Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology

@Adam Foxton

http://www.google.com/search?q=Richard+pearse

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pearse1.html

lol

I am surprised more CoS cultists havent already plagued this with their normal drivel.

I think it is a fine move by Wikipedia to block these edits, unfortunately there are a lot of people out there who think that Wikipedia contains nothing but cold hard facts - which of course it doesnt (well, most of the time). These easily influenced people may start to think that the whole CoS thing is in fact a legitimate religion, instead of the brainwashing money grabbing cult it is. This would be a very bad thing.

However, with my serious hat on - shouldnt Wikipedia also be making sure that people dont publish false material as well? We are all grown up enough to recognise the CoS as a glorified pyramid selling scheme (with added volcanos and aliens etc), but do we need to have people defacing articles on Wikipedia?

With my serious hat off, the answer is yes.

The answer is clear!

Let's all start wikifiddling the Co$ pages!!

What is the point

That won't work, all they will do is use a proxy and/or a bunch a new accounts, although I like the idea of making it a pain for them.

I would simply ban all their input to a single page, make it neutral, lock it and then restrict them to the discussions pages.

It works for everyone else.

They can argue their souls away on the discussions pages as nobody even cares about them never mind their discussions.

Sounds like a bad move

Wouldn't it be better to divide a hotly contested page into panels containing pro/anti viewpoint versions with a locked leader panel to introduce the debate.

A panel of adjudictors (or experts) representing each side of the debate would be each responsible for moderatoing the pro-/anti revision groupings. The identity of moderators for each side would be available alongside evidence of their claim to being a credible authority and the process for selecting moderators would have to be democratic, fair and open to question.

To me it seems that Topic -> Viewpoint is a 1..n relationship where the plurality of opinion demands that a single version will frequently be unsatisfactory unless consenus exists.

Censorship sounds like the wrong solution here, one that will by implication open further cans of worms.

Pingu because everyone knows that penguins not thetans rule the universe!

Oh really..

> So one Cult does not want to have itself sullied by another cult then?

Wikipedia is a free to use online encyclopedia. It is one of a multitude of online voices which may or may not agree with yours. It doesn't charge you to use its service nor does it use psycholgical coersion in an attempt to extort money from you. Furthermore it doesn't try to pressure you if stop using its service.

@Religious prejudice

"Anyone desiring information about the Scientology religion should visit the Church web site at www.Scientology.org to form their own opinions"

OK, I've done that and here are my initial findings:

"The word Scientology literally means "the study of truth." It comes from the Latin word "scio" meaning "knowing in the fullest sense of the word" and the Greek word "logos" meaning "study of."" (source http://www.scientology.org/home.html)

Actually the Latin word is 'scientia' and it means "knowledge, science, or skill" (source: http://archives.nd.edu/sss.htm). Scio means "to know, understand", but this would make the dog-word 'Sciology', not 'Scientology' (same source).

Which means Scientology means the study of science, or the study of knowledge, or the study of skill(s).

It doesn't mean study of truth because the Latin word for truth is 'Veritas' (source: http://archives.nd.edu/vvv.htm), and therefore the dog-word for "study of truth" would be Veritology, or something similar.

Based on these initial findings I have concluded:

The Church of Scientology doesn't know how to do a basic google search for Latin terms and also doesn't know shit about forming Greek/Latin dog-words;

The Church of Scientology's 'search for truth' doesn't, apparently, involve getting some basic facts right, such as the meaning of the name of their church;

Given the above maybe the Church should consider changing its name to either The Church of Epistemology (Epistemology being the study of truth), or - if they're particularly drawn to the idea that the church be 'literally' the study of truth - why not just call themselves the Church of the Study of Truth and then it really would be, literally the Church of the Study of Truth, or perhaps the Church of the People Who Know Shit About Latin?

Paris also knows shit about Latin. She'd make a great Scientologist.

Wikipedia vs. Scientology

Cripple Fight!

Mine's the one with the e-meter in the pocket.

Co$ (yes laughing at you not with you)

"The vast majority of what I read on Wikipedia is rumor and slander. The whole purpose of Scientology knowledge application and procedure is to increase an individual’s understanding and awareness of himself as a spiritual being and to rehabilitate his native abilities and potential."

HaHaHaHa thats just brilliant but if i give you $$$$$ what is the assurance that i'll find my spiritual awareness, native abilitys and potential. Because as they say photos/linkz or it didn't happen.

I'll be honest with you i think i'd find more spiritual awareness, native abilitys and potential in the GoGo bars in Thailand than in some cult.

And PS the Same as Gordon Brown thinking he's the best PM in history doesn't make it fact, same as the good old Co$ thinking its a religion (your a money gradding cult (yes one up from a death cult but not by much)).

