Meditation 373
Why convert to that!
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The press has been breathlessly reporting the details of the romance between the actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Now we learn[1] that she is converting from Catholicism to Scientology.
I understand the abandonment of Catholicism part of the decision. It seems a logical thing to do for anyone who disagrees with the man who the church regards as God's sole authority on Earth.
But to take up Scientology?
I can understand someone transferring her faith to another denomination or even another religion which provides a perspective on a deity that more closely represents her own feelings.
But to take up Scientology?
With all the information available today on this made-up religion, why would anyone choose to follow it?
I will admit I briefly considered Scientology in the '60s. After all, what could be wrong with a religion based on science? I tried to find out something about it and ran into a magazine article[2] which reported on their investigation of Scientology's e-meter. The finding was that it was nothing more than two tin cans crudely connected to a galvanometer. It was just a device to fool the suckers and collect their fees. So, I determined right then that Scientology had nothing for me.
Of course Scientology is not really based on science, but on science fiction - and bad science fiction at that - combined with elements of Crowley's pseudo-historical secret society, the Ordo Templi Orientis of which Hubbard was once a member.
Why would any thinking person take it up?
Footnotes:
- USA Today, 13 June 2005
- Memory says it was Popular Science, but I cannot be sure of which magazine.