There are traditional religions that genuinely point to matters of the spirit and how to live a better life. Others masquerade as religion and dupe gullible souls.
Read Inside Scientology in Rolling Stone and decide for yourself.
They assert that 75 million years ago, an evil galactic warlord named Xenu controlled seventy-six planets in this corner of the galaxy, each of which was severely overpopulated. To solve this problem, Xenu rounded up 13.5 trillion beings and then flew them to Earth, where they were dumped into volcanoes around the globe and vaporized with bombs. This scattered their radioactive souls, or thetans, until they were caught in electronic traps set up around the atmosphere and "implanted" with a number of false ideas -- including the concepts of God, Christ and organized religion. Scientologists later learn that many of these entities attached themselves to human beings, where they remain to this day, creating not just the root of all of our emotional and physical problems but the root of all problems of the modern world.
Posted by Jill Fallon at March 18, 2006 4:59 AM | PermalinkJust a bit loopy, eh? Well, that's what happens when folks with more money than sense take a science fiction writer's fantasies and transform them into a religion.
The great irony is that Scientology is a profitable scam. Most serious churches have a hard time meeting the bills; Scientology's devotees keep it flush without having to be prodded. Well, almost without having to be prodded.
Posted by: Francis W. Porretto at March 18, 2006 5:26 PM