<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (AEM @ Jan 10 2008, 03:08 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane @ Jan 10 2008, 12:31 AM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Define "cult"
No fair using a dictionary.</div>
What if one is a walking dictionary?
Setting that lesser-seen (dorky) side apart for the moment, I would say briefly that a cult differs from a religion not only in being relatively less established and 'regular' in practice, but also insistent on venerating a person (or thing) in a ridiculously intense and faddish way. The whole charismatic leader part usually mentioned in dictionary definitions is not actually essential, if you really think about it.
Scientology is most certainly a cult.
</div>
Charismatic leader probably isn't in the dictionary.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (GMJigga @ Jan 10 2008, 07:31 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Science H. Logic!
It is most definitely a cult. I mean c'mon its based on a science fiction book.
As for drawing parallels comparing it to larger, more substantiated religions? Don't ask me, I'm a stout atheist (but also a devote Unitarian Universalist)</div>
Is the Bible fact or fiction? I say fiction. So all of Christianity must be a cult because it's based on a book of fiction.
Seems to me that the book being fiction, science or otherwise, isn't a defining characteristic of religion. Rather it's the wisdom found in the book, which seems to be enough to qualify Scientology as an actual religion.
A key tennet of a religon, to me, is its values and morality. Not a religion if there's no morality.
There's this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology#Morals_and_Ethics
Morals and Ethics
Scientologists follow
The Way to Happiness, which defines morals as "a code of good conduct laid down out of the experience of the race to serve as a uniform yardstick for the conduct of individuals and groups"<sup>
[62]</sup> but warns that "over time, morals can become outmoded, burdensome, and so invite revolt."<sup>
[63]</sup>
Scientology states that there is
no absolute right or wrong but that right and wrong are actually a
gradient from right to wrong.<sup>
[64]</sup> An action must contain construction which outweighs the destruction it contains in order to be considered good.<sup>
[65]</sup> "Good is any action which brings the greatest construction to the greatest number of dynamics while bringing the least destruction."<sup>
[66]</sup> "An 'absolute wrongness' would be the extinction of the universe and all energy and the source of energy. . . . An 'absolute "rightness"' would be the immortality of the individual himself, his children, his group, mankind and the universe."<sup>
[67]</sup>
Scientology defines ethics as "the actions an individual takes on himself to ensure his continued survival across the dynamics. It is a personal thing that an ethical person does by his own choice."<sup>
[68]</sup> "Ethics actually consists of rationality toward the highest level of survival for the individual, the future race, the group, Mankind and the other dynamics taken up collectively. Ethics are reason. Man's greatest weapon is his reason."<sup>
[69]</sup> According to Scientology, various ethical states or "conditions" represent one's degree of success and delineate a sequence of steps to improve that condition of existence.<sup>
[70]</sup> From best to worst, these "conditions" are Power, Affluence, Normal, Emergency, Danger, Non-Existence, Liability, Doubt, Enemy, Treason and Confusion. Scientologists are expected to use statistical measurement to assess "measurement of survival potential,"<sup>
[71]</sup> where a downward trend could identify an 'emergency condition' and an upward trend could identify a 'affluence condition'.<sup>
[72]</sup> According to
The Scientology Handbook, the Scientology method of statistics can and should be applied to individuals, groups and organizations inside and outside of Scientology.<sup>
[73]</sup>
Prof.
Stephen A. Kent quotes Hubbard as pronouncing that "the purpose of ethics is to remove counter-intentions from the environment. Having accomplished that, the purpose becomes to remove other intentionedness from the environment." What this translates to, according to Kent, is "a peculiar brand of morality that uniquely benefitted [the Church of Scientology]. . . . In plain English, the purpose of Scientology ethics is to eliminate opponents, then eliminate people's interests in things other than Scientology."<sup>
[74]</sup>
http://