Who would win in this battle? Well the Catholic Church has the Pope, while the Scientology movement has Tom Cruise. Being agnostic, I would call this a tie. But being a reasonable human being I think the Pope is a better guy. The Pope has the entire Catholic Church behind him, and 2000 years of albeit fragmented history, that we call the Bible. It may not be accurate, it may not be definitive, it may even be misleading. But there is little in the bible that will take you down ‘the wrong road’.
The other big advantage with Catholicism is the price, they give Bibles away, as opposed to the Scientologists, rumor has it that they charge by the page. Actually the hot rumor is that they charge for everything. One would think that if they truly were a religion they would distribute the thoughts of their leader L. Ron Hubbard freely.
When you put the current Pope under the microscope, Benedict XVI you find a nice guy. OK, nice guy may not be politically correct, but that is what he is in my view. I have no issue with the Catholic Church, they have never done anything bad to me. The Catholic Church did come under great scrutiny over the predilection of young boys by members of the cloth. The Catholic Church has paid a heavy price as a consequence, but it has survived.
The Scientologists on the other hand, have lots of issues. I personally would never dream of joining a fee based religion. The Mormons supposedly pay 10%, no doubt that is to support the multiple wives!
What is being bandied about in this neck if the woods is Scientology costs a lot. Pope’s on the other hand pay for themselves. Pope’s can play in the Pope-mobile and have hundreds of thousands of fans.
The Church of Scientology, on the other hand, prefers Visa or Mastercard. I am sure that they are not against cash as another option.
My view as an onlooker is, Pope 1 Scientology -8 gazzilion!
Simon Barrett
27 users commented in " Catholicism V Scientology "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackMormons don’t have multiple wives,
you ignornant lazy blogger.
Educate yourself tardo!
Or get the hell off my internet!
pj
@pj
TRUE mormons do!!! And a harem of celestial wives awaits those of us who ascend to the highest level of the celestial kingdom!
Educate YOURSELF, you ignorant apostate!
JS
Scientology has gone to a good deal of trouble to place their basic books into libraries, thousands of libraries. That would be about 10 bibles, if you were counting. Then too, a good deal of basic Scientology is available on the net, as free introduction at Church and so on. Critics will chant “religion should be free”, while refusing to look in their public library. Or even considering the rather large of information that is free on the internet at Scientology websites.
As to who would be willing to battle? I don’t believe you will find either religion opposing the other, although once again you will find critics happily urging you to believe otherwise.
Free?? What????? You know, in Scientology, without “auditing” and other expensive-ass things, you cannot be “enlightened?” Libraries and such only draw depressed victims into a local ORG to be milked for cash. But, you probably knew that, Terryeo, you brainwashed CoS loser.
“The Church of Scientology, on the other hand, prefers Visa or Mastercard. I am sure that they are not against cash as another option.”
( Definately got that right, lol! )
Listen I was raised a Roman Catholic, and left that church when I became a scientologist. Thankfully I got out alive after 18 + years.Since then I have regained a tremendous appreciation for the christian faith, of which Scientology is the antithesis of.
FYI, the Catholic Church does not give bibles away that I know of, Rosaries maybe, but not bibles 🙂
That’s all I will venture to say on the comparison, as I never debate real religion against fraudulent cults. Best thing to do is hear L Ron Hubbard on: subjects like Christ and Roman Catholicism http://www.xenu.net/archive/multimedia.html
From “Assists” Lecture. 3rd October 1968. #10 of the confidential Class VIII series of lecture:
“The entirety of Roman Catholicism – the devil, all of this sort of thing – that is all part of R6.”
http://www.xenu.net/archive/media_vault/RomnCath.mp3
PS: I like the Pope better than Cruise, too 😉
It seems to me this blog is a good indicator of how much the typical journalist actually knows about anything.
The Gideons give bibles away by leaving them at hotels and motels. Many Christians give free bibles. Very rarely do Churches give Bibles for free and of course if they do they were paid for by the parishioners.
The LDS (Latter Day Saints) no longer practice polygamy but the FLDS (Fundamentalist LDS) do as we are reminded daily daily in the news. The original LDS stopped polygamy because of government persecution based on a new revelation. The FLDS split from the church because of that. Since then both branches have done quite well financially and anti-polygamy laws are pretty much no longer in force. Of course age of consent is and I am wondering when the FLDS will take separation of Church and State up to the Supreme Court. I guess the next thing will be human sacrifice. Most people may not be aware that separation of church and state was instigated by Jesuits planted in the colonies on the basis they had been kicked out of the Catholic Church but their mission was to get Catholicism into the new world which then belonged to the English and of course then only variations of Christianity were tolerated and the line was drawn at polygamy.
