The Scientology Comparative Theology Page

Scientology believes that God exists, but goes on to say "As to the form in which He exists, we do not know" ( Scientology: A World Religion, p. 17: What is Scientology, p. 200). And although Scientology does not know the EXACT form of God (i.e., the Supreme Being), it does teach that there are "gods above other gods, and gods beyond the gods of the universes" (Scientology 8-8008, p. 72). Scientology also states that each thetan (person) "has as far as we can see in the manufacture of energy, about the same capabilities as those which have been assigned to the Supreme being in the universe" (Philadelphia Doctorate Course#9, LRH). All of these views would be problematic for Christians, especially when Scientology claims to be compatible with all religions. These views are certainly not compatible with Christianity.

While incompatibility with other religions is common among belief systems, the crucial difference is that Scientology lies [Tapia] [Scott] [Voytinsky] to its new recruits, saying they are compatible with all religions. After extended discussion with two Scientology spokespersons, "compatible" appears to apply to the cultural (but not spiritual) aspects of other religions. When queried on specific Hubbard directives that teaches against "mixed practices", the references were denied as a "misunderstanding", despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary [U.S. IRS] [Remedy BG] [Pattinson] [8D Sec Check].

Throughout his writings, Hubbard was critical of organized religion in general and Christianity in particular. Hubbard appears to have gone out of his way in the upper-level lectures to gratuitously denigrate God, Christianity, and the Roman Catholic Church [Harrington] ["Hubbard Maligns Religion", below]. At the highest levels of Scientology, the adherent is expected to renounce their previous faith [Remedy BG] [8D Sec Check] [Tapia]. A former OT-8 [Pattinson] has sworn an affidavit regarding how Scientology attempted to forcibly deprogram his belief in Christianity.

Scientology is quick to claim religious persecution whenever someone criticises their actions, scripture, or beliefs. (As Hubbard surmised when he cloaked Scientology with religion, exposing fraudulent business practices is good citizenship, while criticising religious beliefs borders on bigotry.) Scientology makes exaggerated accusations of others to divert attention away from their own shortcomings. Hubbard's own words taken in total show that Scientology's Founder and by extension Scientology itself has no respect for any belief system except its own.

Hubbard Maligns Religion

Hubbard on the Basis of Religion

"THE HALVER: ...One of the processes thetans used on MEST bodies was a half-light, half-black gun which shot out a wave. Half of this wave, usually the black, hit the right side of the victim's body, the other half, in the same explosion, usually the light side, hit the left side of the victim. This had the effects of causing him to be two people.

Commentary:

• Hubbard had a fertile imagination and wrote science fiction prior to writing Dianetics. It is difficult to decide whether passages like these are a religious instruction or a science-fiction digression.

• In this passage, Hubbard describes a typical battle between thetans [spirits] and normal "MEST bodies". Hubbard's MEST bodies are simply the evolutionary hominid progression, prior to being inhabited by thetans. Hubbard describes both a "theta" and "mest" source for incidents which lie at the base of engram chains. According to Hubbard, mest incidents such as The Halver were stored in the Genetic Entity at the cellular level. When thetans began inhabiting MEST bodies, they picked up the Genetic Entity engrams. Hubbard fails to explain why a thetan would choose to inhabit a MEST body that the thetan had previously fouled with The Halver.

• The Halver ray-gun is typical of Hubbard's science fiction - fantastic weapons with equally-fantastic effects. In this case, the ray-gun causes the victim to think they were two people.

• These two people (black and white, good and evil) are common to many Middle-Eastern religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

  
  "The halver was rigged up with religious symbols and it truly lays in religion. There is a devil on one side, a symbol carried in the light, angels on the other side. Sometimes it was very fancy and was complicated with dolls in the shape of nudes, angels, devils, strung on wires to slide and dance."

  Commentary:

• Here Hubbard claims that religion is "laid in", or is implanted and are false memories. This theme is also used in the Xenu (Incident 2) account, and R6 contains religious symbols which, according to Hubbard, are the basis of Christianity. The intent of Scientology auditing is to neutralize these implants. Thus, Scientology audits out the idea of religion. In this respect, Scientology is not a religion; it is an anti-religion.

• Note that Hubbard states the devil is "a symbol carried in the light". See also Magic and the Occult. In other passages, Hubbard sides with the devil as well.

• The imbellishment of dolls is superfluous; this ray-gun that Hubbard describes is very complicated indeed!

  
  "It did terrible things to the victim: it gave him a conflict, one side with the other, one being good: the other being bad. It gave him sexual compulsion all mixed up with religious compulsion so that an overdose of indulgence would send him to church sometimes into a life of crime. It was a control factor used to keep the community fighting itself."

  Commentary:

• This "terrible thing" that Hubbard describes is sometimes called a "conscience"; it's the inner voice that tells us right from wrong.

