Scientology As A Deviant Group

2 Pages 562 Words

The Church of Scientology is a progressive religious philosophy that was founded in the 1950’s by L. Ron Hubbard. Unlike most other religions of the world, Scientology is not faith-based. It does not expect its members to believe anything that they do not have empirical evidence for. They do believe, that matters of religion are just as scientific as matters of biology. According to the mission statement on their website, the purpose of the religion is to get man back in touch with his spiritual side. Man has advanced a great deal in its knowledge of the physical world around it, but has failed to advance in its knowledge of the self and the spirit. Scientology is supposed to help individuals regain knowledge of themselves. It also proposed to rid man of his earthly troubles – “to replace ignorance with knowledge, doubts with certainty, and misery with happiness.” There are many testimonies about the effectiveness of the church’s program, including from celebrities like Kirstie Alley and Kelly Preston.
The website is very vague about specifics of practices and rituals, although there is continuous mention of a “purifying” program that is supposed to detoxify one’s body before starting the spiritual journey. Aside from small snippets of information about the philosophy of the church, there is little theoretical content on the website. It is rumored that this cult-like religion won’t reveal anything to outside sources. People must become members in order to learn about the actual philosophy of the church.
Probably the aspect of the Church of Scientology that sticks out the most is its disregard for the role of faith in religion and the image of a god as a supreme being. All major world religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hindu, Islam, and Buddhism acknowledge the existence of a god, a creator.
On its website, Scientology boasts to have “millions of members,” a figure that is not only vague,...