My first piggington post ever! And it’s not even about real estate…
Anyway, regardless of one’s views on religion in general, there is a special silliness to Scientology. Part of the (possibly apocryphal) story of its creation was that Hubbard bet Heinlein that he could create a religion. In a way, believing in Scientology could be considered the most sacriligious sort of thing because it’s an ironically-derived religion. That sets it apart from other religions which at least have some history of true believers in their origins. Of course, perhaps history has lost record of such things in other faiths…but it’s doubtful.
Oh yeah, that and the legal redresses for “libel.” That’s a new religious twist!
What doesn’t set it apart from, say, Christianity or some other major religions are wild claims in its scripture. Nearly every religion has some version of scripture or oral tradition that, taken literally, tells of things that could never have happened or cannot be. Hence the conflict between reason and faith, eh? (trying not to offend…)