Slashdot Log In
Scientology's Credibility Questioned Over Video Channel
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Friday March 28, @02:40PM
from the scientology-and-shady-almost-synonyms-these-days dept.
from the scientology-and-shady-almost-synonyms-these-days dept.
stonyandcher writes to share that the Church of Scientology has come under fire for some items on their recently launched video channel. Most notably, claims have been leveled that dignitaries in one of their videos were faked and at least one of the people featured in the video is claiming their statements were taken out of context.
Related Stories
[+]
Your Rights Online: Internet Group Declares War on Scientology 891 comments
Darkman, Walkin Dude writes "An internet group calling itself Anonymous has declared war on the Church of Scientology, in the form of an ominous posting to the YouTube site. 'In the statement, the group explained their goal as safeguarding the right to freedom of speech. "A spokesperson said that the group's goals include bringing an end to the financial exploitation of Church members and protecting the right to free speech, a right which they claim was consistently violated by the Church of Scientology in pursuit of its opponents." The press release also claimed that the Church of Scientology misused copyright and trademark law in order to remove criticism from websites including Digg and YouTube. The statement goes on to assert that the attacks from the group "will continue until the Church of Scientology reacts, at which point they will change strategy".' It should be noted that Slashdot users have had interactions with Scientology in the past as well."
[+]
"Anonymous" Takes Scientology Protest to the Streets 740 comments
This past Sunday members of the group "Anonymous" that has been running an attack on the church of Scientology took their battle from the tubes of the internet to the pavement of real life, staging a protest outside the central Phoenix Church of Scientology. "The protesters said they gathered Sunday in lieu of the birthday of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist once cared for by church staffers. Her 1995 death sparked media attention and a civil wrongful death suit against a branch of the Church of Scientology. A wrongful death suit by her family was a public-relations nightmare for the church for years until it was settled in 2004. The Church of Scientology declined to comment on the Phoenix protests. It did provide a news release calling members of Anonymous cyber-terrorists."
[+]
Your Rights Online: Scientology Given Direct Access To eBay Database 684 comments
An anonymous reader writes "The Church of Scientology can delete auctions from eBay with no supervision under the VeRO program, and has used this to delete all resale of the e-meters Scientologists use. This is to stop members from buying used units from ex-members instead of buying from the official (and very expensive) source. Given Scientology's record of fraud and abuse, should eBay give them this level of trust? Will this set a precedent for other companies that want to stop the aftermarket resale of their products?"
[+]
Your Rights Online: Wikileaks Airs Scientology Black Ops 509 comments
An anonymous reader alerts us to new material up on Wikileaks: 208 scanned pages (in one PDF) relating to the Church of Scientology and its former "Office of Special Affairs" employee (and subsequent apostate) Frank Oliver. "The documents are dated between 1986 and 1992 inclusive, when, according to the file, Frank Oliver was declared a 'suppressive person' and excommunicated. Frank Oliver should be able to verify the material and has appeared in the media before on subjects relating to the church. Starting on page 107, the document shows that at the time of writing the Church of Scientology was still actively engaged in black propaganda (especially concerning psychiatry), 'fair game' and infiltration."
Firehose:Scientology video channel's credibility questioned by Anonymous Coward
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Credibility??? (Score:5, Funny)
Bears' woodland sanitary habits
Pope's Nazi youth
Apple enthusiasts' devotion....
Reply to This
Re:Credibility??? (Score:5, Funny)
"The Pope was on vacation to Bermuda during the youth in question"
"And whats with those Apple enthusiasts, damn, like seriously, there more devoted than Xenu!"
Reply to This
Parent
Tell me about it (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be more surprised if the site launched and everyone found out it was entirely on the up-and-up.
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Credibility??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Reply to This
Parent
Since when (Score:5, Insightful)
Besides among the easily duped?
Reply to This
Video? Nice! (Score:5, Funny)
Reply to This
Yes, it's the video channel that's done it (Score:5, Funny)
Reply to This
Probably worth mentioning... (Score:5, Interesting)
(can't be screwed finding cites right now, worked for 26 hours straight, and now i'm plain out of it... little help?)
Reply to This
Re:Won't be the first time a religion did this. (Score:5, Interesting)
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Won't be the first time a religion did this. (Score:5, Funny)
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Won't be the first time a religion did this. (Score:5, Interesting)
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Won't be the first time a religion did this. (Score:5, Insightful)
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Won't be the first time a religion did this. (Score:5, Informative)
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Won't be the first time a religion did this. (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll still be a scam, just a conventional, accepted and well-integrated one.
