This sort of comment gives me the creeps. I will explain why.
First, Scientology is a "body of data". Some PART of it can be used in as many ways as there are people using some apsect of it. I know some very nice people, who don't harm anybody, and who use some part(s) of Scientology in their lives and with others. That is OBSERVABLY TRUE (unless you choose to wear self-inflicted blinders just like Church of Scientology members do). Scientology is a "subject", and while it most surely contains SOME "data" that when applied DOES most surely cause harm, it also contains more than a tiny amount of "data" that when applied does not cause harm and actually causes some good.
A body of data, in a very real sense, is "neutral", like a pistol. It depends entirely on what you DO with it.
Second, the statement is an
incredible generality. Scientology as the "church"? Scientology as the "subject"? Scientology as a wonderful little essay such as "Personal Integrity"? Scientology as a horrible "policy" such as "attack all critics"? Those statements above are exactly the type that come out of the mouths of complete totalitarian lunatics. Such as "Jews themselves are the real evil", or "Christianity itself is the real evil". Just fill in the blank:
(_____________) is the real evil.
Third, the view is entirely unfounded, being based on an extremely one-sided view. This IS a major problem with the CHURCH of Scientology, and with the KSW policies that create and foreward this nutty attitude:
The attitude that
WE are right and good, and that anyone who views us as anything other than that is
wrong and bad.
That is the prevailing attitude demanded of anyone who remains active in the Church of Scientology. Of course, it is not at all an attitude demanded of or held by many folks outside of the Church who choose to practice some selected parts of or some water-down version of Scientology. You do THOSE nice and decent people a great disservice making the above wide-sweeping (stupid) statement.
All totalitarian regimes take the view that THEY HOLD THE ONLY TRUE PATH (whether that be political or religious). It is THAT aspect of the Church of Scientology that first began to disgust me with how they behave, and that is a very REAL aspect to what is very wrong with the Church. They take the view that all else is evil in some sweeping generality, just as the above post also does.
I am not willing to tolerate such one-sided fanatical attitudes from the Church of Scientology, and I am not willing to tolerate it here by some "critic". And, I think I have more than earned my credentials as a legitimate "critic" of both the Church of Scientology and of various aspects of the subject of Scientology.
The statement "Scientology itself is the real evil" is just so absurd. It takes a real lazy mind to make such a statement (it being such a glaringly obvious generality of the highest order). And like all generalities it completely misses and ignores any details that contradict the statement.
There is a VERY GREAT deal wrong with the Church of Scientology, and with the subject materials that Hubbard created. There is so much of that in fact that intelligent people could talk about just THOSE THINGS for many months and years. But the "devil" is in the details.
Making statements like the above make some aspect of ESMB appear, at least to any slightly intelligent person, as fanatical and one-sided itself, exactly like the Church of Scientology.
Who or what might want ESMB to appear in that way?
I reiterate, do always expose the MANY unsavory aspects of the behavior of the Church of Scientology and the subject of Scientology, but leave the positive aspects alone (there ARE some), and allow those who choose to involve themselves with it in some way OUTSIDE of the Church framework alone.
And, differentiate. For God's sake DIFFERENTIATE!
There is nothing that is wholly "evil", just as there is nothing that is wholly "good". At least not outside of a lazy, uncritical mind.
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