Isn't Scientology Just a Big Cult?

Isn't scientology just a big cult? i mean think about it they brain wash their members to do what ever they are told. The only difference between Scientology and other cults is that they have a lot of celebrities in their cult. Here are a few links to videos on youtube i hope that you check them out.
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The second one is probably the best one

I was down in Clearwater a couple months ago and took some photos for members here on ATS..

They are not to hip on people taking pictures. I got a few shots off until I was confronted by security..


They all wear matching clothes for different ranks and jobs.. You would think, hey its just work clothes. So nothing out of reason right?


They are not a talkful bunch either.. Walking down the road, they dont even say hi back to you.. Very private people..


But after going threw all this and really thinking about it, I come to the idea that all religons are a bit cultish. They all have a sertin way they go about things. So if you generalize religon then all of them could be cults.


Enjoy

[edit on 26-9-2007 by zysin5]

tv-links.co.uk... click the link on that page to watch a twenty minute documentary about how scientology tapped federal phones and took over a city called clearwater through extortion check it out by the end of this movie i was so angry that they can do stuff like this and just get away with it

aren't all organized religions a cult of one form or another?

from dictionary.com:

1. a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers.
3. the object of such devotion.
4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
5. Sociology. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.
6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.
7. the members of such a religion or sect.
8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.

reply to post by Crakeur


I found this wikipeida entry to be helpful, it categorizes religions and explains how cults are different from religions, ecclesias, and sects.

en.wikipedia.org...

L. Ron was into magik early on, and I have read that he had said that the way to make money is to start a religion. IMO it is a cult like group, and not even very original at that. Most of the ideas they use are loosely based on the gnostic idea that the earth was created by a "bad" god and is corrupt. Man has to free himself from this through knowledge and in this case through the church of L. Ron and his clones. Unfortunatly they have a bunch of lawers that attack many who go after them and there "truth". But hey if some people wanna follow the teachings of a science fiction writer/con man its ok with me, and not surprising. I hear the phone ringing, it must be L. Rons lawers after me. Fnord

from what I understand, calling scientology a cult is one of the most offensive things you can say to a scientologist.

reply to post by coryblood


isn't any religion just a really big and socially accepted cult?

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


I suppose, based on how you define cults, but the same could be said about Richard Dawkins' fan base.

the thing that i have to disagree with almost all of you is that in religions they don't tell you exactly how to act they say "be good" and you don't have to wear the same clothes. now believe me i am deffinately not a fan of religion but scientology is just horrible. i mean these people are following what a science fiction writer wrote.

scientist, i know that is the worst thing to call them, they just don't want people to find out that they really are a cult

I could care less who started this religion or what they believe, and I don't give them any more or less credibility that I do Christians or anyone else. What sets Scientology apart from most religions is that it is very, very expensive to receive their higher levels of instruction.

No wonder the Hollywood types flock to it. Given the costs involved it probably keeps the riffraff out.

reply to post by befoiled


oh yeah that's what i forgot. i knew i forgot something, the cost of it, it is deffinately a scam

To me, a "Cult" means a harmful religion.

This by my definition, is a cult!

It has a guy talking to a freakin' ash tray!! What is wrong with them!?

Pffft. it's all cults. Not one of them has a "secret truth," they all take money hand over fist, and they all practice some form of thought control on their members. Brainwashing is brainwashing whether it's from a "cult" or an accepted religion.

Furthermore, every religion started off as another religion's cult in it's early history. Including Christianity.

[edit on 26-9-2007 by MajorMalfunction]

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
every religion started off as another religion's cult in it's early history

Really? You don't seriously believe in infinite regression do you? Wouldn't there have to be an original belief somewhere?

Do you mock me, sir? Not that I didn't have that coming for my sweeping statement.

But in a way, yes, I think that since there have been organized religions, each new religion has been in its way a cult and a threat to the original. For polytheistic Romans, it was Christianity. For Christians it's the Scientologists. I'm not up on my Islamic history but no doubt they were considered a cult at first when they splintered off from Judaism.

Ha! Teach you to split hairs.

reply to post by MajorMalfunction


Islam did NOT splinter off from Judaism!!! Muhammad was a loner who grew up in a pagan environment but eventually started leaning towards Jewish and Christian ideas. Heavily borrowing from both, but especially Judaism, he created his own new religion. But Islam is not an offshoot because its original members were not Jews.

As I said, I'm not up on my history of Islam. Thanks for the correction.

So ... WERE they treated like a cult in the beginning?

I always thought the word cult, came from culture. That it just my guess, never researched it.

I also guessed occult came from culture trimmed to cult and the prefix at the beginning 'oc' is a descriptive term, one I do not know the meaning of. But that is off topic (unless you believe with certain cultural groups that have this opinion of scientology )

One of the effective methods of brainwashing is to require everyone to dress alike. That shows that they don't value people as "individuals" but rather as "conformists".