What is scientology?

[Oriental]

There was coverage over Tom Cruise that Fox's sacked recently because of his being ardent advocate in a religion namely scientology...

Are there any thoughts about this religion? Is it a heresy?



Oriental.

[Judah]

As far as mainstream orthodox Christianity goes, Scientology is a cult and it is heresy.

Quoted from Beliefnet:

• Belief in Deity
Scientology considers the belief in a God or gods as something personal and therefore offers no specific dogma. The nature of the Supreme Being is revealed personally through each individual as s/he becomes more conscious and spiritually aware. There exists a life energy or force (Theta) beyond and within all.

• Incarnations
There are no particular human incarnations of God, as the universal life force (Theta) is inherent in all. All humans are immortal spiritual beings (thetans) capable of realizing a nearly godlike state through Scientology practices.

• Origin of Universe and Life
All is manifestation of the universal spirit, which is all that actually exists.

• After Death
Rebirths continue until one consciously confronts all pre-birth, current-life, and previous-life traumas and realizes one's true nature as a "thetan," immortal spirit--transcending matter, energy, space, and time. Achieving this state enables the spirit to escape the cycle of birth and death--to operate independently of the physical universe and become one with God.

• Why Evil?
Painful experiences and harmful acts in one's prebirth, current, and past lives become imprinted in the reactive mind and lead to irrational behavior. Departures from rational thought and untrue ideas ("aberrations") can result in wrongdoing.

• Salvation
Salvation is achieved through the practices and techniques of Scientology, the ultimate goal of which is to realize one's true nature as an immortal spirit, a thetan. The path to salvation, or enlightenment, includes achieving states of increasingly greater mental awareness--Pre-Clear, Clear, and ultimately Operating Thetan. An Operating Thetan is a spirit who can control matter, energy, space, time, thought, and life. Practitioners ("Auditors") are regarded as ministers and counselors who assist others to achieve self-enlightenment. Auditors help others to identify their prebirth, current, and past-life disturbances, which are obstacles to happiness and spiritual enlightenment.

• Undeserved Suffering
Suffering occurs as part of the spirit's entrapment here in the physical universe. Only when the individual is aware of his spiritual nature can he identify his barriers within the universe and overcome them, rising out of a lower state and into a higher state of happiness and freedom.

• Contemporary Issues
Based on the belief that you cannot free yourself spiritually without working to free others, Scientology has founded and supports many organizations for social betterment, particularly in the areas of drug abuse, crime, psychiatric abuse, government abuse of law, human rights, religious freedom, education, and morality. Scientology strongly favors the use of their methodology for spiritual/mental healing over the use of conventional treatment.

Hope that helps.
For more information, do a Google search on the word Scientology.

[Oriental]

Judah,

Many thanks. I should've looked over the details on search engine I feel sorry to have bothered you to find them out; Thanks to you indeed.

I'll take heed of it next time to look them over well before asking. It's kind of you anyway.


Oriental.

[Judah]

That's OK, Oriental, not a problem at all.
I like people's questions because it gives me a chance to research the answers as well.
Google is a very useful search engine.

Here is another site that you might like to visit for more information on this cult: Watchman Fellowship.
The specific page to view is this one.
The Watchman Fellowship is an independent Christian research and apologetics ministry focussing on new religious movements, cults, the occult, and the New Age.
I found this site via J.P. Holding's Tektonic Apologetics Ministries website (Turgy's favourite site!)

Happy reading!

[Silvertusk]

As far as mainstream orthodox Christianity goes, Scientology is a cult and it is heresy.

Quoted from Beliefnet:

• Belief in Deity
Scientology considers the belief in a God or gods as something personal and therefore offers no specific dogma. The nature of the Supreme Being is revealed personally through each individual as s/he becomes more conscious and spiritually aware. There exists a life energy or force (Theta) beyond and within all.

• Incarnations
There are no particular human incarnations of God, as the universal life force (Theta) is inherent in all. All humans are immortal spiritual beings (thetans) capable of realizing a nearly godlike state through Scientology practices.

• Origin of Universe and Life
All is manifestation of the universal spirit, which is all that actually exists.

• After Death
Rebirths continue until one consciously confronts all pre-birth, current-life, and previous-life traumas and realizes one's true nature as a "thetan," immortal spirit--transcending matter, energy, space, and time. Achieving this state enables the spirit to escape the cycle of birth and death--to operate independently of the physical universe and become one with God.

• Why Evil?
Painful experiences and harmful acts in one's prebirth, current, and past lives become imprinted in the reactive mind and lead to irrational behavior. Departures from rational thought and untrue ideas ("aberrations") can result in wrongdoing.

• Salvation
Salvation is achieved through the practices and techniques of Scientology, the ultimate goal of which is to realize one's true nature as an immortal spirit, a thetan. The path to salvation, or enlightenment, includes achieving states of increasingly greater mental awareness--Pre-Clear, Clear, and ultimately Operating Thetan. An Operating Thetan is a spirit who can control matter, energy, space, time, thought, and life. Practitioners ("Auditors") are regarded as ministers and counselors who assist others to achieve self-enlightenment. Auditors help others to identify their prebirth, current, and past-life disturbances, which are obstacles to happiness and spiritual enlightenment.

• Undeserved Suffering
Suffering occurs as part of the spirit's entrapment here in the physical universe. Only when the individual is aware of his spiritual nature can he identify his barriers within the universe and overcome them, rising out of a lower state and into a higher state of happiness and freedom.

