Down with Scientology

[Dubious Dick]

Unable to give them the doubtful credit of being a religion, I have placed this story where it belongs.

Seems that lawsuits against Scientology (scifiology) are piling up.

News via The Underground Bunker of a real doozy. A counselling registration organisation has launched a big lawsuit against NarCONnon, the scam arm of scifiology that claims it has a 78% success rate in drug addiction treatment.

Basically NarCONnon units and staff were fraudulently claiming accreditation. The lawsuit includes NarCONnon in the U.K.

This adds to a growing pile of individual complaints against NarCONnon in the U.S., as well as a host of other lawsuits there. Hopefully another nail in the coffin of the scam invented by that 'great humanitarian' a.k.a. conman L Ron Hubbard.

See fuller story here:

http://tonyortega.org/2014/05/19/scientologys-drug-rehab-network-sued-for-conspiring-to-misuse-counseling-credentials/

 

[LaurelHS]

Scientologists believe in using the legal system to suppress free speech and harass people. What goes around comes around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_the_legal_system

 

[BStrong]

This is going to be interesting.

In general, falsely asserting professional accreditation is very serious even for an individual - if an organization as a matter of course falsely claimed accreditation and engaged in fraudulent means as an effort to acquire accreditation, that might result in the dissolution of that org.

 

[hgc]

Pretty soon, Scientology will have more lawyers than members.

 

[This is The End]

I can barely see the word Scientology without growing into a fit of rage.

I wish their opposition the best of luck.

 

[BobTheCoward]

I'm really sympathetic to Scientology. We shouldn't hold the fact that it is a young religion reflect its time against it.

Older religions reflect the culture from thousands of years ago. They claimed to cure a whole bunch of stuff (plus, an eternity away from your day to day suffering). They didn't claim to cure mental health issues because that wasn't a concept.

Mormonism comes along, and being from the new world, includes the new world. Judaism would have also made that up 5,000 years ago if they knew about the Americas too.

Now, we have a religion with aliens, jets, and BS claims about the world around us. Being a world with more understanding of health, this is reflected in the religion.

These stories don't make me want to revoke their religion status. If anything, its evidence to me that they are even more a religion.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

We shouldn't hold the fact that it is a young religion reflect its time against it.

No, we have a unique opportunity to nip it in the bud now, before it become entrenched like older religions.

Older religions reflect the culture from thousands of years ago. They claimed to cure a whole bunch of stuff

And they still do! What a pity that they weren't strangled at birth.

Mormonism comes along, and being from the new world, includes the new world. Judaism would have also made that up 5,000 years ago if they knew about the Americas too.

And it's a fraud just as much as Scientology, Catholicism, etc.

Now, we have a religion with aliens, jets, and BS claims about the world around us. Being a world with more understanding of health, this is reflected in the religion.

The only real difference is that we knew this one was BS from the start.

These stories don't make me want to revoke their religion status. If anything, its evidence to me that they are even more a religion.

Even more reason to squash it!

 

[Aulus Agerius]

I'm really sympathetic to Scientology. We shouldn't hold the fact that it is a young religion reflect its time against it.

Older religions reflect the culture from thousands of years ago. They claimed to cure a whole bunch of stuff (plus, an eternity away from your day to day suffering). They didn't claim to cure mental health issues because that wasn't a concept.

Mormonism comes along, and being from the new world, includes the new world. Judaism would have also made that up 5,000 years ago if they knew about the Americas too.

Now, we have a religion with aliens, jets, and BS claims about the world around us. Being a world with more understanding of health, this is reflected in the religion.

These stories don't make me want to revoke their religion status. If anything, its evidence to me that they are even more a religion.

This is all very well and good, but this case isn't about false claims of cure: it's the kind of consumer fraud that dodgy businesses commit all the time: falsely claiming accreditation they don't have. It's not a uniquely religious behavior.

 

[hgc]

These stories don't make me want to revoke their religion status. If anything, its evidence to me that they are even more a religion.

They don't have any "religion status" to revoke. They have a tax-exempt status from the IRS, and the IRS makes no judgment as regards religion. They gained their status by overwhelming the IRS with myriad lawsuits from their customers until the IRS threw up their hands and gave up. Their tax-exempt status should be revoked because they are in constant violation of the terms of the agreement.

 

[xjx388]

This has been my problem with Scientology; it wants to be a science based religion. If you are a religion, then fine, be a religion. That means you have to stop making claims of being able to cure things, raise IQ, improve grades, etc and drop the whole Dianetics angle. You accept these crazy ideas on faith and I have no quibble with that anymore than I do with Catholicism, et. al.

If you are instead a science, then you have to be open to testing and the results of that testing. In that case, Dianetics/Scientology has been discredited years ago.

Scientology is only a religion because it was debunked as a science from the get-go and the religion angle was the only angle that let the money flow continue unabated by Federal regulation. It isn't really a religion as much as it is a religiously themed long con.

