Posted by . on October 20, 2003 at 18:26:52:
In Reply to: Re: You are Funny posted by Royal Dragon on October 20, 2003 at 09:34:12:
The jews were genrally kicked out by bigotry using political leverage in order to get the deed done.
The Dianetics leadership was kicked out because they failed to conform to existing laws.
True, I did not initially clarify this, but the truth is that the scientology experience in europe was hardly one of persecution.
Interesting note- dianetics claims to be science, but surrounds the dianetics experience and history with religious inferences, developing a mythology, etc, then members say 'it's not that far fetched, not any more than the bible', totally missing the point that they're claiming to be a science, and trying to undermine real science with their gobbldygook(engrams and galactic overlords, oh my!) all while clearly recognizing that they're ideas are religious in nature.
The moo claims to be martial arts but it's got a historical persecution complex(the media conspired with the IRS, not our fault!), and when people criticize their outlandish stories, they say 'it's no more outlandish than christianity'. Well, perhaps not, but christianity has no confusion about what it is, and thus it has numinous references that have a logical place in their belief structure. The moo has numinous references that have no place unless the moo is a religion, or an attempt at one, like a personality cult.
Thank the heavens that Kim never wrote a book that John Travolta could play the leading role of in the a movie. Hubbard's books are only marginally superior to blue lit. He was always considered a hack.
There is a story about Hubbard, Asimov, and Frank Herbert betting on who could create the most intriguing idea for a religion. Aasimov supposedly made the Foundation books off of his idea. Herbert created Dune. Hubbard made Scientology. Two of those ideas yielded good books, the last yielded a supposed science without any substantial testing or lab work. No idea who won the bet, or if the story is true.
But I digress.