• One criticism of Scientology is that it progressively conditions anti-social behavior. History of Man is one of the major texts of Scientology, and here it is telling Scientologists that this conflict, this conscience is a terrible thing and is used to put a person and community against itself. Rather than being seen as a force of temperance and balance, Scientology believes the conscience is a limiter, and must be removed through auditing.

• Hubbard doesn't really explain how The Halver, being just a black light and white light, could result in sexual and religious compulsions in "MEST bodies" that lacked human intelligence. Religion is a fairly recent anthropological development.

  
  "The halver lies as a basic under sexual malpractice, under religious fervour. It shows up in almost every preclear as being in chronic restimulation. It is the one the auditor runs as an overt act when the preclear has a sexual or religious motivator."
  

  Commentary:

• Hubbard associates sexual malpractice with religious fervor. True to his times, Hubbard had a fixation for sexual deviance.

• Hubbard instructs the auditor to look for The Halver if the preclear (adept) is motivated by sex or religion.

  
  "Remember that the restimulation of a motivator when one does an overt act is not natural but a consequence of having a body and implants about bodies. You will find some of this "you do wrong, you'll get it right back" in the halver and similar incidents."

  Commentary:

• Hubbard here professes the opposite of the Golden Rule - that "treat others as you would have them treat you" is really just the result of an implant. Again, some auditing will unburden the preclear (adept) of their conscience.

Hubbard on Faith

"There is no more over-rated quality in existence than faith.

"The subject who, under the hands of a hypnotist operator, conceives an enormous agreement with the hypnotist, is experiencing faith as it is commonly understood. In this state the subject can perceive anything which the hypnotist may direct.", Scientology 8-8008 , L. Ron Hubbard, Faith-Distrust

Commentary:

• Hubbard views faith as being at the effect of someone. The concept is foreign to Crowley's "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.", which Hubbard followed throughout his life.

• Hubbard associates faith with mind control, in this case like that of a hypnotist. This is consistent with Hubbard's view that religion is based on abberations caused by the R6 implants.

Hubbard on Religion's Effectiveness

"Christianity and a million other -anities have struggled with this problem [the identity between theta (spirit) and mest (the material world)] and the result is a pot-pouri of answers, none of which reconcile the problem." History of Man, p.39)

Commentary:

• Hubbard is saying that Christianity and other religions do not adequately reconcile the relationship between spirit and the world. Christianity scriptures are replete with references to "the flesh". From what I know of Buddhism, Hubbard is incorrect on that account as well.

• Araine Jackson's account of OT VIII lists one of the steps as "reading History of Man and getting very thoroughly checked out on it". In this case, "thoroughly checked out" means understand and believe it to the satisfaction of the Case Supervisor. To achieve OT VIII, one must believe that organized religion cannot explain the relationship between spirit and the material world, effectively renouncing them.

Hubbard on Religious Zeal

"Based on over a thousand hours of research auditing, analyzing the facsimiles of the reactive mind, and with the help of a Mark V Electrometer. It is scientific research and is not in any way based upon the mere opinion of the researcher...The contents of this HCO bulletin discover the apparent underlying impulses of religious zealotism and the source of the religious mania which terrorized Earth over the ages and has given religion the appearance of insanity." HCOB 11 May, 1963.

Commentary:

• Hubbard's "research" is baseless. Hubbard could not retrieve an engram [Dianetics Doctrine], so the reactive mind is an unproven assertion. Hubbard asserts that he performed "research", when in fact auditing was only performed by True Believers whose opinion had ample opportunity to color the results. Therefore, "analyzing the facsimiles [images] of the reactive mind" for "over a thousand hours" proves nothing, other than that Hubbard needlessly repeated the same flawed experiments.

• Other passages from HCOB 11 May, 1963 can be found in Hubbard Maligns Christianity.

Hubbard on Poverty

"It is all very well to idealise poverty and associate wisdom with begging bowls, or virtue with low estate. However, those who have done this (Buddhists, Christians, Communists and other fanatics) have dead ended or are dead ending.", HCOPL 21 Jan 1965

Commentary:

• Hubbard contemptously lumps Buddhists and Christians in with "Communists and other fanatics". Hubbard is a product of the 50s McCarthyism that gripped the United States. Note the HCOPL was written in 1965, the era of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

• The ideals of poverty in Buddhism and Christianity are diametrically opposed to Hubbard's "MAKE MONEY. MAKE MORE MONEY. GET OTHERS TO MAKE MONEY.", HCO PL 9 Mar 72

• Hubbard misses the point of Buddhist and Christian poverty ideals. In these disciplines, it is thought the pursuit of wealth diverts attention away from spiritual illumination. Buddhists and Christians use poverty as a means to seek the divine. Hubbard uses religion as a means to make a million dollars.

Next: Scientology and Buddhism