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Mark Bunker, of wise beardman fame, is currently shooting a feature length documentary about the Church of Scientology. Bunker's said on his blog that he has interviewed James Randi for it. Will be interesting to hear what the king of Flim Flam has to say about it.

It will be interesting what the scientologists make of it.

If the film isn't sanctioned by them, Mr Bunker will find himself under an avalance of lawyers.

Have you SEEN the kind of nonsense scientologists are required to believe? It's utter claptrap.

And since when has a "church" kept confessions to be used against its members if they ever try to spill the beans?

It is complete nonsense, but at the same time, Scientology has been quite protective of these kinds of endeavours, and considering the amount of money they have, the distribution of the film could prove difficult.

At the same time, I don't think Les Freres Corbusier got in trouble for their work, so they might be alright: http://www.lesfreres.org/archives/03_pageant.html

Aye, Bunker is well-seasoned at dealing with Scientology tactics. The film has been financed by his supporters. It won't surprise me at all if, should Bunker not be able to pick up a distributor, he distributes the film for free somehow. The Lisa McPherson Trust used to send out their DVDs pretty much at cost.

Tomo, you should know that Scientologists aren't required to believe anything at all! They are provided with techniques, they try the techniques, find that they work, and then pass them on. It's what makes Scientology the fastest growing religion in the world!

Mr_Grue wrote:Tomo, you should know that Scientologists aren't required to believe anything at all! They are provided with techniques, they try the techniques, find that they work, and then pass them on. It's what makes Scientology the fastest growing religion in the world!

Shouldn't that be "religion", rather than religion?

Not even that.

there seems to be very little information on the wikipedia entry.

guess you have to pay thousands of dollars for that eh?

For a long time, I've always thought of scientologists as just people with silly beliefs who took their religion too seriously. I had no idea how truly evil they were, kidnapping, extortion brainwashing etc. The freemasons and the new world order were fools, you don't need to operate in secrecy to get away with this s***.
Scientologists want to be treated like every other religion, fair enough, lets start by persecuting them. All major religions were persecuted at some point, and I'd like to see how many celebs stick around when we're rounding scientologists up and removing their tongues.

Also while this and this video is to do with scientoligy, I admit I'm mainly posting it to plug Bosten Legal and the super sexy James Spader.

I cannot resist it. I wrote about Scientology in my memoirs "The Lives of a Showman". It involves Jolly Roger who is a member here but long ago deserted us. No doubt he will return once he finds he is being talked about.

Here is the relevant excerpt. It all happened at the Mind, Body and Spirit exhibition in London many, many years ago.
...........................................................................................................

Then there were the Scientologists who had a stand at the exhibition. Many readers will know that this is a very controversial group who call themselves a “religion” and their critics call them something else that is a trifle less saintly.

They had massive signs on their stand proclaiming that Scientology promoted clear thinking. This statement proved to be at the core of the incident I am about to relate.

Roger was an excellent Svengali demonstrator and he had gathered a large crowd around him. In the crowd was a visitor from the scientology booth who was having a break from his duties. Unfortunately, he had committed an unpardonable sin for which he was about to be reprimanded. The chap was smoking and to Roger this was the end of civilisation as we know it.
He stopped his demonstration cold and stared at the offender, saying, “Excuse me, sir. I see that you are a scientologist. Is this correct?” The chap could hardly deny it since he was wearing a scientology t-shirt. He answered in the affirmative. Roger then continued, “May I ask you a question about Scientology?” The smoking scientologist warily replied, “Yes, of course. Go ahead.” Roger then enquired, “Is it true that Scientology promotes clear thinking?” I awaited the response with baited breath but wondered what on earth this had to do with the sale of Svengali decks. The fellow answered, “Yes. It does indeed”

There was rather a large crowd witnessing this exchange and I was wondering where it was going to go. I didn’t have to wait long to find out because Roger then enquired, “If Scientology promotes clear thinking why are you smoking? Smoking is not a way to promote clear thinking. How can you think clearly if you smoke?” The poor chap was quite dumbfounded and dreadfully embarrassed to be singled out among the crowd and mumbled something or other. Roger then went on a rampage against the poor chap and nearly reduced him to a bumbling, quivering wreck. Roger railed against the evils of smoking and gave the cowed Scientologist a dreadful tongue lashing.

The poor chap who was just minding his own business watching a card trick, had not expected to be verbally assaulted by a raging anti-smoking fanatic who did card tricks and talked in a posh upper class British accent. Roger again demanded the fellow explain to the now greatly amused crowd how he could smoke and at the same time espouse Scientology which promoted clear thinking. The fellow certainly didn’t show much of the aforementioned clear thinking when being bombarded by Roger’s aggressive questioning and weakly said, “If you are that interested come back to my stand later and I will explain it to you” Roger wasn’t satisfied with this and demanded, “No. Why don’t you explain it now?” I was now beginning to wonder where all this was taking us and I could see all the potential Svengali deck sales going down the tube. The unhappy Scientologist declined to explain himself to Roger and in fact very wisely decided to scamper hurriedly back to his stand never to come near us again.

Roger then continued with his demonstration and needless to say, nobody purchased a single thing. Nevertheless, he certainly presented a devastating case against smoking and Scientology being compatible with each other.

Sad fact there is that Scientologists smoke because Hubbard smoked. Their strict anti-drugs policy doesn't stretch to nicotine, and LRH went on record as saying that people got lung cancer not because they smoked, but because they did not smoke enough.

Also if I had to work the hours they do, for below minimum-wage, I'd probably want to smoke too.

EDITED for the win.

It's always surprising where you can find Scientology... I clearly remember their *huge* booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair some years back, possibly the largest of all publishers present in that hall...

Oh, I see them at a few of the psychic fairs. They seem friendly enough and laugh when they watch my svengali deck routine. Of course I don't berate them like Roger did. And smoking is banned from indoor venues in Canada anyway.

Mark, funny as always.
I believe scientology, like all religions, should be persecuted regularly and vigorously. Stomp the fools down.
Most religions begin with bizarre claims - virgin births, burning bushes, or whatever - that are not historically verifiable. What makes scientology slightly interesting is, like the mormons, the bizarre claims are in historic times and can be dismissed easily. Yet people still believe.
I was at a psychic fair where they had a stand in Dublin. They accosted me and asked me would I like a personality test. I had to hold a bar while they looked at random dials, then pronounced on my personality. While the guy was doing this he handed me a book to hold to free his hands up. Finally he turned to me and said: And how do you want to pay for that book?
Great sales technique. I am sure a lot of people bought the book rather than argue with the guy.

Mind you, Scientology conforms to the stereotype of a religion in that they tell their followers what to think and exact grave revenge if anyone tries to think differently, speak out or otherwise leave. No, wait: that's a cult.