(12-03-2009, 07:12 PM)transiten Wrote: One thing they do for sure is persecuting those who leave "the church" and when you first begin to take classes they have a method of breaking down the personality of the attendants in "interviews" where the person is heavily insulted and then "welcomed" to build up a new personality.
Yes, I am well aware of this and I find it horrendous! I was just making the point that many religions do the same thing, though perhaps in a more subtle way. I have a friend who has to sneak around to see her son because he was excommunicated from their Christian church...Admittedly, this is not a mainstream Christian denomination, but even the mainstream Christian church teaches their members that they are wretched, worthless 'sinners' destined for eternal torture unless they submit to the higher authority of a certain doctrine. I find this exactly the same! It is a breaking down of the personality to be replaced with some sort of belief.
I'm not saying you aren't right about Scientology; I'm just saying that I see the same pattern, though to a lesser degree, in religions in general.