Wikileaks exposes Scientology's zeal to 'clean up rotten spots of society'

Legal Leaks

The "document" (HA) was obviously put together by the individual whose name and identifications appear at its beginning. Some of it headed with a dated in a different font than the type that follows. Authentic would be nice, but it looks like WIkileaks is perfectly willing to accept hand typed "documents", too. In the long run I would bet a Euro Wikileaks plans to challenge legality in a hundred ways. In the long run I would bet we are going to see international law, cooperation among nations, more cooperative law enforcement, because Wikileaks feels compelled to "expose" these trivial matters.

@ Terryeo

Nice try, Scientocultist.

How can I put this?

Published psychology papers show that people who think about violence are more likely to commit violent crimes. Nobody seems to want to question the definitions of a person who commits violent crimes (one who is caught) or that the data on thoughts came from the subject's own confession, nor of the fact that this can also be taken as simply that people who confess to things get caught.

With this being passed as science you can understand some of the attraction of an organised religion primarily founded on its being bull.

all scams

Unfortunately, the whole "tax free" religious thing is a really nice scam that continues to haunt many governments. Some of the towns around here have a church almost on every corner - all not paying property taxes, but all expecting police/fire protection and roads to their door, and all the other things that taxes pay.

I for one am getting tired of subsidizing all the crazy religious nutjobs that I disagree with. If someones religion requires them to own lots of property, that should NOT be a protected "right". Protect BELIEF, not land. Let them pay the same taxes as everyone else. It's time our secular governments got off the pot and gave the heave-ho to these scammers. All of them.

Swallowing the Scn camel and straining at a gnat

If one manages to untangle 23:23's grammar his/her argument seems to amount to the following:

"I have heard about scientific studies which don't seem very scientific to me. They don't seem very scientific to me because I can think of other explanations for the data besides the ones the researchers reached.

"I don't know much about these studies, as you can tell by the fact that I can only describe them very vaguely. However, I have chosen these studies to represent all of mainstream science. Obviously, since these studies (at least in my vague summary) are completely BS, the only other alternative that makes sense -- OBVIOUSLY -- is an organized religion! Such a religion would be based on the following principles:

"* these studies I refer to vaguely are NOT science;

"* sticking tin cans attached to a primitive ohmmeter into someone's hands and claiming it can read their thoughts (and that those thoughts, as "mental mass", have a weight that will register on a conventional scale) IS science;

"* claiming that someone has a rash on their backside because their mother asked for an aspirin when they were in the womb and their little fetal ears heard it as "ass burn" IS science;

"* claiming that it's not only safe to stick someone in a sauna for hours on end and give them doses of niacin far above the level at which niacin is known to do liver damage, but that it will actually make any drugs or toxins trapped in their fatty tissues (including the ones that are water-soluble and won't be in their fatty tissues to begin with) come out through their skin as colorful ooze, IS science, because a science-fiction writer who dropped out of college said it was so."

Sorry, 23:23. There are some poorly done scientific studies out there, yes. But never, not even in comparison to the WORST ones you can find, will Scientology EVER look sensible or respectable.

cults become religions

Even cults started and run by criminals or the criminally insane. Look at Christian Science and the Mormons. I don't think anyone would argue that members of those are anything other than ordinary middle class people now?

So what's the current status of Scientology? Is this leak current, or more stuff from 20 years ago?

Wow...

This cult has me infuriated. They are now posting videos on YouTube posing as Anonymous and making death threats against people who have nothing to do with anything. Of course they don't allow ratings or comments on these videos to stop Anonymous from discrediting them. The CoS does not realize that these actions will strengthen the resolve of Anonymous and will make the collective grow and grow to a point where they will outnumbers members of the CoS. If you are aware of all of the CoS' atrocities both past and present and want to do something about it then you too are Anonymous. Anonymous has no leadership and no official membership requirements.

If you want the REAL, UNFILTERED DATA on why Anonymous is doing what it does, go to march15.org, youfoundthecard.com and finally, enturbulation.org.

If you want to read numerous accounts of life inside the CoS from people who have left, go to exscientologykids.com.

Where is the line?

Where is the line between a religion and a cult?

I'm not calling anything in particular a religion or a cult. I'm not sticking up for or condemning any organization or group, despite having my own membership and likes/dislikes. But I have thought about this, and I can't produce an answer.

A religion is...?

A cult is...?

It seems to me this is similar to the whole "what is marriage" thing we here in The States are struggling with. There are multiple definitions, and the government gives things to people who are married, and therefore has a horse in the race of defining marriage, even though it's not clear it should. (It's not clear it shouldn't, either.)

There are two definitions I can come up with.

The first, my own thinking (although perhaps not novel), is that a religion is anything calling itself a religion that happens to be true. So we just have to prove the existence of God*, go talk to him, ask him some questions, and we'll have that sorted out. (*Or Allah, or multiple gods, or whatever other higher powers are supposed to exist by the calling-itself-a-religion in question.)

