...Scientology....

[nutshell]

How is it a scam? Aren't the people making a choice?

 

[Buttons*]

How is it a scam? Aren't the people making a choice?

you cant choose to be closer to god, and accidentilly be tricked? They arent saying, "ooh, i wanna be scammed" they genuinley think it will help them, but it is a scam. imo.

 

[c0da]

the scam is they are paying tens of thosands of dollars for this "religion"

 

[JillianMarie77]

How is it a scam? Aren't the people making a choice?

Yes. However how informed a choice is it? Are they making the choice based on false information? Sketchy information that leads them to assumptions that aren't necessarily true?

I don't know. Scientology is a religion that I've never gotten up close and personal with. I ony have what is available online and what a few people have told me of their experiences.

 

[michel]

Dianetics is the ONLY book I have ever thrown across the room while reading. The book remained in the corner for 3 days. On the third day, I gingerly picked it up, much like a piece of dog doodoo and carried it to the trash.

The book was given to me by a dear friend who had become interested in Scientology. I never did get a chance to tell him of the book throwing incident, as I never did hear from him again. We never fought, never had harsh words for each other and yet he simply disappeared. I have always wondered what happened to him.

Thank you for the article Michel. It mirrors dozens I have seen before. I am surprised Scientology is not suing over the unfair portrayal.

And well they might try!
Of course, I could never break professional etiquette, but when I worked in Banking, we had their local account. A lot of money went through that account; it was one of the least worrysome ones..............

These people were actually banned from the high street of the town, because of reports of harassment by some of the shoppers. Soon after that they were politely asked to take their account away...........

Of course, they popped up in the next town soon after.

 

[Ibrahim Al-Amin]

48 posts and not one representative from Scientology to defend the religion?

 

[Opethian]

They're too busy playing with their E-meters

 

[Buttons*]

They're too busy playing with their E-meters

yeah, they cant afford a computer cause they spend all that money trying to get into the chruch to find out what's wrong with them!

 

[Popeyesays]

How is it a scam? Aren't the people making a choice?

People CHOOSE to be scammed all the time, Nutshell. If people chose not to be scammed there would be no scam artists.

Regards,
Scott

 

[Popeyesays]

Dianetics is the ONLY book I have ever thrown across the room while reading. The book remained in the corner for 3 days. On the third day, I gingerly picked it up, much like a piece of dog doodoo and carried it to the trash.

The book was given to me by a dear friend who had become interested in Scientology. I never did get a chance to tell him of the book throwing incident, as I never did hear from him again. We never fought, never had harsh words for each other and yet he simply disappeared. I have always wondered what happened to him.

Thank you for the article Michel. It mirrors dozens I have seen before. I am surprised Scientology is not suing over the unfair portrayal.

I know what you mean. Have you ever seen a picture of an e-meter? It is supposed to work like a lie detector to detect stress during their "confessionals". Lie detectors measure sweat with teensy little electrodes on the finger tips. The e-meter uses a soup can sized electrode which you clutch in one hand. The overload of data from such a measuring device would be useless.

Regards,
Scott

 

[michel]

How is it a scam? Aren't the people making a choice?

I am sorry, from what I know of Scientology, the people aren't making a choice; they are manipulated into the position of thinking they are making a choice.

Which was one of the reasons Scientology members were banned from the town centre, for harassing passers by. Even I got 'caught' one day........before I knew it, I was surrounded by people all talking as if from scripts...........and, yes, the first thing was "You have to buy the book"..........

 

[Buttons*]

The thing is, people want simple, and uplifting answers. If they think that they're's a book that can cure what ails them, they'll buy it no question. Hence fat-burning pills. People, I think, should look for an inward solution, and reason themselves out of things. Course, there are no solutions for certian problems, but instead of trying to cover it up, we should accept them, and go for a reasonable course of action....

...but an e-meter?

 

[c0da]

This test sounds fun, I want to do one then blow holes in their crazy logic when they tell me that I am too >insert bad personality trait here<.

Anyone know if there are any centres in the UK?

 

[MdmSzdWhtGuy]

Cults and scams are not religions and I think it's a shame so many people have been tricked into "following" it.

However sir, one man's cult is another man's "ultimate truth." There is no more or less reason to believe in Christianity, Islam, Judaism or any other well known religion than there is to beleive in Scientology, from a rational, scientific standpoint. They all suffer from a dearth of evidence in favor of their being true, yet many beleive in the "big 3" and indeed a lot of people hold a person in high regard simply for so believing.

B.

 

[Booko]

How could L Ron Hubbard get a revelation like this out of thin air? He made it all up is how! He is probably good at it being a SCIENCE FICTION WRITER.

He didn't get it out of thin air. He got it from the bottom of a bottle. He and another SF writer made a bet in a bar that Hubbard couldn't invent a religion and have people buy into it.

I tried to read Battlefield:Earth years ago, but even though I can read nearly anything, it bored me to tears and I stopped halfway through. The SF plot was predicatable even if it had been published 2 decades earlier.

I suspect Hubbard found out that he could make a much better income on faux religion than he could writing bad SF.

 

[Booko]

Scientology seems to perpetuate a viscous cycle of self discovery and self improvement, one that costs a heap of money

Isn't it interesting that Scientology only has its "churches" in places where people have a lot of cash? There's one a mile from my house, in the tony are of Atlanta called Dunwoody. They'd never dream of putting one in Doraville or Chamblee, as there's no money to be had.

Real religions can be found in all socio-economic levels of society.

 

[Booko]

Graham Baldwin is an expert on alternative religions and offers counselling to those who have parted ways with their erstwhile faith. He shared his concerns with us about not just the cost of the religion, but the methods used to part members from their cash.

You will pardon me if I don't consider Graham Baldwin an "expert on alternative religions," considering the inaccurate spew he puts forth on all other religions save Christianity.

He's a much more subtle and erudite spreader of untruths than the usual religious hack, but religious hack he clearly is.

 

[Booko]

How is it a scam? Aren't the people making a choice?

Victims of con artists make a choice too, but that doesn't mean conning someone isn't a crime.

 

[Booko]

48 posts and not one representative from Scientology to defend the religion?

Their lawyers will be contacting us shortly.

 

[Maxist]

HA, stick up for them!!? A man once made billinions of dollars from the glorious E-Meter; my family lost everything. Science fiction writters are help in contempt by me. That person is now a billion air, whom I doubt knows that my family is now suffering for it.