• Contemporary Issues
Based on the belief that you cannot free yourself spiritually without working to free others, Scientology has founded and supports many organizations for social betterment, particularly in the areas of drug abuse, crime, psychiatric abuse, government abuse of law, human rights, religious freedom, education, and morality. Scientology strongly favors the use of their methodology for spiritual/mental healing over the use of conventional treatment.

Hope that helps.
For more information, do a Google search on the word Scientology.

Well I know we all believe in a guy that died and rose again three days later and claimed to be God - but the above is just loopy

[Lizard Man]

http://www.tomcruiseisnuts.com

Come on, I KNOW you people saw this coming.

[FFC]

Seems like a very self centered belief system.

[Turgonian]

And occult besides.

[Oriental]

• Belief in Deity
Scientology considers the belief in a God or gods as something personal and therefore offers no specific dogma. The nature of the Supreme Being is revealed personally through each individual as s/he becomes more conscious and spiritually aware. There exists a life energy or force (Theta) beyond and within all.

It sounds sort of unfounded, the part of "life energy" or "force" . If God's revelation is one personal to us I can't say. If so, it denies at least the miracles in Old Testaments, e.g. the ten disasters to Pharoah's and separation of Red Sea. These revelations were public in contrast to "personal" as scientologists believe.

• Incarnations
There are no particular human incarnations of God, as the universal life force (Theta) is inherent in all. All humans are immortal spiritual beings (thetans) capable of realizing a nearly godlike state through Scientology practices.

I think it is fallacious. In John 3:16, Jesus is God's one and only son. There is only one Messiah, and only one incarnation in human history. In my own words, I tend to think Jesus is a demonstration that having mortal bodies like us, we can be triumphant over death.

• Origin of Universe and Life
All is manifestation of the universal spirit, which is all that actually exists.

What is he talking about?

• After Death
Rebirths continue until one consciously confronts all pre-birth, current-life, and previous-life traumas and realizes one's true nature as a "thetan," immortal spirit--transcending matter, energy, space, and time. Achieving this state enables the spirit to escape the cycle of birth and death--to operate independently of the physical universe and become one with God.

It sounds like explaining Jesus's salvation with scientific terms which I guess no one has surety to use such an approach to look to it.

• Why Evil?
Painful experiences and harmful acts in one's prebirth, current, and past lives become imprinted in the reactive mind and lead to irrational behavior. Departures from rational thought and untrue ideas ("aberrations") can result in wrongdoing.

It is quite paradoxical.. though there seems to be absence of scriptural support, I am almost led to believe that it is true. So does it mean that our wrongdoing is sparked with an irritation of memory of painful experiences, consciously and sub-consciously in our mind? doubtful.

• Salvation
Salvation is achieved through the practices and techniques of Scientology, the ultimate goal of which is to realize one's true nature as an immortal spirit, a thetan. The path to salvation, or enlightenment, includes achieving states of increasingly greater mental awareness--Pre-Clear, Clear, and ultimately Operating Thetan. An Operating Thetan is a spirit who can control matter, energy, space, time, thought, and life. Practitioners ("Auditors") are regarded as ministers and counselors who assist others to achieve self-enlightenment. Auditors help others to identify their prebirth, current, and past-life disturbances, which are obstacles to happiness and spiritual enlightenment.

It looks like Qi-kong and some meditation that they believe can be realized to exert mysterious power oever physical universe - like fiction and magics. I won't try to deny because I don't know. I think it is a compromise to reach between scripture and secularism, when we find it hard to explain the truth in secular terms. It sounds more convincing.

• Undeserved Suffering
Suffering occurs as part of the spirit's entrapment here in the physical universe. Only when the individual is aware of his spiritual nature can he identify his barriers within the universe and overcome them, rising out of a lower state and into a higher state of happiness and freedom.

very hard to refute. it tries to explain human experience in secular terms. Because human experience is true, any explanation may sound plausible, quite dependent on listeners to accept or not on their own accounts.

• Contemporary Issues
Based on the belief that you cannot free yourself spiritually without working to free others,

Love the neighbors as we love to ourselves?

Scientology has founded and supports many organizations for social betterment, particularly in the areas of drug abuse, crime, psychiatric abuse, government abuse of law, human rights, religious freedom, education, and morality. Scientology strongly favors the use of their methodology for spiritual/mental healing over the use of conventional treatment.

It is beyond theological argument.

[non-affiliated]

From the research I've done on Scientology it is more or less a money making scheme. Began by L. Ron Hubbard for what some speculate to be an attempt at winning a wager with other Sci-fi writers of his time, Scientology requires believers to pay great sums of money in order to gain higher rank in the church. Scientologists also work very hard to silence their opposition. (see Paulette Cooper's well documented harassment)

[KrisW]

It only took me about a minute of reading L. Ron Hubbard's "Dianetics" to realize scientology is totally in comaptible with Christianity.

I flipped open to page they page that said "Man is basically a good creature".

[JCSx2]

There was coverage over Tom Cruise that Fox's sacked recently because of his being ardent advocate in a religion namely scientology...

Are there any thoughts about this religion? Is it a heresy?

Oriental.

In short it is a bunch of junk made up by L. Ron Hubbard

L. Ron Hubbard was quoted as saying back in the 50's or 60's "If you want to be rich invent a religion" and he did so at a later date.