Tom Cruise, currently in Germany making a film about an assassination attempt on Hitler is being labeled as the ambassador of a totalitarian cult.
Cruise is 'Goebbels of Scientology', says German church - Independent Online Edition > Europe
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Tom Cruise, currently in Germany making a film about an assassination attempt on Hitler is being labeled as the ambassador of a totalitarian cult.
Cruise is 'Goebbels of Scientology', says German church - Independent Online Edition > Europe
Isn't the Scientology Church one of these American sects?
Is this a Christian 'brand'?
It was founded by Ron L. Hubbard, a second rate science fiction writer.
It's one of those brain washing, give us all your money and tell your family bye bye, deals.
Ah, I was misled by the word "Church". It's not Christian:Scientology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaQuote:
Scientology is a body of teachings and related techniques created by American science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard in 1952 as an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system, Dianetics. Hubbard later characterized Scientology as an "applied religious philosophy" and the basis for a new religion
It's a sect, banned from most Euro countries, only in the US it could survive as it's full of religious freaks, worst than AQ and the islamo facists.
Its the old version of intelligent design ppl that Kerux keeps trying to convert us too!
^
Bollocks!
And he doesn't attempt to convert anybody, just looking down on and attacking anyone who doesn't share his believes. :)
say wot?
bollocks that intelligent design is derived from Scientology?
I don't know what their explanation for the origin of the universe is, but from the Wiki article it looks to me that all they have in common with Christianity is using the cross as a symbol.
They believe in immortal souls going through reincarnation.
The whole thing seems an eclectic amalgam informed by various religious traditions as well as modern psychology and a bit of Sci-Fi. :)
All you want to know about Scientology is encapsulated in that great movie "Battlefield Earth" starring John Travolta.
ok possibly - I was of the impression that both had similar backgrounds.....
perhaps I am confusing Creation Science with Scientology.......
^ they share the same idea of ID
but they have very different rules for running the Church
I've thought about converting, but i've decided to remain a Jedi which i believe is now an officialy recognised religion in the UK after some 500,000 people put it down as their religion in the last census.
^
I think you'll find that was Australia, not the UK.
tom cruise is a proper cock.
^ but still a good actor, despite his total lack of intelligence re: religion.
Scientology is very cultish, and does ask for money. I read about it some time ago, and thought the ideas of this Ron Hubbard were very strange.Quote:
Originally Posted by Butterfly
I don't know if Scientology is full of religious freaks, because Scientology is not really a religionn (although some may think it is). But I do think lost souls and the religiously disillusioned would wander into Scientology.
As being worse than Al-Qaeda, I disagree. Apples and Oranges, there.
As a whole, I am circumspect or organized relgions or any 'movement.'
I did two courses with the Scientologists in the late 1980's. One was the 'Purif'. or purification rundown, basically to run residual drugs out of your body. The other was called 'Objectives processing'.
I have mixed views. Some of their 'Tech' (as they call it) is effective. It has certainly cleaned up peoples lives. Some of the people working there were hopeless cases a few years before. I have no real complaints about the courses I did.
On the other hand-
They are constantly trying to sell you something, and it ain't cheap. You get no rest from the constant hassle, because many of the 'converts' work there for little or no money, to earn credits to do further courses.
The 'religious' aspect did not interest me. OK maybe we are are a functioning consciousness trapped inside a physical body. OK, maybe we were sent here by some arch villain millions of years ago. I was just there for a little self improvement- this stuff was not why I was there.
In the end, it put me off. I actually got a refund from the 'Org', for courses I did not want to stick around for. Apparently quite unusual. I had to sign something though that stated I would not go to the media, libel them and all that sort of stuff. This I was happy to do.
I wouldn't call it brainwashing or anything like that, but it's all a little overzealous for me. I did not want it to take over my life, or anything close to that, and it seemed to me that could happen if you stuck with it.
This is the thing, they are actually very skilled and effective in applied "psychotherapy" (for want of a better term).Quote:
Originally Posted by sabang
I have also been to a few seminars in the 80s, can't even remember the names of the orgs now, as well as to various Far-Eastern things, as 'one' did, I suppose.
