io9 
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 9:53 PM
Mon Nov 23
25 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors: tips@io9.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Annalee Newitz | Email
News Editor:
Charlie Jane Anders | Email
Associate Editor:
Meredith Woerner | Email
Assistant Editor:
Lauren Davis | Email
Weekend Editor:
Graeme McMillan | Email
Contributors:
Joshua Glenn
Stephen Goldmeier | Email
Ed Grabianowski | Email
Austin Grossman
Paul Hogan | Email
Lauren Davis | Email
Chris Hsiang | Email
Lynn Peril | Email
Ann VanderMeer
Alasdair Wilkins | Email
Graphic Designer:
Stephanie Fox | Email
Interns:
Tim Barribeau | Email
Julia Carusillo | Email
Alex Eichler | Email
Cyriaque Lamar | Email
Caitlin Petrakovitz | Email
Mary Ratliff | Email
Josh Snyder | Email
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10:13 AM
It makes me wonder if so many high-profile celebrities weren't involved (for reasons I'll never understand) if people would still call it a church and not a flat-out cult. Hubbard had said on multiple occasions that the way to make money was to start a church, and from everything I've seen the whole religion feels like one big money-grab with creepy stalky overtones.
11/21/09
I know. What a stick-in-the-mud.
Aztec blood sacrificing - especially of the ripping hearts out of gushing chests - however, involving adults and being spectacularly YouTube-friendly, needs to be added.
11/21/09
Seems like we have two cases of kids dying because of poor parental responsibility, and a bunch of complaints that people don't know when to say "screw you, I'm leaving".
Always good to blame someone else, especially if they're a persecuted minority. Sounds like a witch hunt to me, just like the rest of the anti-scientology crap.
-Kle.
11/21/09
Of course, it also sounds like blatant pro-Scientology propaganda, so it's not really surprising that it's both wrong and devoid of any grounding in reality.
11/21/09
11/21/09
I think Anonymous is on a "witch hunt", I don't think the Senate is however. Slave labor camps, and negligence contributing to death of minors, should be investigated regardless of any perception of a "with hunt", that is pure injustice..
11/22/09
I have no objection to the Senate investigation. What I object to is the blind bigotry against Scientology, and the conviction by popular opinion that it leads to.
I'm old enough to remember when people said similar things about Jews. Nobody would countenance (publicly) the same sort of commentary about any other religion I can think of, yet the supposedly "enlightened" secular/geek community regularly jumps all over Scientology, because it's popular to do so.
Is Scientology stupid? I think so, yes.
However, it doesn't seem any stupider to me than any other religion, and all these purported abuses that people claim they commit don't seem to be anything more than what the RC Church (for example) does on a regular basis.
Feel free to keep picking on the little guy, though - I'll just keep sticking up for their rights.
-Kle.
11/22/09
Yes, a parent bears some small responsibility if their child dies at daycare. It's a parent's responsibility to protect their child, and if they aren't going to do it personally, then they bear some responsibility for anything that happens to that child when under the care of people that they chose.
-Kle.
11/22/09
Sure, they have some sort of social/psychological influence.
However, that is a situation entered freely into by adults. I see no legitimate way to blame the organization. People need to be free to choose.
-Kle.
11/22/09
If they're using illegal coercion , then that can be addressed by the courts.
However, for it to be illegal, it has to be one hell of a lot more than "peer pressure".
AFAICT, the complaints of these people amount to "I'm a spineless idiot who let people push me around because they said they had more imaginary alien blood than I do."
How is that anyone's fault but their own?
-Kle.
11/22/09
I just keep hitting "share" too soon.
How is this a slave labor camp, any more than Jimmy Carter's "Habitat for Humanity"?
When people volunteer for charity labor, they often work hard for no profit, and are often pushed around by other volunteers.
It isn't slave labor, if you volunteer.
Every member of Scientology is a volunteer.
-Kle.
11/22/09
11/22/09
That goes for nuts within normal religious orders too.
11/22/09
Scientology is not a religion, it is a cult who's sole purpose is to steal money.
Judaism wasn't an IRS scam.
08:19 AM
Well, whether you mean me or the other guys, I think it's important to point out blind bigotry whenever it's accepted.
-Kle.
08:21 AM
I consider individual liberties to be amongst the most important ideals. You can't have "making people do what's best for them" and freedom - they just don't mix.
-Kle.
08:25 AM
Sure, Judaism wasn't set up as an IRS scam three or four thousand years ago (or whenever it got going).
However, it's basically indistinguishable from one now, except for its history, and the thoughts of the people that believe in it.
There are clearly people that believe in Scientology, too - I see no reason to punish them, simply because their religion is recent.
The Episcopal / Anglican Church was set up as a divorce dodge - should we all go crazy about making it illegal, too?
-Kle.
09:44 AM
#calendar
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/21/09
.....i hear...
#calendar
11/21/09
11/21/09
it's odd to me how transparent the scam aspect of it is, and all these people are still eating it up. it's insane
#calendar
11/21/09
But I heard tell of those who'd answer perfectly by their standards, just to watch their heads spin. The drones knew what to say to average people, but had no ingrained patter to deal with anyone who got them all "right".
11/21/09
#calendar
11/22/09
I made the mistake of giving these wackos my home address, and I shit you not, I got mailings from them EVERY OTHER DAY for a least a year or more, until I moved. And I'm not exaggerating about the frequency... at least 2-3 times a week, they would send me mail trying to sell me different classes, lectures and seminars.
The creepy thing about these people, is that in all their literature I read, they made no mention that Hubbard had been dead for years. They wrote it like he was still alive, and running the circus, or something. If somebody ever decided to raid that building, I think you'd probably find a corpsified Hubbard in there somewhere, a la Norman Bate's mom.
11/22/09
but yeah, old L. Ron is their Jesus. and they write about him as such... i.e. no mention of his past as a sub-par schlock slinger and known pedophile who would host alcoholic parties on his boat with a bevy of young smooth boys...
#calendar
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
At all.
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/21/09
#calendar
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
It actually kind of brings a tear to the eye.
11/21/09
Not to mention it utterly confuses people who think internet trolls live in their mum's basements wearing elasticated clothing.
11/21/09
It was about the only positive thing - in his opinion - that the film achieved.
11/21/09
link
11/20/09
Of course I mean no harm to either organization.
#paranoia
11/20/09
11/20/09
I didn't want to look like a n00b!
11/20/09
11/13/09
classic.
now we need to do something about the real menace of Hollywood Boulevard, Batman! ...that guy's a dick.... #spiderman
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
"MJ did not give you and your buddy AJ a BJ! Take it back! TAKE IT BACK!"
Spidey should have know he couldn't defeat a villian with the proportionate strength of a douchebag... #spiderman
11/13/09
09/03/09