A similar phenomenom is also occurring with the Church of Scientology and the Freezone. (BTW, Freezone doesn’t mean the auditing is free.) If one were to do an exhaustive search regarding Scientology and conspiracies one just might be surprised to find many surprising similarities regarding persecution.
The Catholic church ask that all parishioners at least fithe(5%) which is half of tithing(10%). They also offer the sacraments: baptism, confessionals, weddings, christening and death rites at no cost as far as I know. Many Christian churches charge for that wedding ceremony though and not just for the license fees.
As it turns out you can not only get married, get your kids christened at a Scientology Churgh but you can actually go to free Dianetics and Self-Analysis seminars at a Scientology Org and learn how to achieve the state of clear and people actually do it. They also provide a confessional service for free. At some Scientology Organizations you can request an auditor to give you free auditing to handle mental crises. As it turns out Scientologist give out the Way to Happiness booklets to people for free all the time.
As an aside, as I notice the psychiatrists infiltrating the legion of Anonymous a lot, I will add that the psychiatrists and psychopharma don’t have tax exempt status but then they get paid directly by the government to diagnose kids as having ADD, etc, etc, when they act up in class and then administer psychotropics which is often called a chemical lobotomy (google “psychotropics lobotomies”). Is the lobotomy reversed when the kids stop taking them? Good question. Some kids are actually killed by these prescriptions(google “ritalin death”) Scientologists believe that the effects are irrversible even with their purification rundown. If you have been a psychotropics user and walk into an org they will tell you that you are welcome to try going up the bridge but you will have to do it on your own except for training if asked really convincingly. This is the reason why so much effort is made to obliterate psychiatry with education and abuse hotlines.
Will Scientology be brought down by Anonymous? A study of the history of the LDS would say not. Joseph Smith, the founder, was actually thrown in jail prior to being killed by a mob of angry people and then subsequently were persecuted for their polygamist beliefs.
Has Scientology committed horrible crimes and regardless of what they actually did will they be brought down. We might ask who burned Rome and what effect did that have on the Christian church.
It remains to be see as to what effect Anonymous might have on the CoS if any. Perhaps the only question remaining regarding Anonymous will be as to just how kindly they will be treated by history if they will be remembered at all.
Anonymous is not looking for a place in the history books. What is the point of being remembered anonymously? Anonymous gets its lulz from exposing Scientology for the fraud that it truly is.
Mary McConnell is correct. L. Ron Hubbard teaches in his writings that all of Christianity is falsely implanted memory called R6. Hubbard’s notion of “thetans” comes straight out of ancient gnostic heresy. The fundamental structure of Scientology (i.e. “the Bridge”) is identical to that of an Egyptian mystery cult.
Curiouser said:
“As it turns out you can not only get married, get your kids christened at a Scientology Churgh but you can actually go to free Dianetics and Self-Analysis seminars at a Scientology Org and learn how to achieve the state of clear and people actually do it. They also provide a confessional service for free. At some Scientology Organizations you can request an auditor to give you free auditing to handle mental crises.”
During Scientology auditing, the subject is encouraged to relive traumatic experiences and confess guilt. This information is then put in what is called a “pre-clear file” where it can then be used to harass and blackmail the subject if they consider leaving Scientology.
A Catholic priest who violates the privacy of confession faces automatic and immediate excommunication. In Scientology, your confessions are kept on file forever, but one can have them purged if they recruit a celebrity. There is really no comparison between Catholicism and Scientology.
Terryeo! Representin’ the Chult 247!
I wonder, terryeo, why is it your name link goes to wikinfo, and not wikipedia?
Could it be because there are troubling moments in the past of the Cult of $cientology that you’d rather were hidden?
Perhaps that the cult bought out the Cult awareness Network?
Or the part they played in the death of Lisa MacPherson?
Or the unfortunate story of the death of Shawn Lonsdale? Heck, people might even find out that Quentin Hubbard committed suicide, unable to face more time in the RPF, the punishment wing of his homophobic father’s organisation.
Or maybe you are scared that people will find out that Lafayette Ron Hubbard was pals with renowned occultist, Jack Parsons, and even dabbled in the old satanic occultim himself.
