Does Scientology deserve more scrutiny than other religions?

[Rev. Rye]

On one hand, Scientology beliefs are not any more absurd than the beliefs that other religions present.

On the other hand, it was started by a science fiction writer, has copyrights/trademarks in place that "limit outsiders from distorting their intent", and is wildly secretive. It was started in the last century, so a lot of the facts about the origins of the religion are fairly well known.

So while I am an Atheist, and believe that religious mythology are works of fiction; I actually do have a little more bias towards Scientology. To the point where I have to believe that most of it's members join for status reasons, and not because they actually believe it.

What's your take?

I've read quite a few books about Scientology in the past few weeks, including Inside Scientology, Going Clear, Ruthless, and Bare-Faced Messiah. It seems shady business practices have (to say the least) been around since the beginning. But what truly makes it disturbing is David Miscaviage's ways of treating his underlings (including shutting them off in an ant-infested double-wide with hardly any food, and at one point forcing them 100 of them to play Musical Chairs and threatening the losers with menial work in remote outposts with no hope of seeing their families again) and even his wife (shutting her off in a nuclear bunker for the rest of her life after she dared to do some administrative duties that he had been putting off doing for a long time). Honestly, damn near everything I've read that hasn't come directly from the church points the same picture: like Malcolm Tucker, only more foul, and shorter, and more willing to commit alarming crimes on literally EVERYONE and for little to no reason.

Something is deeply horrifying about the fact that David Miscaviage is still a free man after falsely imprisoning his own employees and even his goddam wife.