Yes, Scientology is a cult that is primarily intended to extract large sums of money from their celebrity cult members.

Although they are a cult, I still think they should be free to worship as they choose and as they'd like to, I don't think the government should try to shut them down or anything.

Scientology is a personality cult, a mind control cult, a pyramid scheme (with all the money funneled up to it's current leader), a organized crime syndicate, a real estate investment scheme, and many more unsavory things. One thing that it isnt, is a legitimate religion. Scientology was conceived to be a religion so that L. Ron Hubbard could evade paying taxes on the profits he was making from Dianetics. It is simply a cult and a scam.

Scientology does involve a set of beliefs, but it's not what we typically think of as a religion. For one, it's been established by one man, L Ron Hubbard, whereas religions through the ages have taken doctrines and myths from their predecessors. Look at how the Judeo-Christian religions are rooted in the same events; look at how Roman and Greek mythologies are related. Scientology, on the other hand, is based on an entirely original creation myth, with none of the historical credibility that religions need. It proclaims as truth things that the rest of the world see as fiction, and that in itself is a good enough reason to call it a cult rather than a religion.

But the main argument against it is this: religions shouldn't be secret. Anyone and everyone has the right to buy a bible, anyone can go to mass. Scientology, on the other hand, is copyrighted by Hubbard, and the 'church' snatches their videos off the internet with threats. It's a secretive cult.

Scientology is the result of a social experiment by a scifi author. Think about it. Real hard. If JK Rollins wrote a book on the religion of Hogwarts, wouldn't you consider that a cult?

The religious aspect of Scientology is nothing more than a facade put up to keep it tax-exempt. It destroys families and lives. This organization needs to be stopped.

www.xenu.net

Next!

Two words - Tom Cruise!

Do I have to type an argument..cannot I simply choose a side? There is no question that even in Ron L was alive he would laugh at the ridiculousness of this 'system'

Most religions are cults on a grander scale. Having everyone do the same thing, following the same rules or face punishment. Scientology isn't as much a religion as it is a money pit. Other groups don't require your life savings to be saved.

All religions are cults...some are worse than others. Scientology is nothing more than a science fiction tale by L. Ron Hubbard taken way too seriously and too literally.

"An idea does not gain truth as it gains followers."

Any cult can try to be recognized as a church and religion, but how do you determine what a cult is. Not every cult is secretive some openly try to convince you to join. My definition of a cult is a religion created by someone for other reasons than getting to an afterlife.

Certainly. Scientology has rituals, which makes it a cult. Scientology is the Beautiful People's religion, and like almost all other things that pertain to that crowd, it's a joke.

1. a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.

2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.

3. the object of such devotion.

4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.

5. Sociology. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.

6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.

7. the members of such a religion or sect.

8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.

Since Scientology is a scam, no... since a scam cannot be a cult either.

Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices initially created by American speculative fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Is every "body of beliefs" a cult? Definitely not.

I'm not a Scientologist, though, so I think what somebody needs to do is email this debate to the Scientologists so that they can properly defend themselves. Here is the link

Not a cult, just a bunch of followers that hink if the celebrities are doing it so shouls I. Just look at the Cruises.

It is no more of a cult than ANY other religion. It's a group of people with similar beliefs.

It's no different than any other "religion".