PPS what is Co$ hell? maybe your an evil reli-goon and the Church of Physicology is the good to your evil? or the church of Mathematicology? Church of alternative-remedysology? Church of i'm-stupid-and-have to-much-money-ology?

PPPS does that make Ron L Hubbard (below par Sci-Fi writer) your equvilant of Jesus?

The proof of $ci-dog word

Don't you think Tom Cruise is getting taller?

Obligatory

L. Ron Hoover:

Well, you have nothing

to fear, my son!

You are a Latent

Appliance Fetishist,

It appears to me!

Joe:

That all seems very,

very strange

I never craved

a toaster

Or a color T.V.

Thanks Patrick! 0805 29/05

"This book by an Irish escapee from Scientology is rather good if you're interested in reading about the topic. Scientology has scared UK bookstores into not selling it:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/11/amazon_pulls_scientology_expose/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complex_%28book%29 but you can still buy it from Ireland http://www.eason.ie/look/9781903582848 or US Amazon."

Thanks Patrick, I've been after a copy of that for a while now after Waterstones accepted my order then cancelled it and removed the item from their virtual shelves.... Amazon US wouldn't ship to the UK. Just ordered my copy from Eason, and am eagerly awaiting!

Fark

Did anyone notice this in the Fark comments for the El Reg story:

"I hope Wikipedia doesn't wind up like the Cult Awareness Network, which was sued by Scientology and is now run by them. Guess which cult isn't covered? Go ahead, guess. It's ok. I'm not here to judge you."

I don't know how true the statement is completely, but in the C.A.N "about us" section it does mention that the treasurer is a $cientologist. (I would guess that the others listed probably are as well, remember some of those involved with hermeticism and the Golden Dawn were Anglican ministers).

Sorry amanfrommars - there's no other xenu pic to use.

Oh just go away please?

"The whole purpose of Scientology knowledge application and procedure is to con the lonely and desperate into handing over their hard earned in exchange for a load of kooky twaddle and dubious self help pamphlets"

Sounds like every bl**dy religion I have come across, quit frankly!

If someone is in need of validation so badly they believe in beings from other worlds or dimensions, then leave 'em to it, just stay the hell away from me, my country's political system and especially my country's Police force, "Old Mother" Hubbard!!!!

All religions are cults, that's how they start, we use the term religion to describe a large cult, but cult none the less! Everything it seems can absolved by playing the "my religion" card to attempt to get out of paying taxes, banging pros in hotel rooms, kiddie fiddling, bribing authorities, the list goes on. Like Mr Dawkins, if I screw up, I have free will, I made the decision to do XYZ and will have to take the consequences. It's called being responsible for your own actions, a term most religious zealots find alien, no pun intended Hubbard Squad!

@ AC 07:59 GMT

I'll think you'll find, that religion was started because one womans lie about having an affair got out of hand !

Dangerous Cult

Not a bad start! Now if we can remove them from Europe I'll be truly happy. :D

Ban them, they are a cult not a religion, religions are open in most of their practices, cults hide what they do from outsiders. Cults are bad for people.

So let see what I know about Co$, well you have a shop on TCR where you try to trick people into talking to you with a "free personality test" I always thought it was funny, because the people offering it looked like overtired zombies.

Then there was your attempt to hold a rally in Trafalgar Square, thats right our ex-mayor called you a dangerous cult, and banned your sorry, scamming, arses.

I was in Amsterdam last year and saw a huge demo against your business/dangerous cult (you call it religion, it aint tho is it), 'what did the cult do to provoke this' I asked, 'oh they want to ban weed' oh my f#ck did I laugh!

Who is the realist...

> at least it's vaguely possible to keep up some kind of conversation with me, and track me across various discussions with a certain degree of continuity.

You not noticed that El Reg doesn't enforce uniqueness of pseudonyms then? Hence the proliferation of "Steve's" posting here (of whom there are at least two).

I am of course the true authoritative Steve and the other Steve is a mere imposter trying to impersonate me...

Socks

"...it seems that they're funneling a lot of editing traffic through a few IPs, which make socks impossible to track."

Aha! That explains why they never come out of the washing machine in pairs!

@Steve 12:42

I got caught by the "Personality Test" crowd once in Switzerland, after he tried French, German and Italian I made the mistake of replying in English which he spoke too (sometimes I wish I was a Gallic speaker)

Three things stick in my mind from the whole experience: dissolving in helpless laughter because at least half the questions were used as lyrics in Faith No More's Land of Sunshine; trying to explain what a cynic was to a non-native English speaker and having a copy of Dianetics thrust at me which I took then being asked to pay for it to which I responded "My Arse" and threw it back.

