Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Here's an interesting page I found - some commentary about the Scientology religion and a list of excellent resources. The Church of Scientology, Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard. And here is a list of Scientology churches and Dianetics centers in Denmark.Buhuu.dk: Samfund/Religion/Scientologi/Lokalafdelinger. Here's another good page about Scientology in Danish. It gives a brief biography of L. Ron Hubbard
Sometimes people ask what does Scientology believe about the Diety and other spiritual matters. Here is an interesting statement about this.
There seems to be a lot of controversy about Scientology but here's an interesting perspective on the cause of this.

Sunday, December 28, 2003

Check out this book by Dr. Derek Davis in Amazon.com. It has a great chapter on Scientology.

Here's another book. It's by Dr. Gordon J. Melton. It is called The Church of Scientology and gives really excellent descriptions of the Scientology religion by a religious scholar who is not a Scientologist.

Monday, December 22, 2003

Here's another interesting site on the subject of Scientology. Dr. Gordon Melton is a sociologist of religion. He himself is a Christian minister. He wrote a book that he called The Church of Scientology. This link is to a review of the book, which is available at Amazon.com
I recently found a site on the Net written by one of the earliest students of Scientology in India. His name is Dr. Subhash Sood. I found it very interesting to read his views on Scientology and Dianetics from his background in eastern religion and philosophy. As Dr. Sood puts it L. Ron Hubbard developed Scientology and Dianetics, which claims to make enlightenment scientifically achievable

I find it very interesting that he should say this. When I first got involved in Scientology I was looking for personal answers. I had attempted to study eastern religion myself, but I found with Scientology the answers were so practical and workable. After looking for solutions in many quarters it was so gratifying to find something that actually worked.

Rev. Cathy Norman of the Church of Scientology of Texas wrote this interesting article on Scientology. She explains Scientology doctrine regarding God. She also goes into other Scientology tenets.

This explains a great deal about why Scientologist are invovled in helping their communities and what motivates their participation in social reform and human rights causes.

Friday, December 19, 2003

There's a very interesting site about Scientology that was created by a group called CESNUR - Center for Studies on New Religions. It has documents and articles that give a good perspective on how Scientologists have had to defend their right to practice their religion. It has not been that unusual for new religions to run into intolerance in the past. Mormonism, Quakers, even Christianity had to contend with alarming false reports about them that turned people against them when they were new. But now we have instant global communication and access to the enormous amounts of information, so there is the potential to overcome this tendancy.

Another interesting page about Scientology is by by Jack Nation, ThM, Pastor . He gives a pretty balanced statement about the Scientology religion.

Also a bibiography that apprears in the Marburg Journal of Religion about Scientology, compiled by by Marco Frenschkowski lists out the primary references on Scientology, most of which can be found in libraries, and all of which can be ordered online through the official site of the Church of Scientology. The best way to understand what people really believe and do is to read the texts that comprise the basis of their religious philosophy.

Thursday, December 11, 2003

Washington DC is one of my favorite cities - always was. I first went there with my parents when I was a kid. I remember my first impression of the Lincoln Memorial - how much I felt the presence of the courage and ideals of Lincoln.

Growing up in New York, I was really surprized what a southern town Washington DC was. This was in the late 50's and there were still restaurants in DC where you only saw white faces. My mother and dad whispered to us that this was a segregated restaurant. I couldn't fathom the concept.

As I got older my favorite sites shifted. Then it was the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art where I loved to spend my time.

As a college student, in the late '60s it was the Washington Monument - not in an of itself but because it was the scene of so many important events like the March on Washington.

Then when I became a Scientologist, Washington took on a new meaning for me, because that is where L. Ron Hubbard had his headquarters for many years and where he was executive director of the Founding Church of Scientology.



Monday, December 08, 2003

Rev. Cathy Norman has some interesting insight to share on the Scientology religion. In her article Scientology Gives Believers a Map on the Road to Self-fulfillment she explains some of the beliefs and practices of the Scientology religion including why Scientology Volunteer Ministers have the motto "something can be done about it."

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Here's an interesting site. It lets you answer questions and find out what things suit you the best. It's called "selectsmart". One of the things you can check into is various religions. It has a description of Scientology that's very interesting.

When I did the quiz I was told I was probably a Buddhist - interesting since I have a lot of beliefs in common with Buddhism - but it also shows that whoever wrote the test is lacking some understanding of Scientology, since my answers were pretty much right-down-the-line based on what I've learned in Scientology.

Anyway it's an interesting site, and I thought that the description of Scientology was fairly accurate.
Here's the blog of one of my friends, appropriately called I like to help. She certainly lives up to that credo. That's one of the things I like best about my Scientology friends. They are so interested in people, and like to help others, and have the tools to be able to do so.
Okay, this weekend was incredible! I got to go to San Francisco for the grand opening of the new Church of Scientology of San Francisco . The event was spectacular, especially the speach from David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center. There were Chinese dragon dancers, and an incredible brass band that played "San Francisco" (the Jeanette MacDonald version).

This is the third Scientology church to open within the past month! What a fantastic trend!