Scientology Lawsuit

[brewer]

[LadyForCamus]

I’d be lying if I said I was shocked.

[The Valkyrie]

It’s yet another cult.

[Rev. Rye]

[brewer]

[Rev. Rye]

Well, I think it is shocking. Not that the Co$ does this shit, but that the dogs are finally biting back. Bear in mind, this is a group that files frivolous lawsuits by the truckload against their critics. Remember that scene from Better Call Saul where the retirement home Jimmy's suing decides to drown him in frivolous lawsuits in an attempt to slow him down? They did that to the IRS in an attempt to buffalo them into giving them tax exemption. And it worked. At one point, they even had 100 lawsuits against the IRS simultaneously.

And the IRS fucked up by caving.

So did Jimmy. To be fair, at least Sandpiper Crossing offered to pay back all the money they stole as part of that settlement. And Scientology's plan was to avoid doing exactly that.

[Little lunch]

I'd love to see scientology come crashing down and I'd also like to see a heap of families reunited with each other.

[squidfetish]

Scientology is a business which preys on the vulnerable and separates them from their friends and family (and anyone else who speaks out against Scn.) in order to maintain the flow of cash to the organisation. In the auditing process, the individual inadvertently gives the auditor the bullets to shoot them with, should they choose to leave. Can you imagine the dirt that Scn. has on Tom Cruise, John Travolta etc? They could probably devastate these guys' careers.

Two friends of mine got involved in Scn. Both got ripped off to the tune of thousands.

I would say it's a pseudo-mental therapy cult, not a religion, though some would reasonably argue for an overlap. Best thing a government could do is to ban it. Sadly it won't happen, because it's a business.

I guess the question arises of how much we should protect people from their own vulnerability and in some cases, stupidity?

[vulcanlogician]

I would say it's a pseudo-mental therapy cult, not a religion, though some would reasonably argue for an overlap.

Well, regardless if they treat the volcano story literally or not, they have a doctrine of reincarnation which may qualify them as a religion. Oddly enough, here I am wanting to say it does make Scientology a religion, whereas (in another thread when discussing Buddhism) I wanted to ignore the doctrine of reincarnation and treat Buddhism as a philosophy.

I suppose it depends on how allegorical one treats these reincarnation doctrines. Treating Buddhist and Hindu reincarnation as symbolic (perhaps describing through metaphor the changes that transpire in a single life) does much to make both belief systems more palatable. But truth be told, maybe it's just better to take things at face value and call such doctrines out on their bullshit. Truth be told, Buddhist and Hindu doctrines have been used to justify interpersonally destructive cult-like practices that are every bit as bad as what Scientology does.

The "banish all dogmas" thing sounds quite appealing in light of all this.

[Rev. Rye]