I have read about scientology but don't think it is accurate. They believe that almost everyones problems are caused by the reactive mind which records all bad events that happen to people throughout their lives. It is pseudo science which most mainstream scientists reject.

I too reject it as I have read parts of their book Dianetics and don't agree with their ideas about there being a reactive mind which records all of peoples bad experiences and then uses them against the person.

It's easy to objectify any religion when you analyse the basis, Greystone!
Your logic over it's ridculousness makes does not make it any more ridculous than any other religion/sect/cult.

Jesus said,'it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven', yet that never stopped a shitload of rich people pretending to be christians!

Used to be agnostic, then I was atheist. Now I think I'm an antitheist. I believe that organised religions are harmful to societal development. I feel especially awkward at the notion of young children being indoctrinated with harmful religious dogma, and yet in the 21st century, we are still telling our children stories about gods, devils, homophobic/sexist rhetoric and introducing them to archaic rituals that relate to stuff that may or may not have happenned two thousand years ago in the middle east.

I don't think the theory behind scientology is (completely) wrong. (I read Dianetics years ago) I just think that it is used wrongly.
I.e.:
1. it is a moneymaking machine.
2. the more you get into it, the harder it is to get out

The general theory behind it is, as far as I can understand, right!


Sammy

Because they should. It is entirely worthy of the most sophisticated mockery known to man.


PS ever hear the story of the woman who wouldn't treat her very minor/treatable cancer because she was a scientologist? Yeah, because she died needlessly due to her beliefs. I would venture to say she could of used a few of the methods employed in the world of psychology regarding cult theories but that would go against everything she believed in--the key word being believed.

OR the family who WOULD NOT treat their son who was schizophrenic? He eventually couldn't take the voices in his head which kept telling him to kill the entire family... Yeah, that worked out real nice for all of them.

Isn't *anything* propaganda if you don't agree with it? If you believed what the 'propoganda' was saying you would call it a sensible argument...or whatever?
Someone said the other day
Its a religion if you believe in it
its a cult if you don't believe in it and dont understand it
its a sect if you dont believe in it and it scares the shite out of you
I don't knock anyone's religion/cult/sect - I'm Catholic and many a time i've had the piss taken but I can live with that. Each to their own.
I don't have any idea what scientology entails - i've never been interested enough to bother learning about it - so I'm not in a position to be for or against it.
But seeing as Tom Cruise and John Travolta have shoved it in our faces a bit thru the media the only impression of it that i've gleaned is "what a potty lot of crap"......but like i said a lot of people say that about the catholics so who am I to judge?!

I have read parts of Dianetics and its over simplistic view of the mind is plain wrong. It says that the reactive mind stores all the bad experiences a person has and uses them against them. But the mind does not work like that.
They think that every phobia and even phyiscal problem a person has can be traced back to a bad experience someone had, or even bad words they heard either while awake or asleep.
Remember that before starting Scientology Hubbard took his writtings to leading pychiatrists and they rebuffed him stating that his findings and ideas about the mind were wrong.