Anonymous vs. Scientology
 

Has anyone else been hearing about this? If you haven't, here's the short version as I understand it: Apparently after Tom Cruise went insane on YouTube, Scientology tried to have the video removed, and Anonymous (an internet group) was offended at the idea of internet censorship and declared war on Scientology.

Fast-forward to recent times, when I heard about all of this after the BBC picked up this story about a teenage boy in London being given a court summons for using the word 'cult' on a protest sign about Scientology. Um...free speech, anyone? I'm glad I have a First Amendment - I had no idea the situation in the UK was so bad.

On a sadder note, after my interest was piqued and I started researching all of this, I found out that a young man named Noah Lottick, an ATO, committed suicide after becoming involved with Scientology.

There's so much horrifying stuff related to Scientology that I never even knew about. I thought it was a harmless Hollywood fad, but apparently not. Scary! I hope the Anonymous members' fight brings more media attention to all of this!

I am very religiously tolerant and feel that everyone has the right to their own spirituality. I studied a lot of religions before choosing the right one for ME. Scientology was one I looked into.
It's... well... different.
One aspect, the auditing, seemed counterintuitive to me. An example is the best way to explain.
Say you are having headaches. You don't go to the doctor, you go get audited (which is a form of hynosis) and after many sessions you finally discover that three lives ago you were murdered by someone hitting you on the head with an axe. THis is causing the current headaches. Now you have to continue to audit to deal with this previous death of yours and that will help alleviate the headaches.
Did I mention you have to pay like $200 a session?
And they believe that an alien sent alien souls to the earth to inhabit our bodies. A bit odd for me.
Anywa3y, just some info on Scientology. I am not expert but those two items alone made me decide not to continue my study.

It's funny to me how the environment can be like that in the UK, while in Germany, where I live, they don't tolerate the presence of Scientology AT ALL. In fact, the interior ministers declared Scientology unconstitutional in hopes to rid Germany of its presence.

I'm very tolerant as well. I think Scientologists are entitled to believe any damned thing they want to.

Where I draw the line is their infiltration of the IRS and stealing of sensitive government information (Operation Snow White) in order to get tax exempt status.

I also draw their line with their "fair game" policy, that allows the filing of frivolous civil actions, harassment, slander, the bringing of false criminal charges, etc., against their critics.

Since Scientology provides services (classes, audits, etc.) and charges for them, I don't think they ought to be tax-exempt.

On another note...

The Cult Awareness Network is owned by Scientology. They bought the rights to the name when the CAN went bankrupt. So, if you want unbiased info on whether Scientology is a cult...don't call them.

My brother knew a couple who were into Scientology back in the 1980's. When they left, they kept finding rattlesnakes in their mailbox on a daily basis.

I have zero tolerance with rattlesnakes.

I'm sorry, since this is a somewhat serious topic, but that made me laugh.

When he first told me, I laughed, too - I thought it was a joke. But it was anything but!