C.A.N?

"I don't know how true the statement is completely, but in the C.A.N "about us" section it does mention that the treasurer is a $cientologist"

Well done Sherlock. Also, the proliferation of "do you know the danger of Psychiatry?" banners and links might have been a clue. Or the fact that they list ~10 links to the CoS websites, versus max 3 (sometimes zero) for any "other" religion... not to mention of course that 90% + of the website is about how bad, violent and despisable the anti-CoS people are -the remaining 10% are ads for scientologists's books and other works). No really, you did a great investigation job, finding the treasurer's affiliation. Who would have ever guessed that such a neutral non-biased website was operated by the CoS?

@ Norman Andrews

Yes Google is an omnipresent and vengeful god :)

But as made-up religions* go my favourite is the Church of the Subgenius which has been around since the days of USENET groups

http://www.subgenius.com/

Have a Slack Friday

*Note to self, aren't all religions made-up?

What are they waiting for?

next Ban: Islam (who is about 1 billion fold more dangerous and have destroy (and kill) more lives then all the other religion combined)

For anyone with any doubts over whether Scientology is Bad...

...try reading this - a Readers Digest expose from 1980 (when Hubbard was still alive):

http://www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/ReadersDigest.htm

Tis scary stufff, as is the followup:

http://www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/ReadersDigest2.htm

Also some a decent article and good comments thread here:

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/17087

Oh, and John Curry - thanks, very nice post :) Although Camilla Smythe takes my prize for best post, I haven't stopped laughing yet!

@Matthew Anderson

@ @ Scientology IPs are "to be blocked as if they were open proxies"

@How on earth will this help? Sure, if they are editing direct from their hosting servers then this would be a problem but that is highly unlikely.

They operate from office blocks and local networks like any other corporation. Anyway, it was the whole point that through wiki-scanner CoS owned ranges were detected. It's not about private, scattered around individuals.

@@ "for some reason, the address of each editor is constantly changing"

@ For some reason? Lolz.. ? Lolz again... ! Of course they are changing. DOH.

It's uncommon to force a change of IP's on a LAN so often but it might be how their own proxy/gateway/dhcp is set up. Still it's more likely they do move around in their offices like could be expected from clueless sheep.

They could switch to member's home PC's but they might lose the corporate oversight, tracking and logging they surely have in place there as 'management tools'. The average member is often not as cult-like as the HQ culture - perhaps still dangerously ignorant but then again: who isn't in one or other fashion these days?

amanfromMars ...

..surely can give us some insight into this Xenu guy?

Does he exist and will we be able to understand the answer?

Religions and Cults

The technical difference maybe slim, but the popular difference goes along the lines of:

Religion: supreme allegiance given to a being considered to be non-human.

Cult: supreme allegiance given to a human or human organisation.

Philosophy: no supreme being to give allegiance to.

Someone has mentioned that religions publish their practises, whereas cults and businesses tend to keep them secret. It rather reflects your priorities and attitudes to others. Rather than focus on the definition of a cult, try looking at organisations' priorities and attitudes.

I'm not sure about other religions, but Christianity is *not* about rules for living. As St. Paul said, "I resolve to preach nothing but Christ crucified." Its all about what God has done for people in terms of restoring the relationships between people and Himself and amongst people to what He originally planned. The "rules" tend to be either a direct reflection of His own character (don't murder, steal etc) or a way of teaching people something about Himself - animal sacrifices describing both the pain from breaking the moral codes and foreshadowing how He would take the ultimate punishment (demanded by his justice) on our behalf. It was the only way for God to give humanity free-will, while maintaining both justice and love.

The rules are just God's way of saying, if you love me, you'll love how I act. Here are some guidelines to follow if you want to act like me. If you don't love what God loves, you're free to do your own thing. He'll spare you the discomfort of eternity with people behaving in a way you don't like by making this life the only one you'll get.

When considering a world-view, look at the supreme authority (Christ, Buddha, Allah, self) and determine which one is the most worthy of your allegiance.

ALAmanfromMars

With Apologies:

Perhaps the Spatial Universal Network Knowlege being dribbled about bye the Wiki Co$OAs (SysOp Admins) can do more with a SOA (System Oriented Architecture) approach to Believing whether IT is True(tm).

Reading through IT all may seem a WasteLand, but is Bound 42 show the True Hive Mendedness of what should/would/could be Thought.

BBS as that May, I feel They may be on Something.

NOTE: All Is spellt the Way IT Should Be.

Well done wiki ...

... now all you have to do is ban phorm as well.

Oh ....

Paris, coz she gets confused as well.

Orly?

This please me greatly XD