# Scientology **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 9, 1999, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018 "1999-11-09T17:44:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018/21 "2000-03-22T16:55:00Z")
Let’s get this straight, Berkstar says he doesn’t want to start a debate, but he comes in here and says we are “below rednecks”, and accuses us of all being hypocritical bigots. And this on his first post. I think he has the makings of a good troll. He clearly shows a lack of knowledge about the people here when he says we would hold all other religions with “unbiased respect”. He don’t know me very well, do he. Da Ace, I got no love for Orthodox Judaism either. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2000, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018/22 "2000-03-23T02:54:00Z")
According to this [interview](http://www.sky.net/~sloth/sci/Harlan.Ellison) done in 1978, the writers who (jokingly) suggested to Hubbard that he start his own religion were: Harlan Ellison Alfred Bester Cyril Kornbluth Lester del Rey > [@](#): > > Hubbard… was making a penny a word and had been for years. And he said, “This bullshit’s got to stop!” He says, “I gotta get money.” He says, “I want to get rich.” AND > [@](#): > > And somebody said, “Why don’t you invent a new religion? They’re always big.” We were clowning! Hubbard did so, stealing (says Ellison), from Freud, Jung, Alder and Primal Screaming. He invented the word _engram_. He then sold it to SF editor John Campbell, who (said Ellison) was a racist who believed Jews and blacks were inferior to whites. Cambell published the first-ever Dianetics article in one of his magazines and Hubbard was on his way to getting as rich as Croesus. Ask a Scientologist what he knows about clams: [www.xenu.net/clam\_faq.html](http://www.xenu.net/clam_faq.html) * * * Feel free to correct me at any time. But don’t be surprised if I try to correct you. ---
**Author:** ![Nixon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@Nixon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nixon)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2000, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018/23 "2000-03-23T03:31:00Z")
Far be it for me to praise a “religion” that believes at its core (and after the payment of many thousands of dollars) that the ying and yang of our world is based on an ancient war galaxies away but… Hubbard was one of the few early critics of psychiatry to note that the science of psychiatry (as practiced in the West) did not follow the scientific method. (Let’s see if that gets me an introduction to the new and improved Jenna Elfmann!) ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2000, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018/24 "2000-03-23T04:26:00Z")
[[That’s not true. You should look into different forums on this board to see what kind of things everyone says about Mormonism, Wiccan, Catholicism, etc. Also, I’m not sure if you can truly have unbiased respect. Just FYI.]] Yup. Anything’s fair game here, Berkstar. Try not to take it personally. Start a debate? We’ll be the judges of that. But welcome to the board. Jill ---
**Author:** ![jkeller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@jkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2000, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018/25 "2000-03-23T04:46:00Z")
I wonder if the criticism of psychiatry was less about a real concern for “science” and more about promoting scientology’s version of “healing” the mind. They seem to have enlisted quite a few “legitimate” psychiatry critics (such as Thomas Szasz and the Citizens Commission on Human Rights) in their history who possibly didn’t understand that they were being used by scientology. Jon ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2000, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018/26 "2000-03-23T16:01:00Z")
Ha ha ha. That clambake site was funny. What I thought particulary funny was the author was “SubGenius Pope of Houston”. A Church of the SubGenius member making fun of Scientology - now there’s a laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Mac007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@Mac007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac007)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018/27 "2000-03-25T08:31:00Z")
On an interesting side note a new sciencefiction film is comming out based on one of L. Ron Hubbards books called ‘Battlefield Earth’. Another interesting thing is that one of the stars is John Travolta a known Scientologist. ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2000, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018/28 "2000-03-27T00:52:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Except, strangely, for Orthodox Judaism, which we all seem to think is pretty cool. Apparently, you missed my old Interfaith Dating thread many months back in GD. * * * **Gypsy** : Tom, I don’t get you. **Tom Servo** : Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2000, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018/29 "2000-03-27T01:51:00Z")
In the afterword to his book “The Best of Fritz Leiber,” Lieber said his short story “Poor Superman” is based on L. Ron Hubbard and the birth of Dianetics with John Campbell cast in the role of Jorge Hellmuth, the only idealistic man in a bad bunch of con artists and rascals. I think (that book is not handy) that Leiber called Campbell “the unwitting midwife to the monstrous birth of dianetics.” In his collection Star Light, Star Bright, Alfred Bester mentions that Campbell asked him to rewrite a short story (I think it was “Oddy and Id”) in the 1950s because Dianetics would make psychology obsolete. Bester’s account of that meeting is pretty funny, but he does not mention being present when Hubbard got the idea to start Dianetics. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2000, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018/30 "2000-03-27T19:54:00Z")
From Berkstar: > [@](#): > > you people are below rednecks. if it was anything else but scientology, any religion at all, you wouldn’t say these sorts of things, you would be full of unbiased respect. > > you make me sick to the pit of my stomach, and your ignorance speaks more for your pitiful selves than anything i can put into words. Hey Berkstar, it sounds like you’ve got a few bad engrams hanging around there somewhere. Starting saving your pennies - you’re not ‘clear’ yet. Give my regards to the Galactic Overlords. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientology/1018.md?page=1)