Scientologists are loons for sure, but let's not differentiate their own brand of crazy from all the others.
As Douglas Adams said- 'Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?'.
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Won't be the first time a religion did this. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why should that be important. Hell, the Anglican Church had an Archbishop of Canterbury who doubted the divinity of Christ. Does that mean the entire Episcopalian movement no longer qualifies as a religion?
The chief difference seems to be that a successful religion is a sect or cult that manages to get near-universal acceptance as a religion within the societies that it exists. Scientology is seen by most of society as a crazy-ass money-hungry cult with a pack of swirly-eyed true believers who pay their money and believe any and all nonsense that Hubbard and his heirs shove down their throats.
Mormons were in the same boat for decades. They were seen as sexually deviant heretics. Fortunately for them, in those days a cult could basically seize control of a large, unpopulated area and grow relatively undisturbed for decades, and by the time the greater society finally met them head on again, they're numbers were sufficient that they had to be dealt with as a religion.
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Won't be the first time a religion did this. (Score:5, Informative)
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Won't be the first time a religion did this. (Score:5, Interesting)
0 - 0.5 years : Eccentricity
0.5 - 10 years : Scam
10 - 100 years : Cult
100 - 5,000 years : Genuine theology that reflects the true nature of being and the foundation of our civilization
5,000 + : Myth
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Won't be the first time a religion did this. (Score:5, Insightful)
Impressive. Two posts into the thread and someone's already trying to turn it into a debate over all religions. I'm not accusing you of being a Scilon - merely pointing out that it's a tactic the Scilons try to cultivate, because it turns the entire discussion into a debate about theology, effectively distracting everyone from the main issue.
Were this a thread about religion, for instance, it'd be fine, but the Co$ debate isn't about theology.
Organizations that use barratry ("The purpose of a lawsuit is not to win, but to harass") and violence (consider the similarities between the mysterious fates of Judge Swearinger's dog in 1998, and the fate of an outed anonymous protester's cat earlier this week) as a matter of policy are not religions.
Reply to This
Parent
Re:The main issue is lying liars. (Score:5, Informative)
Reply to This
Parent
Re:The main issue is lying liars. (Score:5, Funny)
Reply to This
Parent
Re:The last frantic grapsing of a desperate group (Score:5, Insightful)
You forget: there's a sucker born every minute. And those suckers will continue to buy penis enlargement products from poorly written emails, and give their remaining money to Scientology.
A lot of these people also feel that the criticism and "attacks" on Scientology only *validate* it. How do you argue with that?
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Scientology is the quintessential religion (Score:5, Interesting)
Reply to This
Parent
It is a cult/organized crime (Score:5, Informative)
Please read for a start:
http://www.exscientologykids.com/ [exscientologykids.com]
Reply to This
Parent
Re:Scientology is the quintessential religion (Score:5, Insightful)
When Dionysus turned water into wine, we understand that as a myth.
When Romulus is described as the Son of God, born of a virgin, we understand that as a myth.
When Vespatian's spittle healed a blind man, we understand that as a myth.
When Apollonius of Tyana raised a girl from death, we understand that as a myth.
etc... etc... etc... Jesus was just a guy that had Pagan mythological stories thrown on his name decades after his death to start a religion. Nothing more.
Reply to This
Parent
Re:News for nerds. Stuff that matters. (Score:5, Informative)
Scientology and the Internet [wikipedia.org] explains the history.
In brief:
- attacks on USENET involving forged rmgroups in 1995.
- attacks on USENET involving Hipcrime-style spam for many years since then.
- legal attacks that resulted in the compromise of every user of the anon.penet.fi [xs4all.nl] anonymous remailer in 1996.
- Angry about copyright term extensions? What we jokingly refer to as the 1998 Mickey Mouse Protection Act was passed into law as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act [wikipedia.org]. By a staggering coincidence, Sonny Bono [wikipedia.org] was a Scilon.
- Angry about the DMCA? The Mickey Moust Protection Act wasn't enough of a legal club, and guess who was one of the first organizations to use it in mid-1999?
- And guess who was behind the DMCA attacks against Google in 2002.
- And last but not least, guess who was behind the DMCA attack against Slashdot itself [slashdot.org] in 2001.
Sorry you haven't been paying attention for the past decade, dude, but this is news for nerds, and it is stuff that matters.
Reply to This
Parent