 

[s4zando]

I'm really sympathetic to Scientology. We shouldn't hold the fact that it is a young religion reflect its time against it.

Older religions reflect the culture from thousands of years ago. They claimed to cure a whole bunch of stuff (plus, an eternity away from your day to day suffering). They didn't claim to cure mental health issues because that wasn't a concept.

Mormonism comes along, and being from the new world, includes the new world. Judaism would have also made that up 5,000 years ago if they knew about the Americas too.

Now, we have a religion with aliens, jets, and BS claims about the world around us. Being a world with more understanding of health, this is reflected in the religion.

These stories don't make me want to revoke their religion status. If anything, its evidence to me that they are even more a religion.

Yes, but...

Pretty soon, Scientology will have more lawyers than members.

Freaks me right the hell out. Doesn't matter what you, I or any of members of our forum think. History will decide how this is sorted, and the more lawyers painting a positive light on this, the better for them. My hope is that it is the first step in determining if profits outpace expenses. I see that equation as the only hope for their convergence with reality.

 

[kajata]

Unless Miscavige and company can build a time machine and prevent the invention of the Internet they are done.

An aging, shrinking membership and anyone who Googles Scientology runs in the other direction.

Unfortunately, they have a ton of money so it will take a while for them to be over and done with but people are no longer afraid to speak out or write articles about them.

 

[desertgal]

I'm really sympathetic to Scientology.

Why?

We shouldn't hold the fact that it is a young religion reflect its time against it.

Why not? Old, young...it makes no difference.

Older religions reflect the culture from thousands of years ago. They claimed to cure a whole bunch of stuff (plus, an eternity away from your day to day suffering). They didn't claim to cure mental health issues because that wasn't a concept.

And that somehow excuses Scientology from doing so?

Mormonism comes along, and being from the new world, includes the new world. Judaism would have also made that up 5,000 years ago if they knew about the Americas too.

Okay. But we're discussing Scientology in this thread, not Mormonism or Judaism.

Now, we have a religion with aliens, jets, and BS claims about the world around us. Being a world with more understanding of health, this is reflected in the religion.

And? That doesn't make the teachings of Scientology valid or accurate.

These stories don't make me want to revoke their religion status.

What religion status?

If anything, its evidence to me that they are even more a religion.

More of a religion? As opposed to what?

 

[Cain]

I'm really sympathetic to Scientology. We shouldn't hold the fact that it is a young religion reflect its time against it.

I'm sympathetic to Scientologists. They're belittled constantly, and by everyone.

Anyway, I'd expect these announcements around the time a Tom Cruise movie opens...

 

[aggle-rithm]

Pretty soon, Scientology will have more lawyers than members.

Nah. They need a certain amount of slave labor to support all those lawyers.

 

[hgc]

Nah. They need a certain amount of slave labor to support all those lawyers.

Slave labor keeps expenses low. They are not the paying customers. Scn will run out of paying customers while there is still a large cash reserve and the real estate portfolio. It's an odd situation.

 

[theprestige]

I'm sympathetic to Scientologists. They're belittled constantly, and by everyone.

Anyway, I'd expect these announcements around the time a Tom Cruise movie opens...

I see what you did there.

 

[Butter!]

They charge for people to join, progress, and participate in mandatory - for membership - rituals (such as "auditing"). That's orders of magnitude beyond a church accepting donations or hawking holy memorabilia to members.

No, they are a business as solidly as such can be defined. The upper-levelers are raking it in, and the lower underlings are running around desperately trying to recruit new members due to crushing pressure dished out by the top. While they're drained of every last penny themselves. What does that sound like? Hmmm...

Oh, right! Pyramid scheme. That's the term I was looking for. Silly me. Combine that classic old financial pressure with the desperation and pressure inherent to religious fervor, and you've got a business plan that can't fail!

Except they also want tax exempt status, because of the religious angle. Everyone's supposed to just look away from the towering economic side of it, because it's a RELIGION. Right.

Sorry, can't have it both ways. Without even touching upon some of Scientology's other cultish and sinister methods, it seems obvious they don't deserve anything resembling tax exempt status - no matter what they call themselves.

There are policies. The "Church" of Scientology has been dishonestly dodging them for years out of greed and dangerous lunacy. Enough already.

 

[LaurelHS]

If you are instead a science, then you have to be open to testing and the results of that testing. In that case, Dianetics/Scientology has been discredited years ago.

And just to be clear, practices like the Purification Rundown and the Introspection Rundown aren't just scientifically invalid, they're dangerous.

 

[Loss Leader]

I'm really sympathetic to Scientology. We shouldn't hold the fact that it is a young religion reflect its time against it.

You clearly know very little about Scientology.

Read up on Sea Org, people being held prisoner for years, mentally ill people being denied treatment (until they kill themselves), the shunning of former members, the files kept on each member after auditing, the total cost of all of the courses to become a "clear," and ... pretty much just start anywhere. The religious aspects are the least disturbing.