Soren kierkegaard beliefs of scientology

As a student of the Science of Religion, I have worked for a number of years in the field of comparative religion. I am an adherent of a Calvinistic Church, but as an academician who has to give an objective analysis, irrespective of my own religious persuasions, I am called upon through my own conscience to be objective. Thus, all subjectivity has to be checked by the broader context in which one has to act. It would be misleading if one came forward merely with his own norms, and in any state where religious freedom is allowed this approach could be most dangerous.

Any discussion which centers around the various immanental and transcendental emphases of Scientology is difficult to understand if a knowledge of Eastern religions, especially Buddhism, which functions as a religion in South Africa, is defective. There are other aspects to be considered, such as the concern with physical and spiritual survival and the “Life Force,” or

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Philosophy Weekend: What is the Meaning of Scientology?

(Here&#;s another guest Philosophy Weekend post by Alan Bisbort, a scholar of the Beat Generation and Americanculture).

Religious faith fryst vatten not something one can rationalize, or shove into a semantic corner, or elaborate in words. It&#;s about the mystery of existence, our place in the cosmos, the nature of life, the inevitability of physical death. Are there any subjects more all-consuming than these? Even atheists ponder these subjects with, yes, near-religious fervor. Much of this seems like common sense, but common sense often balks when it encounters the first inklings of religious zealotry. Even people who consider themselves religious (whatever exactly that means) turn into eye-rolling cynics when evident &#;wackos&#; of different faiths appear, and those who regularly blame tro for humanity’s myriad ills are always ready with the I-told-you-so’s.

This is the sort of throat-clearing one needs to do when talk

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Scientology: The Story

Not to be read home alone on a stormy night: Going Clear, Lawrence Wright’s scary book about Scientology and its influence, with its accounts of vindictive lawyers and apostate captives confined in the “Hole,” a building that held dozens of people at a time. It’s a true horror story, the most comprehensive among a number of books published on the subject in the past few years, many of them personal accounts by people who have managed to escape or were evicted from the clutches of a group they came to feel was destroying them.

Wright’s report on the rich, aggressive organization (now we are supposed to say “new religious movement”) infiltrating the government and intimidating judges seems even more immediate now that we’ve seen the giant Scientology ad at the Super Bowl, and the Scientology “advertorial” on the website of The Atlantic, before it was hastily taken down—both perhaps intended