The second is something I heard a long time ago: the difference between a cult and a religion is the size of its membership.

Please, someone, put forth some superior definitions.

Title Goes Here

If you want a laugh, go to Tottenham Court Road and take the "free stress test" offered by the CoS (just a short walk from Goodge Street station)

Within minutes they're giving you a speech about how stresed you are and how the book they have large piles off sitting around will help you become unstressed....

I've been half tempted to sign up to their brand of crazy simply to find out how screwed up they really are...

Superstitious nomark bastards

scientology idiots seem to believe in an afterlife and magic spirits. When they are just about to die they can repent and beg the "real" god for mercy, the god of Abraham, the garden of Eden dude. When facing death they all chicken out. It is a cowards cult after all.

Bunch of nutters

I hope El Reg is ok with dealing with this bunch of weirdos.

I think it is very well known that when ever an article about this pseudo religion goes up on any site, their amry of Lord Xeenu fanboys will flock to the available comments section in order to prove to everyone that their legally approved factets show that we are all dumb and they are all correct.

No doubt we have all been profiled and catalogued by these lovely people as soon as we read the story.

Now, can someone pass me my tinfoil hat please?

@amanfrommars

"Which is, Iglethal?"

Surprising that you spelled lglethal with a capital i there instead of a small L, amanfrommars. Not very copy-paste there...

More on topic, I agree with the thoughts above on religion's exemption from many many things. Free thought and free speech, go for it, with the old quotation that went something like "I may disagree with what you say, but I will fight for your right to say it". Charities get tax exemption; if a religion is categorised as a kind of charity for the entertainment and moral straightening of at least part of the community, then I'm all for it. But the utter polarity of religion as a be-all and end-all (whether considering traditional or CoS) is taking it too far.

Bigger fish than Scientology

Scientology always amuses me, where is the harm really, they are like any other religion, in some ways they are more open about it.

I am not sure where the motivation comes from to go after them, so yes I am beginning to think it is the OCD crowd, picking on a low level target. You are not forced to join them or pay them, unlike some of the organizations we do have in place.

Scientology does bite back though, not as harshly as some of our institutions, but they do seem to have some fight in them. I think it is the brainwashing of modern Christianity that has caused this, combined with media psyops to create a distracting element to take the heat off the real problems a society may face. So, yes when looked at objectively Scientology is a good scape goat, a whipping boy used to bury other stories that have more impact on our lives.

Apatheist

I used to be an atheist but I found myself getting so annoyed by other fundamentalist atheists (E.g.: Dawkins) that I now take an apatheist attitude.

I still think organised religions/cults are dangerous, not just to society as a whole, but also to their own followers. But, if it wasn't religions it would be the government, or something else.

Also, it's an interesting look people get on their face when you tell them you don't give a flying feck if there [is a god|are gods] or not. :-)

No contract...

There does not seem to be any consideration so the contract won't be binding (neither in England nor in the US).

Re: Michael

"The people chasing scientologists are just obsessive compulsive. Once they were the obsessive compulsives that believe Scientology is all true - reading and writing the same asinine documents they are now exposing.

Now they are obsessive compulsive that it's not true. But, anyone sane can see that it's bollocks anyway, so what's the great exposé?"

The bollocks *is* the great exposé. Without ex-victims to release that stuff we would only have the public image, which is that Scientology is basically a self-help group giving you guidance on how to live and providing an alternative to clinical, academic psychology. We would probably see it as a somewhat kooky but harmless group with some token celebrities in tow, of no more interest than Kabbalah and Madonna. We would have no idea that they believe that everyone is infected by alien souls dumped into a volcano by an evil emperor from outer space.

Where's the harm?

www.whyaretheydead.net/

No go tell their families that it doesn't matter because some other religion did something worse 500 years ago.

"The first, my own thinking (although perhaps not novel), is that a religion is anything calling itself a religion that happens to be true. So we just have to prove the existence of God*, go talk to him, ask him some questions, and we'll have that sorted out. (*Or Allah, or multiple gods, or whatever other higher powers are supposed to exist by the calling-itself-a-religion in question.)"

Unless you've met Xenu for a chat, then that makes scientology a cult just like Christianity, Islam, Judaism etc. Who has ever said that the definition of a religion includes "something that is true"?

"With this [psychology] being passed as science you can understand some of the attraction of an organised religion primarily founded on its being bull."

Founded by a paranoid schizophrenic second rate sci-fi author who believed that millions of years ago the evil galatic ruler Xenu dealt with overpopulation by slaughtering billions of aliens by dropping them in volcanoes on Earth (then known as Teegeeack) and then nuking the volcanoes. He then captured and brainwashed their souls with videos about ancient Earth history so that they ended up attaching themselves to early humans and are the cause of all of our neurosis and problems up to this very day.

You're right. That's a far more plausible than the idea that people who think about violence a lot might be more likely to commit violent acts.

The only true sauce of enlightenment is His Noodly Goodness himself.

RAmen