Scientology: The Bits of Truth

As membership becomes more costly it is not likely to be given up easily, regardless of the rewards offered the member have sacrificed large sums of money and are therefore forced to remain part of the organization. This is why as statistics show 29.2 percent of members have been in Scientology for 1-5 years, 9.1% have been part of the organization for over 20 years, 21.3 percent have been there for 16-20 years, and 21.3 percent have been there for 11-15 years. This also correlates with the fact that most members are well off since; 80.0 percent were shown to be above the U.S national average in income, and 98.1 percent are not on welfare. Having members that are financially off helps the organization collect more investments and keep its current hierarchical system.

Other kinds of commitment enforced by Scientology are; affective commitment, “refers to an emotional dependence on the group,” and moral commitment where transcendence is used to create “the sense of ultimate purpose and meaning,” and “although a person may feel worthless as an individual, his or her life has ultimate meaning as a member of the group.” (Roberts 105) Through the use Dianetics, a member develops a need for auditing sessions and comes to the church for help in solving life problems.

Is Scientology a religion based thoroughly on deception? A religious doctrine ripped out of Freud’s mouth and transformed with bits and pieces of science fiction and spirituality? And finally is it a moral crime to be involved with Scientology knowing what we know now about some its practices? Religious freedom is a right granted to everyone in this country,  It is obvious that Scientology is not plausible to everyone, not those in the low ranking poverty levels; even most of the books sold as required texts range between twenty and thirty dollars in price. Scientology is therefore not for everyone as it is presented, their deceptive advertisement is unethical, and involvement is superficially selective.