h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What is Scientology? What does it stand for? Is it worth a further glance?

A Cult. Making Money. No.

Scientology was a religion/cult founded in the 1950s by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard . They believe that long ago in a far away place, a galactic ruler dealing with an over population problem decided to round up a bunch of people/beings and sent them to earth (they call earth by a different name which I can’t remember). He put them in volcanoes and exploded Hydrogen bombs over them, blowing them into tiny pieces all over the earth (cruel but effective way to deal with overpopulation). They believe that pieces of these beings attach themselves to us and cause the problems we have. Scientology knows how to get rid of pieces causing you problems and will do so, for a price.

Is it worth a further glance? Only you can decide that, but I don’t want part of any religion that you must pay for their help. Do the Buddhist charge for their help, do Christians charge for baptism, I don’t even think the Wiccan (witches) charge for their spells (could be wrong).

I hope this helps.

Mostly Harmless

Well, about paying for the help. There´s a reason why the Catholic church is the wealthiest organisation in the world.

One thing I find amazing is that the religion was started because of a bet between Heinlein and Hubbard, about who could start a religion and keep it going the longest. You would think the members would find that a bit suspicious. The religion isn´t even well-made. Something like Raelian religion, that´s much better made.

Xanatic,

"There´s a reason why the Catholic church is the wealthiest organisation in the world."

What is it? Not being a Catholic, I would like to know. Please limit your response to just facts regarding Catholics and leave your fear of the Catholics out. And then if you wish you can include the other Christian religions, please identify the religion when you make a claim, fore I will be checking your statements.

Mostly

I think the Catholic church, being the established church in many medieval European countries, gained large amounts of land and other property in gifts and bequests from rich believers (hoping they'd smooth their path into heaven), and from monarchs trying to show how good and holy they were (trying to support their alleged divine rights to rule)

Given that most of the land was stolen from the people by the monarchs and provincial rulers in the first place, and most of the other property relied on the efforts of large numbers of relatively unrewarded people, whether it ended up in the hands of the church or the hands of overpriveleged royal families probably made little difference to the bulk of the population.
At least when the church owned large amounts of the country, possibly it left less for varous warring noblemen (or at least their armies) to fight each other over.

The business of selling indulgences - free pardons for past (or future) sins in exchange for cash also generated significant income (I think it's one of the things that Martin Luther was unhappy about)

Potholder,

Are these things still happening today or was it just during the medieval / dark ages??

Mostly

Hmmmph - you're the second person on this site to call me pothol*D*er.

The practice of selling indulgences was effectively stopped by the Council of Trent (1545-1564). Though even before then, it hadn't been officially approved practice to sell them in large quantities, that was what was happening in many areas.

As far as individuals giving or bequeathing their own money to the church out of choice is concerned, I guess that's up to them.


Though I dare say that priests ask for donations every now and again, it's not quite the Scientology situation - 'We've discovered that you have loads of deep mental problems that only we can fix, and you really should give us large amounts of cash for 'auditing' sessions, at the end of which you could either become

a) a much better person.

b) a 'clear' (a mythical scientology success story with perfect recall)

c) several thousand pounds poorer.

Well, Scientology claims you have severe mental problems that you have to pay them loads of money to be cured for. Sounds to me like any other psychiatrist.

There was also the "tenth". That peasants had to give a tenth of their fortune to the church. But that has stopped now.

Wouldn't it be great to have, somewhere, a religion that is not greedy, that does not want to gain property or money, indeed that does not want to gain one's mind & soul. Most religions seem to want that. I still to keep to mind thoughts of no man-made religion, but individual thoughts & ideas. I do realise that ideas come from listening (& possibly being drawn into others beliefs), but at least some of us (underlined) could maybe feel more secure with that thought rather than paying "loadsamoney" to a profiteering organistion. Henry VIII saw various religious orders doing this & tried to put a stop to their riches.

Sorry if I've garbled.

Actually, I think Henry VIII saw all the church land and money and thought 'I gotta get me some of that'

Well, it is interesting if he tried to stop the Church from hogging money, since they called him mad. But it is probably true that he just wanted it for himself.

And then there was the whole divorce thingy...

Potholer,

I'm sorry for putting the "d" in your name, please forgive me. I to know the frustration when people change/mispronounce your name. One of my names in the real world is David, but SOME people insist on calling me Dave, taking out a "d". So I guess I just used one of the "d"s that people take out of my name and put it in yours.

Now back to the subject, I am wary of any church that talks more about you giving money to them (the church) than teaching and ministering to your soul.

Mostly

The trouble with religion is that there is always someone who sees the potential in subverting said religion for their own ends.Then there are those joyless souls who want to Nanny and boss others about who find ways of controlling others behaviour by interpreting the said religions holy book/rules for this purpose.I therefore have eschewed all forms of religion as I wish to make up my own mind how I wish to live my life.I also have refused to indoctrinate my children into any faith choosing to inform them of the posibilities so that they may make up their own mind.So far they seem to be on an even keel
and I hope that they will continue to view the world through their own mind and thoughts.

Ahem, When he died Henry VIII the coffers were empty, but England had a wonderful defence system in place against the invading efforts of Europe.
Where did you hear that H VII was mad? He was in tremendous discomfort, but not mad!
I've always read it that he hated the people being taken for fools by the church, eg: fake relics from which the church made honest people pay for the privilege of seeing them!!!
He hated the terrific riches the church had in what he saw as "idols".
True religion, as far as I see it, comes from one's own mind, not by paid, richly adorned people preaching stories. However, I will concede that we need to learn basic morals to give the world a framework to live by.
I wonder what Douglas Adams knows now & what he could write?

If you want to know something about moral don´t look to religion. Look to genetics, mathematics, economy, sociologu, anthropology and other places. Contrary to what many believe religion is not the source of ethics.

And I think I accidently confused the guy with someone else.

No, I agree, religion itself is prob. not the basis of morals & ethics, but the various stories of various religions do "preach" a good sense of moralistic values to teach, maybe, the very young? These stories were also the simplest way to teach people these values, years ago, when they couldn't read!!

OK, wasn't it one of the George's who was mad? Hence, "the madness of King George".

Yeah, and I thought we were talking about George.

Some of the stories preach nice things. Others don´t. And I dare say the ones that don´t are in majority.

It's fairly well known that some stories were told to scare the illiterate population into submission to the church (whichever religion).

I admit I personally hate the "eye for a eye, tooth for a tooth" idea, but can understand how some cultures get really wrapped up in the idea - afterall, I haven't seen a member of my family butchered.

Which brings me to another point: doesn't it seem that most wars in the world have been and are either caused or helped by religious beliefs? So where has the idea of peace and love disappeared to?

Oh yes, having read the description of Scientology earlier in the thread - isn't it just typical: a new religion but pay first