court- but let his child bride go down for the crimes committed for the church. Hubbard hid out in the dessert and died there - or went to Xenu to live with the aliens! To sucessfully infiltrate the US tax office: what amount resources and planning would this take! Why was the tax free status continued in the US?
Australia: hit the Church of Scientology where it hurts most - its pockets. By losing their Australian tax free status this church will also need to pay taxes in the UK. It currently hides under Australian reciprocal agreements to pay no taxes in the UK either.
Until mentioned under parlimentary priviledge the shroud of scilence that surrounds this 'church' in australia could not be publicly broken. As is well documented by the church itself all that speak out are sued , financially ruined and discredited in every way by the church and its lawyers. They operate outside the law and use the law to bully critics....well live by the sword.....
Bring them to justice whether hollywood stars endorse them ot not!
Make them pay taxes - they can afford it!
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|2009-11-19 03:25:33 josephine public - Really?Acharya-
Since I first read your work, I've considered you to be the paragon of research. How then is it that you are now supporting scientology? I'm stunned! Didn't you do your research and check out their history? It isn't pretty. I can only imagine the responses you've gotten from this post. I hope you're planning on posting them all. If your goal was to get people stirred up- congratulations. You've succeeded.
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|2009-11-18 21:47:54 Acharya SSorry, but you have completely misconstrued my original post.
The point is that if Scientology is going to have its feet held to the fire, then so too should these other hypocritical and scammy cults.
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|2009-11-19 03:37:15 JacksonLee "Scientology cant get away with crimes or paying taxes on the basis of religion. Its a cult designed to scam money and pay no tax."
Replace "Scientology" above with "Abrahamic religions" and it makes no difference. Nobody here is even attempting to defend Scientology. The point is that by only going after Scientology for things that the Abrahamic religions have also done & much more of it, they're playing favorites. I'm glad to see them finally start to have standards - I'd just like to see them applied evenly across the board. But, they can't do that because there'd be no more tax exempt status for ANY of the Abrahamic religions either. That's why this current wave of persecution against Scientology is rather hypocritical.
The only difference between a cult and a religion seems to be the number of members.
Again, the question remains:
"Do all these great heroes attacking Scientology for "fraud" have the cajones to apply the same language to the Abrahamic religions?"
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Do the Abrahamic religions promise you that they have the technology to cure illnesses like cancer and bad eyesight (not 'prayer can help', actual claims of healing)? Do the Abrahamic religions hire personal investigators to harass anyone who criticises them? Do the Abrahamic religions regularly sue people for posting details about their religious beliefs? Do the Abrahamic religions demand that followers do whatever it takes to buy the next level of courses, even if it means taking out loans or mortgaging your house?
And before you start complaining about the crusades, have the Abrahamic religions done all this in the last 50 years? Cause Scientology has.
Yeah, something tells me you don't know crap about the difference between Scientology and "The Abrahamic Religions"