I’m not sure how familiar most of you are with Scientology. In college, I had a lecture in my Information Warfare class all about how Scientologists have made efforts to fight criticism and keep certain information from being made public. Anyhoo, just as something of interest, here’s the Wikipedia entry for Xenu (as much as I want to hate Wikipedia, the entries in it tend to be thorough and unbiased).
What I find most interesting about Xenu is the message at the bottom of the page when you do a Google search for it. Know of any other search term that yields a similar message?
first
Well, now I know much more than I ever wanted about scientologists.
Scientologist. Sounds sorta like a name some 2nd grader would make up for his dad working at a lab of some sort on show and tell day.
ugh.
And THESE are the people who tell Christians that our religion is science fiction?
Sounds like these guys have been playing too much Dungeons and Dragons, or more like Final Fantasy. Or something else.
That is because someone posted their books on the web, and they sued saying it is copyrighted. No one is allowed to post or print the contents of their books.
They have an army of lawyers too. This is one serious dangerous cult, more than simply a joke. They did not even have tax exempt status until recently.
Unlike every other religion, their books are secret.
They don’t want people to know that according to their church, you have to mortgage your house to them to gain eternal life.
Oh sorry, I was explaining why that message was on Google. The Scientologists sued some website for posting the contents of their books. so Google is also not allowed to display links to that site for fear of being sued.
I remember in the 90s they also sued & won against one of the biggest “cult watch” groups in america, liquidating them completely.
Like I said, dangerous group.
You may want to stick to the Puppy Blender, Frank. It sounds like these scientologists might sue you out of the IMAO empire and all of its windfall T-shirt revenues.
Fortunately Google kinda strikes back with a link to the offending page anyway:
http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/notice.cgi?NoticeID=232
“This particular web site owner has placed our clients’ copyrighted works and federally registered trademarks on his web page without the authorization of our clients. According, his actions are in violation of United States copyright law and I request Google either remove or disable access to the web site, “www.xenu.net”.”<— haha.
I don’t know what will get you the same terms… but check for the Cult Awareness Network.
It used to be a group of Christians who helped people out of cults, like Scientology. Well, Scientologists caught wind of this, had like 25 members apply at once (of course they were turned down) and then bankrupted the network through lawsuits.
Guess who then proceeded to buy and restore the Cult Awareness Network? Yep, that’s right, the church of Scientology.
Cthulu laughs at your pitiful Xenu!
WOW! I thought those religious kooks strapping bombs to themselves in the middle east were crazy…
There is nothing pitiful about it. I have just done some brief reading in the last 20 minutes, and it seems scientology is extremely dangerous. For those who did not see the link in the previous comment, here is the link to the offending website. It provides a large amount of anti-scientology information. I would suggest you do not visit this website if you own any firearms and have neighbors who subscribe to scientology.
Yeah, in all seriousness, there was a time in human history when people who started new moonbat religions were persecuted, driven out of town, and even burned at the stake. Now, I’m not saying we should burn Tom Cruise at the stake. But how about society as a whole telling him to go shove it, stop seeing his movies, and mock and ridicule him publicly any time he opens his mouth about scientology?
And Dungeons and Dragons is not to blame. Scientology was around long before Gary Gygax started rolling 3d6.
It makes sense that scientology seems like science fiction. L. Ron Hubbard was a science fiction author. Imagine a “religion” started by Aurthur C. Clarke, Gene Roddenberry, or Isaac Asimov. You would expect it to have aliens, and other wierd stuff.
Hubbard, by the way, back when he was just a mediocre sci-fi author, was once quoted as saying that if you really wanted to get rich, you need to start your own religion. Guess he took himself up on that idea.
On the Today show the other day, when Cruise was ranting about anti-depressants, Al Roker said to him, basically, “You’re an actor, not a doctor.” Although he apparently began apologizing and backpedalling almost immediately.
Worth noting though, did anyone ever say to Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, et al, “You’re an actor, not a foreign policy analyst.” (Or an historian, or someone with even a vague grasp of the history of the modern world, or of cause and effect……)
I’ve read a lot of the stuff about scientology at xenu.net, and it’s almost unbelievable…as most of you know already…The fact that it is based on a sci-fi writer’s psycosis makes sense…and it got me thinking about the Jedi church/cult/religion that was spun off of Lucas’ ramblings. I haven’t read anything about them in a while, but I do remember they had a website which included message boards, and an ‘academy’ that would help you to rise through the ranks and eventually become a ‘knight’ and eventually a master…after paying a bunch of cash and taking a lot of classes…it was really popular in New Zealand and Austrailia, as I seem to recall. Has anyone else looked into the Jedi stuff, and remembered if it was as similar to this scientology stuff as I remember…I don’t really know where I’m going with this.
I guess I’m just grateful to have ‘stumbled’ onto christianity, and that it offers the Truth for free…which is at least a lot better of a starting place than either of these other places…
Just my two cents offered after a lot of hours reading up on scientology…
I actually once heard a rumor from a big L. Ron Hubbard sci-fi fan (and definitely NOT a scientologist) that Hubbard started the scientology religion more or less as a lark following a discussion with other sci-fi writers in which he hypothesized that a really good sci-fi story could serve as a foundation for a new religion.
Meanwhile, there are real people calling themselves “Jedi” on census surveys, real people learning to speak Klingon, etc….
Weird wild stuff. I could use a Guinness.
“Everyone has to believe in something. I believe I have another drink.” – W.C. Fields
Warning there is altered tech in this post!
“I actually once heard a rumor from a big L. Ron Hubbard sci-fi fan (and definitely NOT a scientologist) that Hubbard started the scientology religion more or less as a lark following a discussion with other sci-fi writers in which he hypothesized that a really good sci-fi story could serve as a foundation for a new religion.”
Del Close claimed he was the one that convinced Hubbard to do it.
Link to article linking to book
People can learn Klingon all they want, but they arent exactly trolling the internet for violations of thier sacred writings.
It is very scary that a cult like this is able to take down whole sites and domains almost at will. Hell, the FBI has a hard time convincing a judge to allow them to shut one down.
I once read a sci-fi short story, thinking back now I think it was trying to satirize scientology. I don’t remember the story name, or author, but it was about a writer that published a fictional sci-fi story as a work of NON-fiction. It started to catch on as a religion, after which even the Author himself could not convince people that it was a hoax. He even pointed out that the one character’s name was “nincompoop” when reversed. It was a good story, I wish I knew what it was called.