Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'

[Maggy J]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/20/1


Give me a break..When they said they were changing the laws on name calling in regards to religion this wasn't quite what I thought was what meant.When did cult become an abusive word?

[downquark1]

This is not surprising Scientology has a long history of using legal attacks against its critics.

[TheNorm]

This is a little worrying...

The City of London police came under fire two years ago when it emerged that more than 20 officers, ranging from constable to chief superintendent, had accepted gifts worth thousands of pounds from the Church of Scientology.

[downquark1]

The group was founded by the science-fiction writer L Ron Hubbard in 1952 and espouses the idea that humans are descended from an exiled race of aliens called Thetans.

This is not entirely true. It is my understanding that Thetans are the souls of murdered aliens that cling to human bodies causing mental unrest.

The Scientology progression aims to rid the body of these thetans creating a "clear" who is supposedly an ideal human.

[Maggy J]

I know who they are and how they came about(Hubbard was a rubbish writer) but my beef is that how far is this going to go.

I understand the need for religious tolerance and that name calling is not on BUT again I want to know when cult became an abusive word.

[downquark1]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

I know who they are and how they came about(Hubbard was a rubbish writer) but my beef is that how far is this going to go.

I understand the need for religious tolerance and that name calling is not on BUT again I want to know when cult became an abusive word.

Well scientology is probably the best argument in existence against religious tolerance laws.

How far will it go? Historically, I expect it will go as far as they can push it. They are having difficulty with young freedom of speech protesters on the internet. They are not doubt trying to "make an example".

[Matt D]

This is ridiculous. What happened to freedom of speech?

I like how the teenager in question actually quoted to the police 'a 1984 high court ruling from Mr Justice Latey, in which he described the Church of Scientology as a "cult" which was "corrupt, sinister and dangerous". '


TheNorm's quote from the story regarding the City of London police is definitely rather worrying... and I see the article also says...

Writing on the same website, another anonymous demonstrator said: "We also protested outside another Scientology building in Tottenham Court Road which is policed by a separate force, the Metropolitan police, who have never tried to stop us using the word cult.

If the Met doesn't have a problem with it, why does the City of London force?

[AntiSilence]

I like the bit about him having to pay for his lawyer out of his pocket money!

I hope he sticks it out, as giving his opinion should not be deemed illegal.

[BBKing]

This is ridiculous. What happened to freedom of speech?

It went out of the windows shortly after people started clamouring for the police to be given the powers to deal with all these troublemakers.

Incidentally, it wasn't religious hatred that the rozzers (actually, they're blaming the CPS on this one, which suggests someone is going 'uh oh' down at the station) scooped the lad on, but public order offences, in that they asked him to take the banner down and he refused. To my mind, the idiotic decision was made by whoever asked him to take it down.

City of London plod are bizarre at the best of times.

[greencreeper]

It's interesting. If I said that there's a large group that practice ritual cannibalism, and unsafe sex, often with young boys, you'd think "cult". It's actually "catholic". Amazing what a few hundred years of history can do for your credibility.

[BBKing]

I'm not sure the unsafe sex is officially part of the rituals, however.

[tweetypie/8]

Originally Posted by TheNorm

This is a little worrying...

you bet it is norm.

[Russ B]

Originally Posted by greencreeper

It's interesting. If I said that there's a large group that practice ritual cannibalism, and unsafe sex, often with young boys, you'd think "cult". It's actually "catholic". Amazing what a few hundred years of history can do for your credibility.

As much as I view Catholicism with distain, my respect for you has dropped quite sharply with that potentially libelous post

Anyway, what's wrong with calling Scientology a cult?

edit: after reading BBking's post, I now see what the hassle was about. Scientology is still a cult to these eyes anyway. Guess that makes me 'fair game' now.

[handyman]

Originally Posted by downquark1

This is not entirely true. It is my understanding that Thetans are the souls of murdered aliens that cling to human bodies causing mental unrest.

The Scientology progression aims to rid the body of these thetans creating a "clear" who is supposedly an ideal human.

The thing is the first one at least has a minor credibility although his very unrealistic*. The 2nd is just 100% mad man baloney that's got out of hand.

*There is an outside chance that life on this planet did not actually originate here but that bit was brought on an asteroid or a comet that hit us billions of years ago so we could all be descended from 'aliens'.

[punky]

Thankfully it was only Scientology and not Islam eh?

As a side note I see The Grauniad is still trying to masquerade as a serious news source, whilst stealing bandwidth from other hosts. Their hotlinked picture has now been replaced with a goatse pic. Also interesting is that Shami Chakrabarti is still completely separate from reality.