None of it stuck, but I can see the attraction for some.
That's an urban myth.Quote:
Originally Posted by buriramboy
During the last census in the UK, thousands of people decided to put 'Jedi' as their religion, thinking, wrongly, that if enough people did so, it would become a recognised religion.
In fact there is no such law in the UK, it's just one of those popular myths that fooled a lot of people. Any claim to the contrary is silly. Whilst you could start a cult of Jedi, you cannot have it recognised as a religion.
What would it take to get it recognised as a religion?Quote:
Originally Posted by Wallace
^You need to kill a few unbelievers.
Bet you saw that coming. Morcambe and Wise move over, well they're dead but anyway.
^ Maybe go out and sell it, like Scientology? :rolleyes:
"If you want to make a little money, write a book. If you want to make a lot of money, create a religion.” L Ron Hubbard
I believe that for a religion to be recognised it has to be 'thriving, and have a dedicated number of followers' (Office of National Statistics). Simply writing 'Jedi' on a census form doesn't achieve this, and there is no way any of the census offices in NZ, Australia or the UK would even consider it. It's not even up to that office to recognise religions in the first place, they simply process the forms. All suggestions that it became a religion simply because lots of people wrote it down are misplaced.
So, if you want to be a Jedi, you have to start practising the faith. Given that there are no tenets for it to exist (other than a few ideas from half a dozen movies) it's unlikely to take off.
Tom Cruise is far too stupid to be compared to Joseph Goebbels. Even an evil genius like Goebbels would have a hard time selling such an idiotic doctrine as Scientology.
Scientology is wierd and scary stuff, do a google seach and spend some time reading about them, it'll blow your mind (or have you rolling on the floor with laughter).
Don't even think about joining up unless you're rich, it costs a lot of money.
I thought the level headed Krauts banned Cruise from going there because of his scientology connection.
No different than Jehovah's Wittnesses.
Dumb cults designed to 'save' the dregs of society.
But, what the heck - if it get's 'em off the drugs and booze and as long as they are not pestering me to join them - have at it.
The movie is called "Valkyrie"? WTF do valkyries have to do with the nazis or Germans? Travesty of the lore of Odin and Valhalla.
Scientology is a phoney windup, worse than the Moonies.
For our Samui members, is their office still at the shophouse on the north side of the road just after the bridge in Maenam?
Grrr.
Scientology appears to be acquiring more enemies...
Church Calls Protesters 'Cyber Terrorists'
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A member of an internet-based group called Anonymous, right,
shares a moment with an unidentified passerby while protesting
near buildings associated with the Church of Scientology on
Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.
Feb. 11, 2008
The Church of Scientology says a group that has been protesting against the church are religious bigots that are merely perpetrating religious hate crimes.
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Hackers Hit Scientology With Online Attack
Sunday, members of a group called 'Anonymous' gathered outside the central Phoenix Church of Scientology to protest.
Wearing face masks, purple latex gloves and dressed all in black, members held signs in front of the church.
Members cheered when several cars honked as protesters held signs that said, "Honk if you think Scientology kills."
The protesters said they gathered Sunday in lieu of the birthday of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist once cared for by church staffers.
Her 1995 death sparked media attention and a civil wrongful death suit against a branch of the Church of Scientology. A wrongful death suit by her family was a public-relations nightmare for the church for years until it was settled in 2004.
The Church of Scientology declined to comment on the Phoenix protests. It did provide a news release calling members of Anonymous cyber-terrorists.
In January, members of Anonymous launched an attack on the church that spread across the Internet and sparked several protests worldwide.
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'What Drives Me': Tom Cruise's True Mission
"'Anonymous' is perpetrating religious hate crimes against Churches of Scientology and individual Scientologists for no reason other than religious bigotry," read the statement.
Protesters Sunday declined to reveal their identities, but all said they had learned about
Anonymous through various web sites denouncing Scientology while focusing on McPherson's death.
Members of the Scientology church in Phoenix stood silently outside Sunday but away from protesters.
