BACKGROUND

I wanted more information on Scientology because I knew very little about it. I had so many questions. Some of their beliefs were unacceptable to me, and I wanted to compare my own personal religion to Scientology. I wanted to find out about their religious practices.

PURPOSEI wanted to answer some questions about

Scientology. Was there a common ground between Scientology and Christianity? Did Scientology have Satanic roots; was it anti-Christ? Why were so many people turning to this belief? Was this religion just a money-making scheme? Was there a growth pattern to be found? Is Scientology a threat to Christianity? Do they practice any part of the Holy Bible?

Most importantly for this project, was there any scientific basis at all behind that backed up the claims of the scientologists?

APPROACHI went about my research using many

available search methods. Scientology, by L. Ron Hubbard (1), Hitler : The Perfect Race (2), The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin (3), and the father of modern psychology Wilhelm Wundt (4) were some of my references, as were many websites. Many websites were looked at, but many were also discarded due to the repetition of information.

DATA AND EVIDENCE

Scientologists are concerned with nothing less than the full rehabilitation of the thetan, to increase the person’s awareness and capabilities, and to achieve self immortality (5). Just as you are not a body, neither are you a mind. Scientologists believe the mind is simply mental image pictures.

CLEAR is a step, or level, to be reached in Scientology. All previous images in the mind are to be blanked out. This is done through counseling and e-meters, a process costing a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars per hour (6). CLEAR is very simply defined as a person who no longer has his own reactive mind. Becoming Clear strengthens a persons native individuality and creativity and does not in any way diminish these attributes. A Clear is free of self-emotion, allowing the Thetan to experience life unencumbered by inhibitions (7).

Statistical Growth: Today Scientology is practiced in more than

thirty languages, in one hundred twenty-nine countries, on every continent.

It took 15 years to find the first person who could go CLEAR. Scientology is now turning out 15-20 Clears a week (9).

Since the first Dianetics and Scientology organizations in the early 1950’s, the number of countries that Scientology services has grown by more than 25 times.

DATA AND EVIDENCE

In Scientology, there are two strong ideologies presented. These are THETAN and CLEAR. Scientologists believe that man consists of three parts: spirit, mind and body. Your spirit is called THETAN and is the spiritual being, self. It is the individual; you are a Thetan. You are your own god and responsible for for all spiritual well being.

Services to the Church of Scientology: No of

people Participating in Scientology for the first

time (per year) (8)

Churches, Missions & Organizations: Five

Decades of Growth (8)

DATA AND EVIDENCE The number each year increased to well over

half a million people by the end of 1997 (10).

Despite the celebrity names associated with Scientology, even Wilhelm Wundt, a German professor at Liepzig University in 1879 and one of Scientology’s first proponents, came to the conclusion that trying to scientifically investigate the soul or spirit of man was a waste of time and [possibly] criminally negligent (depending on how the experiments were designed) (11).

INTERPRETATION/CONCLUSION

What I see in Scientology is an anti-Christ religion growing at a very rapid pace in our population. I see no compatibility between Scientology and Christianity. There is no god except self, there is no after-life, except for reincarnation. L. Ron Hubbard’s mentor was Aleister Crowley, the infamous English black magician, whose philosophy was, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” There is no science to back up the claims of Scientology, like most faith-based ideologies. Unfortunately, the costs associated with Scientology are high, and there is nothing to look forward to either, at least in the form of redemption or an after-life in heaven.

REFERENCES / WORKS CITED1)Hubbard, L.Ron. A Description of Scientology – Works of L. Ron Hubbard. 2008. 2)http://www.bookfinder.com/dir/i/The_Hitler_Cult/0879680067. Justbooks.com. Accessed 2-14-2009.3)Darwin, Charles. The Origin of the Species. Chapter 4 – Natural Selection: Survival of the Fittest.4)http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/Mind/Consciousness.html. Wilhelm Wundt. Mind, Brain, and Experimental Psychology of Consciousness. Accessed 3-7-2009.5)Ibid. Ref. 1. p.346)Ibid. Ref. 1. p. 747)http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/Wakefield/Christians.html. What Christians Need to Know About Scientology, by Margory Wakefield. Accessed 2-14-2009.8)http://www.whatisscientology.org/html/Part11/Chp32/pg0551-a.html. Demographic and Statistical Facts about Scientology. Church of Scientology International. 2009. Accessed 3-7-2009.9)Ibid. Ref. 1. p. 10)Ibid. Ref. 8. 11)Ibid. Ref. 4.