Why This Focus on Scientology?

Very few in India have heard of the Church of Scientology.  Scientology is a religion created by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986).  Scientology is legally recognized as a tax-exempt religion in the United States and few other countries.  The Church of Scientology claims that there are over 10 million people all over the world who follow this religion.  Many well known people like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Will Smith are members of this Church.  Early church documents indicate the Hubbard visited India, China and Tibet in the 1950’s and studied with holy men.  However, critics like Jon Atack have disputed the claim that Hubbard visited India.

The biggest attack on Scientology comes from France.  France has recently fined the organization about $600,000 for fraud.  The French prosecutors have asked the judge to dissolve the Church of Scientology in France and also fine the organization about $2 million.  The Judge refused the request indicating that the church will continue its activity outside of any legal framework anyway.  I am a skeptic when it comes to religion.  I think that extraordinary claims needs extraordinary evidence.  I believe that all religions will come up short in the evidence department.  In general I have noticed that we human beings are more accepting of religions and their holy men (very few of them are women) if it happened long ago in the past (the so called main stream religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism fall into this category).  But we tend to get very skeptical when similar claims are made by holy men and their followers who live in our own lifetime or in the recent past.  L. Ron Hubbard and his Church of Scientology fall into this category.

We know for a fact that Hubbard is a real human being who walked on this earth.  He was born in Nebraska and served in the United States Navy.  For most of his life he was a science fiction novelist.  He founded the Church of Scientology based on some of his writings.  One of the fundamental truths according to the Church is that man is immortal and our experience extends well beyond a single lifetime.  This sounds very similar to some of the Eastern belief systems but there is not a shred of evidence to prove this.  By why is the media so focused on this organization?  Why are many governments including that of Britain and France trying to come down on this religion?

Britain and France consider Scientology as a sect and do not offer it the same protections enjoyed by other religions.  This is rather strange as the claims made by Hubbard and the church are not very different than the claims made by any other religions and their god-men (basically claims without any real evidence).  I happen to feel that the focus on the Scientologists is because of pressure from other main stream religions in these countries.  The older more established religions do not want competition and want to make sure that the newer religions and their competing ideologies are kept in check and are monitored much more closely than them.  But this tactic is very unlikely to succeed.  History shows that most religions of today were at one time a sect (or considered as a sect by the mainstream religion of that time).  The Romans who were predominantly Pagans considered the Christians to be a sect.  Many Evangelical Christians in the United States today consider the Catholics to be a different sect and in some cases a totally different religion.

India seems to have a different reaction when it comes to new religions or leaders.  We may be much more accepting of them than other cultures.  A good example is Sai Baba.  There are millions of Indians who are followers of Sai Baba. They have paintings of Sai Baba in their houses and worship him like the rest of us worship any other god (granted that many followers of Sai Baba will also worship other Hindu Gods).  This following is surprising considering that many of the Sai Baba’s abilities have been proven to be nothing but tricks used by street magicians all over the world (there is one You Tube video that shows the Sai Baba pull a street magic trick in front of an audience that included the Prime Minister of India).  There are also serious charges of pedophilia against him which governments in India are unwilling to investigate seriously.  All this does not seem to be hurting his following.  In a way I am glad that the government of India has so far not prosecuted people like the Sai Baba for their religious beliefs (I do think that he and his organization should be investigated for alleged criminal behavior including pedophilia and brought to justice if the allegations are true).   Religion is a matter of faith and not fact.

Related posts:

1. United States Issues Biased Report on Religious Freedom
2. India Should Not Arrest the Avatar of Sai Baba
3. Priest Accused of Sexual Assault Serving in India
4. Shree Jagannath Temple Puri: Discrimination is part of the Tradition
5. Lord Karunanidhi: God of the Tamil Atheists

Tags: Britain, China, France, Hubbard, India, Nebraska, religion, Sai Baba, Scientology, Tibet, United States

Category: Culture & Religion