Detective Troy Bartlett, of Phoenix Police, said the protest remained peaceful and the protesters were allowed to stay as long as they wanted.
ABC News: Scientology: Protesters Are 'Cyber Terrorists'
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Feb. 10, 2008, 12:12AM
'Anonymous' pranksters attack Scientology online
Effort to remove Tom Cruise clip from YouTube mobilizes group
By JIM PUZZANGHERA
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — A long-simmering dispute over digital copyrights between the Church of Scientology and its critics has boiled over in recent weeks after video clips turned up on the Internet from a 2004 interview by the church's most famous member, actor Tom Cruise.
When Scientology officials complained the clips were copyrighted and requested their removal from YouTube and other Web sites, a shadowy organization of online troublemakers sprang into action.
The group known as "Anonymous" posted an eerie video on the Internet featuring a computer-generated voice announcing a campaign to destroy the church and calling for worldwide protests Feb. 10.
It was all for laughs, said a member who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But things are now getting serious. A series of cyber-attacks the group claimed responsibility for slowed access to church Web sites and apparently shut down the main one, Scientology - Church of Scientology Official Site, one day last month.
Suspicious white powder was mailed to 23 church locations in Southern California, forcing 60 people to be cleared from buildings in Tustin and causing police to close part of busy Brand Boulevard in Glendale for two hours on Feb. 1. Preliminary tests by the Los Angeles Police Department determined the powder was cornstarch and wheat germ.
Opponents debate
The FBI is investigating whether the mailings were connected to the hacking. Shortly after the mailings were disclosed by authorities, a caller who identified himself as a spokesman for the group Anonymous told a Los Angeles Times reporter that the group was not to blame.
Critics of the religion are flocking to Anonymous postings on YouTube, the popular video-sharing site. Their campaign has sparked a debate among longtime opponents of Scientology, who wonder whether the aggressive rhetoric and tactics, including illegal denial-of-service attacks on the church's Web sites, help the cause by raising awareness of the religion's controversial beliefs, or hurt it by using the same type of heavy-handed methods they accuse Scientology officials of employing against critics.
"I don't know if anybody in Anonymous did this but Anonymous set themselves up to be targeted in this way ... ," said Mark Bunker, who runs one of the leading Web sites criticizing the church, XENU TV - Exposing Scientology Through Streaming Video, and posted a video last week warning Anonymous to tone down its campaign.
"I hope it doesn't hurt the larger critic community who have been speaking out for years about Scientology's abuse."
Scientology was founded in 1954 by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. It teaches through one-on-one counseling called auditing, during which members' responses are monitored on an e-meter, similar to a polygraph. The process, along with a series of training courses, can cost Scientologists tens of thousands of dollars.
Cruise has become an outspoken proponent of the religion. In 2004, he won the International Association of Scientologists Freedom Medal of Valor award and the ceremony included a taped interview with him talking about why the religion is important to him.
Church responds
The video was posted on YouTube and other sites recently, leading the Church of Scientology to request its removal for copyright violation.
A Scientology spokeswoman said the church wasn't trying to suppress the video, which it says can be watched at any of its facilities around the world. But it was made for "the Scientology congregation" and "never intended for replay on television or the Internet," spokeswoman Karin Pouw said in a written response to questions.
Members of Anonymous were angered by the requests and decided to take on the church, said the group's representative.
The group is a loose confederation of about 9,000 people who post anonymous messages in chat rooms on Web sites he would not identify. While they are experienced Internet users, few are hackers, he said.
But there are enough people with knowledge of how to attack Web sites that they were able to launch the attacks, the spokesman said. One of the attacks, known as distributed denial of service, involves flooding a site with requests, overloading its capacity.
Danny McPherson, chief research officer at Arbor Networks, which works with Internet service providers to detect and prevent cyber-attacks, said his company observed about 500 denial-of-service attacks on the Scientology site last week.
The Church of Scientology shifted the company that hosts its site to Prolexic Technologies Inc., which specializes in stopping denial-of-service attacks.
'Anonymous' pranksters attack Scientology online | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle