Scientology – my main problem

It’s been a while since I’ve written or even thought about Scientology, but just today I read a post over on My Scientology Blog, which was actually the response to some questions asked by a reader. One line really jumped out at me when I read it and it was the following:

The tools we have in Scientology don’t require belief in order to work.

My main problem with Scientology has always been that it categorizes itself as a religion and yet claims that you do not need to believe anything to be a part of it. So, how can it be a religion when we get the definition of religion from any dictionary it always contains the aspect of belief.

Religion:

1. beliefs and worship: people’s beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities, and divine involvement in the universe and human life

2. system: an institutionalized or personal system of beliefs and practices relating to the divine

3. personal beliefs or values: a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by

From Encarta Dictionary.

If Scientology was openly a Self-Help system, a set of products for bettering yourself, or even agreed that it’s comparable to Psychology and Psychiatry I wouldn’t have any qualm with it. The rub comes with it claiming it’s a religion, by this definition Science is a religion and so pharmaceutical companies are religious entities.

I just have to sort out a set of questions I can pose to a Scientology that will make them contradict themselves.

Scientology, Tommy Davis and the Confederation (Xenu)

This interview with Tommy Davis one of Scientologies most aggressive higher ups is going to create quite a stir. It clearly shows Tommy Davis admitting the Xenu story of Scientology as true and that the reason so many people have been stopped from publishing it is because they don’t want other people to display their core beliefs, and perhaps screw them. In a ‘what is true for you is true for you’ belief system, if you try and publish something or change it you’re ostracized or perhaps worse.

What’s more, with this interview we clearly see Tommy Davis defending his belief by going on the offensive and saying that the interviewer is:

“What you’re doing right now and what it is you’re saying to me is an intent to ridicule religious beliefs. That’s really what we’re talking about. And you’re just forwarding an agenda of hate.”

I don’t think anyone is actually trying to ridicule any religious belief with this interview, what is happening, and what Scientology needs to understand about this is that people want to understand Scientology. They want, on the face of it, it all to be spelled out, so that we can either accept you, or leave you be. If we can’t do that then we’ll always be curious, and end up being what most Scientologists I’ve come across who I’ve spoken to about this called ‘Bigots’.

I’ve come into contact (over the internet) with a fair few Scientologists who are well spoken, kind, generous, aren’t advocates and won’t shun you if you happen to disagree with their belief. I’m happy to say I’ll like Scientologists, so long as they can give me the fair and square, x and y of what their religion is, without any of the “ok, you don’t agree, what’s true for you is true for you” or “you’re just a religious bigot, stop your hate crimes”.

What I really see coming from this interview is an interesting openness in future about what Scientology is and where it’s going. Hopefully some good can come from this from all sides of the Tetrahedron.

Comment – Pez

I’ve been meaning to reply to this comment by Pez (www.scientologytoday.org) for quite some time now as I still have some stuff to say on it and Scientology still interests me quite a bit. Pez’s comments are in Italics and mine are in standard type.

Picking apart what you perceive as contradictions in the religious beliefs of the Scientology system is as pointless as doing the same thing to Christianity, which is also filled with apparent contradictions.

I totally agree with this however, I feel that there is a lot of point in doing this, I’m currently looking to buy my own flat and I’m not going to jump in to a deal before I know about it, likewise, I’m not going to jump in and say something is founded and solid unless I truely feel it is. I pick apart Christianity and any other religion I happen to become interested in and I see lots of contradictions in Christianity and other belief systems. I in fact just finished reading a book which really shed light on some of the contradictions and ambiguity of Jewdaism and Christianity and where it can lead (Biblically posts 1, 2).

Although Scientology’s core tenets do indeed speak of us all being immortal spiritual beings, it is still possible to call yourself a Scientologist by believing in OTHER portions of its doctrine while still not going along with the entire Thetan concept. Many Christians pick and choose parts of the Bible they like, but ignore others. Unlike other religions, Scientology has a built-in allowance for this, and says “what is true is what is true for YOU.”

It appears that what you’re saying is that anyone can call themselves a Scientologist if they have heard about Scientology, there not being any definitive meaning to being a Scientologist. A Christian may pick and choose parts of the bible, but at the end of it they believe in Jesus,  God and the Holy Ghost. From what you say it seems like Scientology has none of these attributes if I do not have to believe anything that is written in the core of Scientology to be a Scientologist. It brings up a very clear question though, what does one have to resign themselves to to become clear? Clear is a state where one is free of what Hubbard called Engrams, which are unwanted experiences (Clear).

If you are genuinely serious about understanding Scientology better, I urge you to read the book “A New Slant On Life” which can be found for free in many libraries (although the Anonymous vandals at marcab.org are calling for people to steal them from libraries) or very cheap on eBay. I think it provides the best introduction to Scientology besides watching the videos on the main Scientology website.

