Cranks and Credulity

Comment by Marie on March 2, 2013 at 1:19pm

*snort* Gee Geoff, are you questioning the scientific methodology of Scientology. Hey! Looks legit, it's got 'scien' in its name. Ah, but maybe a histogram would have better served. ;-) (L. Ron Hubbard used to write bad science fiction until he lived it.)

Enjoyed your, as always, thoughtful perspective. But, when it comes to marketing and logic the 'people factor' trumps all. We all endure those pesky irritating (occasionally enraging) telemarketing calls - because enough ~idiots~ respond to make them cost effective! Yikes!

As for critical thinking... I've always felt it should be taught as a subject in public school. Unfortunately, it's usually the reverse (parroting) that is rewarded. Oh for the day when being on the debate team is ~sexy. *grin*

Comment by Geoff on March 3, 2013 at 2:19pm

Thanks for bringing up Hubbard's sci-fi background. One of his contemporaries, Theodore Sturgeon, said that ElRon used to speculate that big money could be made in founding a religion. I've heard that ElRon's scifi wasn't so bad--like Heinlein but not as good is what someone wrote. I've never seen one of his stories in a scifi anthology which makes me wonder if there has been an effort by the church to scrub his past.

ElRon wrote a late novel called "Battlefield Earth" that got made into a movie starring John Travolta. Mitt Romney is a huge fan of the book. I kid you not.

Comment by BlancheNoE on March 3, 2013 at 2:56pm

Scientology tried to get me a couple of times but I never took the test. I started reading Dianetics but then a new Stephen King book came out. I've always been baffled at how "mindless" the heads of scientology must be to not realize that their evil-engram-shedding procedure is so obviously based on desensitization therapy which was derived from practices of psychologists and psychiatrists whom they label as hokum peddling quacks.

I have programmed myself to be averse to purchasing anything that shows up in a pop-up or moving ad of any sort on the internet. 

Yeah, we are certainly programmable. I will never be able to eat at Steak & Shake again since they came out with the ad where the guy slurps back a snotty liquid mass into his tear duct when the waitress brings him another stack. Oh how I wish I had one of those pens from Men in Black.

Maybe if they have charts and graphs and a doctor explaining why that's not gross in their next commercial....

Comment by Marie on March 3, 2013 at 3:36pm

@Geoff *chuckles* Do not... I repeat, do not compare Heinlein and Hubbard!

Heard the same thing about Hubbard and $$$ in founding a religion or the "cult' in my opinion. Hubbard wrote a ton of short stories, but mostly for small anthology magazines if memory serves. I doubt that scientology has scrubbed his past, just wasn't good enough to meet the cut out of the legions of talented short story scifi writers. Maybe a biased here. ;-)

OMG Blanche... You are programmed to resist programming. ;-)

Comment by Chig on March 4, 2013 at 9:42am

LOL.   Sometimes it is no different in the field of science either when it comes to grants and recognition in reality.  Only one  does make a constant effort to represent truth and find benefit.

Comment by Geoff on March 5, 2013 at 9:33am

Marie, one of ElRon's first converts to his Dianetics ideas (not sure if Scientology as a religion existed from the get-go or if the book Dianetics existed on its own for a few years) was John Campbell, considered by many the most talented editor of science fiction's golden age. So if ElRon was able to place stories in Campbell's magazines he must have been at least okay.

from Wikipedia: Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in science fiction ever, and for the first ten years of his editorship he dominated the field completely."

I was maybe only half serious about Scientology actively trying to dissociate ElRon from his background but I think it strange that I've never seen one of his stories reprinted. I have seen horror stories by Helena Blavatsky (founder of Theosophy) and Aleister Crowley (the self-promoting satanist and "wickedest man alive"). In both cases--though the stories weren't bad--I felt they had been collected for the curiosity value. Wouldn't you be intrigued to see what Hubbard was up to in his early years? And isn't it possible that Scientology would feel embarrassed to have his pulp fiction past highlighted?

Have you ever noticed that the erotic romance novels John of Patmos wrote before Revelations never get reprinted?

Comment by Geoff on March 5, 2013 at 9:40am

[Just in the interests of truth and fair play I want it noted that Scientology never tried to "get" BlanchNoE. Blanch infiltrated the Church in the late 1990s and attempted a bloody palace coup that was only repulsed at the last minute by Kirstie Alley's quick thinking and lightning fists. Blanch retired to an armored compound code-named "NotEurope" where she whiles away her days sending king cobras in unmarked packages to the Scientology leadership. Her quest for world domination proceeds apace, Ning site by Ning site.]

Comment by Marie on March 5, 2013 at 10:22am

"Have you ever noticed that the erotic romance novels John of Patmos wrote before Revelations never get reprinted?"

*wipes coffee of computer* Shit Geoff... I'm going to be laughing at this ALL day! I think you just fried my brain. *happy stupid grin*

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