Heck, that might even lead people to read that story about Hubbard and Parsons trying to raise the anti-christ(Hey, maybe they had a really valid reason for trying to bring about the apocalypse).
You guys are taking this article way too seriously.. It’s like 30% facts, 30% jokes, and 40% opinions.
hah! brilliant! the ‘church’ really don’t do well under examination, do they?
have you seen this, cherryeo?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1083100102009309014
this is how they deal with folk who look into their shit.
You’re makin’ me laugh Cherryeo. Really. Reading you guys is such lulz. How many generals have said something like, “know your enemy?” If you want to stop something, you are well advised to understand what you are dealing with. My link spells out this most basic idea. It presents the foundational concept, the idea upon which Scientology was created, named and built. Understand that basic idea or refuse to understand it, that’s up to you. But if you see it, you would laugh too.
king of truth said:
“hah! brilliant! the ‘church’ really don’t do well under examination, do they?”
Oh, sure they do. As Curiouser above points out, when one examines Scientology closely (and neutrally), the similarities between Scientology and the world’s other great religions are very apparent.
Additionally, the various myths, anecdotes and stories associated with Scientology are pretty well vetted and/or debunked at this link:
http://scientologymyths.info
——
The main issue of the article above is the “cost associated with being a Scientologist” and … and bottom line, when you spread out 5-10% of your income over an adult lifetime, you’re looking at the same “cost” associated with Scientology that you find with most other religions (i.e. a devout Scientologist would pay/donate over a lifetime what a devout member of most other religions would pay/donate over a lifetime).
Further, as in most other religions, Scientology doesn’t “require” donations in order to call oneself a Scientologist, and one doesn’t have to call oneself a Scientologist in order to benefit from Scientology philosophies and methods.
“Some Christian Pastors Embrace Scientology”
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/31/christian.scientology/index.html?iref=newssearch
Let’s see….
Catholisism is thousands of years old, the basis for modern Christianity (although that really ticks off Protestants), respects life and family, and encourates freedom, full disclosure, and the golden rule.
Scientology is 50 years old, the basis for many deaths, bankruptsies, and suicides. Respects cash (or check), believes gold IS the rule, has a pay-for-play structure much like Warcraft or any other MMO, refuses to tell new recruits what it is REALLY all about until they have paid thousands of dollars or signed a one billion year work contract, breaks-up families to protect their cultish secrets. Stalks and harasses any ex-members and critics. Owns copyrights and is sue-happy.
Not really a contest. Feel free to choose what you like, or neither. Yet, only ONE of the above listed two is actually a dangerous cult.
Jonestown
Branch-Davidian
and the cycle continues.
It’s all fun and games until a big ugly standoff.
I’m not a Scientologist but maybe it could help the people who are attacking it with their crimes.
@Angela Gupta Bruce Benson Nina Reyes07
Um, did that make ANY sense to any non-scientologists? Yeah, didn’t think so. First of all, if you are here to represent your ‘religion’, you shouldn’t start off by lying. “I’m not a Scientologist but…” and then follow it with crazy scieno-babble that pretty much identifies who you represent. That and your identity is well-known on comment sections of Scientology related articles. Did policy letters come down dictating that you start off posts with that disclaimer of denial? Has your organization reached a new mixture of deciet and ignorance? Pro Tip: If you want to lie to the public and claim to not be a member of Scientology, use a unknown name, and don’t use Scientology branded expressions that don’t translate to real world people. Years of isolation have really done a number on your sense of how normal people think, act, and speak. Also, don’t assume that we are stupid enough to fall for misdirection.
Scientology has gone to a good deal of trouble to place their basic books into libraries, thousands of libraries.
Way to copy and paste your entire speech, Terryeo Speedwagon.
How come only the “basic” books? Why isn’t all of Scientology’s reading material available? Why do I need to buy in to read them, as opposed to doing research and reading all of it beforehand, then maybe join?
How many generals have said something like, “know your enemy?”
We know more about you than you ever will about us, even with your pockets of Private Investigators. But you see, we had to look around. Scientology only offers the clean, bright, shiny intro. The library fodder doesn’t go anywhere near the dog that eats people and poops them out.
I will add that the psychiatrists and psychopharma don’t have tax exempt status but then they get paid directly by the government to diagnose kids as having ADD, etc, etc, when they act up in class and then administer psychotropics which is often called a chemical lobotomy (google “psychotropics lobotomies”).
