[ SECRET POST #2363 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2363 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 118 secrets from Secret Submission Post #337.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

So what IS the difference between Scientology and other religions? Genuine question, I know fuck-all about Scientology except that it's something to stay the hell away from and to be disappointed about if I find out an actor I love is a member, but I don't actually know WHY.

[(Anonymous)]

The main problem with it is that it's built around milking people for everything that they're worth financially. They have someone basically lead you through basic meditation (which feels pretty damn good, but...it'd feel good if you just taught yourself to do it, too), tell you that it's a religious experience, and then tell you that the only way to keep experiencing it is to...pay them to lead you through it some more and teach you the MYSTERRIIEEEESS. As time goes on, they demand that more and more of your assets be given over to them. They've literally bankrupted people. Also, if you want to leave, they will try to prevent you from doing so.

[(Anonymous)]

.....I....don't think it's quite....meditation? I mean, look at this: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/simkatu/62325053/

Also Harlan Ellison and (??) another author, I forget who, were on one of the SF radio shows back in the late '90s/early 2000s saying they knew Elron back when, and he'd basically gotten the idea to start a religion based on science fiction at a room party at one of the conventions they were all attending. I think you can still find the audio on the 'net somewhere.

Anonymous/Why We Protest published "donors" lists tho' (they still should have them up I think) from the "official" magazines and it's *way* more than even Christian tithing, there are people who have paid them up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in one shot.

[(Anonymous)]

And somewhere along the way, if you can't convert all your friends and family to Scientology, they will demand that you cut yourself off from all of them. They take your money, they take your family, they take your friends, and then they may persuade your minor children to sign billion year contracts of servitude.

Total cult.

[(Anonymous)]

Cutting off the family? Yeah that part isn't true. My mother's family is sadly full of Scientologists, but we're all very close despite that. We just had a lovely family reunion last summer.

Also having children sign contracts for extended servitude? You're talking about SeaOrg which mostly has young members because you have to be debt free to join. My cousins were both a part of that for a while and one left two years ago with no problem. He's not even in the religion anymore and he still spends tons of time with his family.

However, if any of us spoke out against Scientology in public and their "church" found out about it THEN they wouldn't be allowed to talk to me anymore.

So you know, that's not really much better, but it's something.

I mean...I despise Scientology, because it takes advantage of the people I love. But those people aren't just mindless cult drones. It's because the church behaves so "normally" in a lot of respects that it gets away with so much. So yes, it is a cult, but it's not like a cult you see on a TV drama or the news. It's more like a crappy self-help seminar that never ends. If that makes sense.

(Sorry I responded to you specifically. To be honest if you were completely wrong I wouldn't have but you were just a little bit right so I wanted to explain.)

[(Anonymous)]

Well, for one thing, I don't know of any religion that wants people to sign a billion year contract. Check out Sea Org for that bit.

Also, if an actor dumps an actress because she wasn't wowed enough by him as a boyfriend, her religion doesn't normally (so far as I know) make her scrub bathroom floors with a toothbrush and dig ditches after dark. Also, a religion doesn't normally get that involved auditioning women to be that same actor's future wife.

Lookin' at you, Tom Cruise. (http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/09/tom-cruise-scientology-marriage-katie-holmes)

[ooh_mrdarcy]

Scientology is a super organized cult disguised as religion.

But great news for those who wanna join; now everybody can join! You'll never want to leave! If you're into discipline, abuse, torture, stalking, blackmail, extortion, that kinda thing... boy are you in luck! Join today and if you're a woman and you're fertile, you get a free chance at becoming Cruise's wife number 4. Men get a free t-shirt. Just, y'know, don't be gay or anything.

[harp]

Can you be transgender?
(I shouldn't ought to wanna troll them, but Goddamn...)

[bees_stories]

Often repeated story and there's not a lot of reason to doubt it'd veracity. L Ron Hubbard was a middling successful writer of pulp science fiction. On day, he was in a bar, with some friends, and they were grousing about their financial lot. (Said bar may have been in Hollywood, but I don't remember.)

L Ron said words to the effect of writing is a mug's game, religion is where the money is at. Talking ensued. A wager was made. And from that, Dyanetics was born.

And that is the difference between Scientology and the worlds' major religions: one was designed to make a buck, and the rest werebuilt on faith/ ways to explain what at times is an inexplicable world.

[(Anonymous)]

On top of what everyone else has said, there's also the aggressive, aggressive, AGGRESSIVE use of lawsuits to try to silence critics.

The thing about Scientology is that a lot of people make fun of their ~crazy beliefs~ but that's totally not the right thing to be focusing on when trying to understand why people actually dislike them so much. I mean, yeah, their beliefs do seem super far fetched, but so do most beliefs outside of context. The real problem is that the entire structure is built to suck people's money, and Sea Org is 100% a cult, complete with some really scary abusive practices.

[(Anonymous)]

omg THIS x10000000000

it just seems so pointless to focus on the whole "lol they have silly beliefs". Just like every toher religion! and then proceed to ignore what differentiates them from other religions - it's not only a cult, it's a pyramid scheme, that has been linked to some SERIOUS stuff (torture, abuse, murder).

L. Ron Hubbard even said: "the best way to make money is to start your own reigion", and then proceeded to do just that.

[(Anonymous)]

http://therealaskthescientologist.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/scientology-why-religion/

Scientology is only a religion in the countries where being a religion has advantages such as tax breaks. It magically becomes a "self-help technology" in places or circumstances where being a religion would be a disadvantage.

The IRS rescinded their tax exempt status in the 1960s and didn't reinstate it until the 1990s under questionable circumstances.

I've gotten in this argument enough times to be a bit tired of it, so I'll simply say this--we are free to believe what we want to believe and it is my firm belief that Scientology is not a religion.

[(Anonymous)]

Scientologists believe that any bad thing that happens to a person was something that person actually wanted to have happen on some subconscious level. They have a saying for it, "all death is suicide". IMHO that is real fucking sick and i don't know of any other cult or religion that believes this.