What Is Scientology ?

[Hollyrock]

What is the difference between Scientology and Christianity ?

 

[veteran]

From Wikipedia:

Scientology teaches that people are immortal beings who have forgotten their true nature.[sup][7][/sup] Its method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counselling known as auditing, in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past in order to free themselves of their limiting effects.[sup][8][/sup]

L.Ron Hubbard started the movement in the early 1900's. I believe he only copied some ideas from an earlier movement begun by Mary Baker Eddy called Christian Science. She had bad health and sought a charismatic healer's help named Phineus Quimby. It dealt with mesmerism (hypnosis), basically a system of Mysticism applied to Christ's teachings. The various spiritist's movements back in the late 1800's and early 1900's produced these kind of ideas of trying to establish religion linked with science.

That idea above about being immortal beings having forgotten our "true nature" is referring to a supposed innate-dormant psychic-spiritual ability to heal ourselves. That idea is actually a very ancient pagan teaching among the ancient 'mystery schools', i.e., using the mind to heal oneself according to science. Thus it's a system that relies on man's scientific discovery applied to Bible doctrine, and different from a reliance upon God to heal us by The Holy Spirit. What those mystic systems believe is that there's natural laws involved for healing that we can 'know', use, and reproduce at will just like in a scientific laboratory experiment. It's really the idea of becoming one's own god, seeking Heavenly power through a materialistic type of belief system.

The Church of Scientology is one of the most controversial new religious movements to have arisen in the 20th century. It has often been described as a cult that financially defrauds and abuses its members, charging exorbitant fees for its spiritual services.[sup][9][/sup][sup][18][/sup][sup][19][/sup] The Church of Scientology has consistently used litigation against such critics, and its aggressiveness in pursuing its foes has been condemned as harassment.[sup][20][/sup][sup][21][/sup] Further controversy has focused on Scientology's belief that souls ("thetans") reincarnate and have lived on other planets before living on Earth,[sup][22][/sup] and that some of the related teachings are not revealed to practitioners until they have paid thousands of dollars to the Church of Scientology

That belief in reincarnation links such systems with the old pagan "mystery school" systems of ancient Egypt, Greece, Babylon, Rome, and the far east. A requirement to progress through a set of teachings in order for more to be revealed is a system the occultic mystical fraternities of initiation like the Rosicrucian Order uses.

 

[Winnetou]

This "church" is a cult. Working inhumanly, expensive and primarily with false promises. They spy on their leaving members, threaten critics of this cult and do lobby work. Germany has got to feel the practices of this "church" more than once!

 

[kensapp]

Scientology is completely different from Christianity. Jesus Christ gained followers because he was considered to be the Messiah, and he had many prophecies to fall back on to show his legitimacy. L. Ron Hubbard was a science fiction writer who made up stuff for a living. It is logical to assume that he did the same thing for Dianetics.