So what about the psychiatrists like myself who prefer to -never- suggest medication? Also, lobotomies aren’t done anymore. Drugs are never offered as a cure. They’re offered as a management assistant. There are tons of psychiatrists who don’t get paid at all by the government. “private practice”– it’s not hard to understand.
Oh, sure they do. As Curiouser above points out, when one examines Scientology closely (and neutrally), the similarities between Scientology and the world’s other great religions are very apparent.
That’s only on the surface of Scientology, but even then, there are vast differences. Certainly, you don’t see too many of the Jewish faith running around places and harassing people to admit made-up crimes, or poisoning cats.
Tell me, OSA seeds, how come the Freezone folks are persecuted by you, when their differences are:
-Lack of REQUIRED funds
-Abolishment of Disconnection policy
-Abolishment of SP, PTS, Fair Game, R245
-Option to leave at any time
…to name a few.
Tell me, why is it that only non-scientologists apparently commit crimes? How come LRH hated psychs, but died with notable amounts of Vistaril in his bloodstream? Why do Scientologists still believe that psychiatry is a nazi science, when it was born over 120 years ago, long before the Nazi Party existed?
Why the pharmaceutical conspiracy theories? How come Operation Snow White was an order from the CoS top brass? Why do so many critics of the CoS end up dead, harassed, stalked, or even beaten? Why was Operation Freakout carried out?
How come Scientology teaches that the brain is nothing but a shock absorber for electrical currents, yet the CoS prides Dianetics as being the perfect image of science– when not a single claim in the book stands up to basic Scientific Method?
You know, even on a few hours of sleep, it’s still easy enough to counter everything these OSA seeds say.
how many generals have said know your enemy?
well, sun tzu said it in the art of war. every other instance is just a cover version. you clealy haven’t read the book, as you are deonstrating that you have completely misunderstood the principles.
further, i think it’s funny that terryeo assumes people haven’t read the scientology sites AS WELL AS the critics sites.
i have. for example, i know that tom cruise did loads of work with WTC firemen, and that sees to be a good thing he was doing. i just don’t think that counters his membership of an organisation that also held lisa macpherson for over two weeks and then dropped her off, dead, at a hospital.
tell me, terryeo, where does it talk about lisa on the scientology website? or kaja ballo? or quentin hubbard? or the rest at http://www.whyaretheydead.net?
if i want to ‘know my enemy'(which, by the way assumes there are battle lines, which i don’t feel there need to be), why would i ask my enemy?
sun tzu wouldn’t rely on the general he was facing for intelligence on the force he commanded, why the hell should anyone ask the chult about the chult?
L Ron hubbard was a liar and a charlatan, and his only immortality is this, his existence as an example of what an egomaniac can do with a modicum of intelligence and some mind control principles.
one of his sons killed himself, and the other changed hs name to distance himself from his dad.
if dianetics works as claimed, how do you explain that family’s break up?
also, he lied about his war record. war records are publicly checkable. show me a link to hubbards from a government site.
you can’t, because members of the cult that is his curse are the only ones perpetuating that lie.
all these lies and coverups, and you suggest they are the best source for info on themselves?
you are clearly delusional.
dead. and why?
Lisa McPherson (36)
Heribert Pfaff (31)
Josephus Havenith (45)
Noah Lottic (24)
Stacy Grove Meyer (20)
Susan Meister (23)
Roberto Deplano (20)
Paride Ella (22)
Giuseppe Tomba (26)
Gabriella Bramucci (55)
Wilhelm Mack (37)
Michael Leube (10)
Bob Mills (41)
Quentin Hubbard (22)
John Buchanan
Nancy Graham (54)
Richard Collins (24)
Patrice Vic (31)
Albert Jaquier (59)
Rudolf Willems
Karen Simon
Diane Colletto
Rodney Rimando (21)
Carrie Slaughterbeck (23)
Andreas Ostertag (38)
Peter Ernst Frei (37)
Ed Brewer
Gregory Bradford Wisner (27)
Pius Keel (22)
Konrad Aigner (43)
Jocelyne Dorfmann (34)
and there are more.
google will help you fid out more, and the cult of scientology will not.
i challenge you to show me a COS site that talks about these people’s deaths, and explains why so many were suicidal despite being trained in dianetics.
i challenge terryeo to tell me where i can know this part of the enemy, as his framing would have it.
i challenge him to show me a CoS document explaining the death of Quentin Hubard, Elron’s gay son.
he can’t, and yet he says we should trust his cult and learn from them.
