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L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology 2

The story of Lafayette Ronald Hubbard is an intriguing one: A phony life full of scandal and controversy and a religion that worships him to this very day. L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) was a science fiction writer and the founder of the religion “Scientology” when he announced it in 1952 and developed the philosophy of Scientology over 30 years time. Scientology is a “self-help” therapy. It is based on the premise that by “recalling negative experiences or “engrams”, a person can free himself from repressed feelings that cripple his life.”

After reading information from supporters and critics alike, my opinion is that this religion is nothing more than an institution that uses exploitation purely to enrich and promote itself. Although it is widely believed that the philosophy of L. Ron Hubbard is a mixture of many philosophical sources, the Church of Scientology credits it as his original work.

First I’ll discuss 2 quotes I’ve read on the Church of Scientology’s website.

1. “It is borne out in the sheer scope of his worldwide impact: with 70 million philosophic works regularly read in virtually every country on Earth, no philosopher in history even approaches his popularity.”

Here they attempt to credit Hubbard as being the most popular philosopher in all of history.

2. “Another crucial milestone in this venture was his study of engineering, mathematics and nuclear physics at George Washington University — all disciplines that would serve him well through later philosophic inquiry: point of fact, L. Ron Hubbard was the first to rigorously employ Western scientific methods to the study of spiritual matters.”

It should be known that although he did attend George Washington University, his grades were consistently poor, university records show that he attended for only two years, he was on academic probation, failed in physics, and dropped out without a degree. Click here for one of his transcripts. He did get an A in Physical Education.

L. Ron Hubbard Jr. paints his father as an abusive man and says he started the religion as a business proposition to enrich himself. He describes his father as being “only interested in money, sex, booze, and drugs.” Read this Penthouse magazine interview with L. Ron Hubbard in 1983. Hubbard Sr. even published a letter dated April 10, 1953 where he says “calling Scientology a religion solves “a problem of practical business”, and status as a religion achieves something “more equitable…with what we’ve got to sell”.

One of the Church of Scientology’s promotion tactics is to attempt to recruit celebrities into the church. A list of controversial events took place over the years where celebrities appeared to be bribed by the church for their backing of the religion.

Some celebrities who took the bait from this “cult” include John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Beck, Isaac Hayes, Tom Cruise and just recently Katie Holmes. The Church apparently arranged a divorce for Tom Cruise and also helped arrange the marriage between Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson in an attempt to recruit Michael J.

In addition to the topics I have discussed, there is a lengthy list of other controversial and bizarre events that took place around Scientology and Hubbard’s life that I won’t be discussing; but I think most of us can agree that this cult-like organization is extremely bizarre and questionable, and I won’t soon be stepping foot anywhere near this church.

2 thoughts on “L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology

  1. george Sep 5,2006 11:04 pm

    heh heh… scientology… “no philosopher in history even approaches his popularity”…

    while it may be true that there aren’t 70 million volumes of Plato’s Republic floating around Earth, i think that it’s fair to say that a 50 year old “religion” cannot hope to sustain claims of pre-eminence based on claims of sheer number of works published. there are plenty of accounts of the Church of Scientology publishing and then immediately destroying their OWN books, simply to achieve the stated publishing volumes without having to burden the cost of warehousing those texts!

    the really pernicious part of this movement though is its litigious streak that goes far beyond mere correction of public perception (IMHO).

    be careful what you write about the Church of Scientology, unless you are prepared to face an army of lawyers looking to fill their quota of libel suits!

  2. NABH May 30,2011 9:57 am

    I really appreciate your post and you explain each and every point very well.Thanks for sharing this information.And I’ll love to read your next post too.
    Regards:
    NABH

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