I shall certainly try and find a copy of ‘A New Slant On Life’ and blog about my experience of it here. I have watched many videos on the Scientology website and I’m sad to say it seems like it’s coming across more as self-help than any serious religion for peoples wellbeing.

What makes Scientology a religion, why isn’t it just a self help program? I think is one of the main reasons I have such a hard time understanding Scientology. You do not have to believe in any kind of spirit, no god(s), in fact, you do not have to believe in anything to be a Scientologist. Finally, if ‘what is true is what is true for you’ then why are people rejected from the society for ‘squirrelling’ and believing slight differences in the writings ( see FreeZoners )?

I’ve had to remove commenting because of the large amount of spam this post has been getting.

The Dynamics of Life [CoS]

See CoS

• 8:

  “Infinity, God, or Surpeme Being.”
  I’m still going to bang on about it, because I don’t want to forget that Scientology says we don’t have to believe anything which we can’t ‘experience of observe’, so at some point I want to ‘experience of observe’ Infinity, God or Supreme Beings.

• 7: Spirtual

  “Anything Spiritual with or without identity, life source.”
  See 8, though I suppose that I experience these everyday through interactions, presumably I come across Spirits or Thetans everyday.

• 6:Physical Universe

  “comprised of four components Matter, Energy, Space and Time.”
  Correct me if I’m wrong, but Science tells us that Matter is Energy and presumably Space is Energy as well. Time I look forward to hearing their definition of as apparently one can have mulitple lives though if this is through reincarnation or not I do not know as yet.

• 5: Life Forms

  “all plant and animal life.”
  I guess this includes Humans as we are Animals.

• 4: Mankind

  “as a species.”
  Ok so we have our seperate Dynamic, we must be special somehow.

• 3: Group Surival

  “friends, club, company, nation, race.”
  I guess this goes under Social Evolution, Group Evolution, etc.

• 2: Family

  “children an all other creativity.”
  An odd one, I guess we have to take these as given, the Church is telling us what it is, we must listen, I would guess this also falls under the 3rd Dynamic (Group survival).

• 1: Self

  “the individual, his body, mind and posessions.”
  So I presume the Thetan is transcendential to the Self, he uses the Self to get to the Infinity, or something, speculation of course.

We are told that by understanding these Dynamics we can progress through them, work out the links and attain the top level 8th Dynamic. I certainly look forward to it.

The Parts of Man. [CoS]

See CoS
Scientology pertains that man has three parts, Thetan or Spirit, Mind which the Thetan uses to control the final part the Body.

Seems easy enough but we should remember this word Thetan is equivelant to Spirit or Thought. I suppose these can be related to the Body, the Mind, and the Primitive Brain in evolutionary psychology, though that’s an mildly educated guess.

What is Scientology? [CoS]

See CoS
“The word Scientology literally means ‘the study of truth.'”

The only qualm I have with this is that, and they agree, ‘scio’ means ‘to know’ so Scientology is ‘The Study of Knowing’. But as a basis for what we’re getting ourselves into, that’s fine, the study of truth it is.

‘Scientology i sthe study of handling the spirit in relationship to itself, others and all of life.’

From a pedant’s point of view I’d like to shorten this to ‘Scientology is the study of the handling of the spirit in all of life.’ but this is slightly contrary to the definition given above, unless you take as given that ‘the handling of the spirit in all of life’ is the ‘truth’ which seems a little odd. Why give the etymology of the word Scientology if, on the following line, you’re going to tell us that it’s not really about the study of truth, or even the study of the attainment of truth, but instead about a ‘spirit’.

It goes on ‘Man is an immortal, spiritual being. His experience extends well beyond a single lifetime.’, again this is getting quite spiritual, and it seems if I were to join Scientology I would have to conform to these beliefs that there is a ‘spirit’, etc.

Apparently man’s capabilities are ‘unlimited’ and ‘can be realized’, more quite obvious spiritual talk, though one must keep an open mind and if we are believing in a spirit, why can’t it be that we can unleash it’s full potential and ‘not only solve his[our] own problems, accomplish his[our] goals and gain lasting happiness, but also achieve new, higher states of awareness and ability.’

It sounds pretty good, how do I get in, is there a simple truth to follow, will I be enlightened soon, do I have to go to church every Sunday?
“In Scientology no one is asked to accept anything as belief or on faith. That which is true for you is what you have observed to be true. An individual discovers for himself that Scientology works by personally applying its principles and observing or experiencing results.”

Wait just a minute, so through Scientology I can ‘observe to be true’ a ‘spirit’, ‘Immortal Man’ and something that ‘extends well beyond a single lifetime’? Without wanting to be coy it seems like Scientology has proof of the spiritual realm, if this is true it should surely be the only religion.

Let us keep all of this in mind as we go through Scientology and find out more about it.