“Scientology has gone to a good deal of trouble to place their basic books into libraries, thousands of libraries.”
Terryeo…you are right as rain. Also I’ve discovered the full set of OT1-OT8 here:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Church_of_Scientology_collected_Operating_Thetan_documents
And it’s FREE! You guys are making progress.
You should read it this weekend and surprise everyone monday morning at work!
“But there is little in the bible that will take you down ‘the wrong road’”
OH MY GOD!! Did you actually say that?! Clearly you missed 90% of the history of the Catholic Church?! Do you have any idea how many thousands of people have died as a direct result of Catholicism in the past 2000 years?! Scientology’s reputation is flawless by comparison!
I’m not sure how you’re comparing things that happened many years ago that the Catholic Church not only owned up to, but reformed so that those things don’t happen again, to Scientology’s continuing cover-ups and crimes, davestone78. Notice the difference? You can’t hold people accountable for actions done by other people, much less events that occured lifetimes ago. What you can hold people accountable for are recent actions that have yet to be reformed.
David Miscavige and Tom Cruise, the heads of the cult, coerce women working for Scientology to have abortions. I do not know why the entire pro-life movement is not up in arms about this. Particularly, Los Angeles Cardinal Mahoney: these things are happening in his Archdiocese. The pro-life movement can make a real difference in abolishing the practice of coerced abortions in the Church of Scientology. Please Cardinal Mahoney, act now.
Ahh, Mr.King. You miss what is said because you reply only to antagonism and potential antagonism. Some topics simply don’t lend themselves to assimilation, while you feel antagonistic. Good luck with that.
Ha ha ha! I don’t know anything about Scientology, but using the Catholic Church as a ‘good example’ is funny as shit. Let’s do a small list, shall we:
The Inquisition?
Galileo?
Moving pedophile priests around to hide their crimes?
Pick another organized religion for your comparison, please. The history of the Catholic Church is a history of repression, championing ignorance, and intolerance.
Having a religious blog that garners this much attention gives you a platform that you can use however you choose. I would encourage you to read up on Mormonism and Scientology before heading to your keyboard to “enlighten” the masses. I know very little about Scientology, but am well informed about Mormonism as I’ve had a Mormon upbringing that has provided me with the kind of close-knit family values for which our church is famous.
It seems to me that you have picked up some of the misconceptions that are commonly circulated about my religion, so it’s also possible that that is the case with your knowledge of Scientology as well. Knowledge is power so you should read up, rather than making these one-sided battles of wit with people of opposing religious views unarmed a habit. This is just a suggestion, so do with it as you will.
At this time allow me to share a fact that many people do not know about the Mormon religion and are often surprised to learn: we read, study, and believe the Bible to be the word of God given to his prophets. In fact, many of us enjoy sharing the occasional scripture.
One of my favorite scriptures is Matthew 7:1, “Judge not that ye be not judged.” This is one that most of struggle with. That’s okay, though because no one is perfect, we’re just on this Earth to learn and grow from our mistakes while we continue in our pursuit of that unobtainable perfection.
One last Mormon fact, this coming from less biased sources than my own Mormon self (but only slightly less biased, since they are mostly comments from friends and neighbors of LDS church members): While you often here complaints about us from people who don’t want our missionaries at their door, you are far more likely to hear good-natured comments about LDS members if you talk to someone who knows one of us personally. Some of these compliments are cloaked inside a comment indicating a lack of knowledge in our beliefs, such as “Even though they believe in some really strange stuff, when I was sick, my Mormon neighbor brought over dinner. They are really kind, honest people.” This is something that most of strive for. No, I am not saying that being Mormon means you’re perfect. That is a generalization and humans are complex enough that they can’t be compartmentalized quite that simply. Our religion does have a high moral standard that we set to follow with various degrees of success, and all any of us can do is our best.
Where other religions are concerned, we generally remain respectful. While my chosen religion’s views may differ from those found in Catholicism, I doubt Jesus would approve if I decided to publicly denounce those beiefs. Even though they are nothing like my own, they are upheld in the hearts of families who trust these views because they are the guidelines of the religion they have chosen and believe in. My opinion is that the personal choices of others, whether like my own or not, should never be ridiculed and treated disrespectfully.
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