A money making scheme for whom? Doesn't the church keep the money that's raised? Is anybody actually employed by the church and becoming wealthy because of it?

This is not a challenge, but a legit question. I don't know where their money goes. I had assumed it went into infrastructure, as they seem to have some fancy-pants buildings in high-rent locations. Is it, in fact, going into someone's pockets?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_as_a_business

In the 70's and 80's, the skimming scheme was indisputable. Even today, the leadership of Scientology are assumed to be paid like high-priced CEOs, but I don't think that info is public. But here's an article about the leadership's behavior in decades past. I should note that the current president has been so since the early 80's.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/time-behar.html

"During the early 1970s, the IRS conducted its own auditing sessions and proved that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laundering the money through dummy corporations in Panama and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts. Moreover, church members stole IRS documents, filed false tax returns and harassed the agency's employees. By late 1985, with high-level defectors accusing Hubbard of having stolen as much as S200 million from the church, the IRS was seeking an indictment of Hubbard for tax fraud. Scientology members "worked day and night" shredding documents the IRS sought, according to defector Aznaran, who took part in the scheme. Hubbard, who had been in hiding for five years, died before the criminal case could be prosecuted."

They count as a church for US income tax purposes, right? So it might be really hard to KNOW who's getting paid what.

Isn't there something to the difference between trying to formulate some written expression of what has been intuited in a context which presumably lacked the kind of written historical record we have now, on the one hand, and on the other hand consciously constructing in the 20th century, in far less than the blink of an eye, a complete and extremely quotidian mythology which you then basically sell to people like a huckster?

My biggest problem with Scientology is that they have a building called The Celebrity Center.

My biggest problem with Scientology is that they have a building called The Celebrity Center.

My biggest problem with Scientology is that they have a building called The Celebrity Center.

Doesn't the 'strange in inverse proportion to age' doctrine apply to church funding too? How do the indescretions of Scientologies money making past (and even present) to the history of the Catholic Church in these respects? To anyone thinking of reading the new Hitchens book, do. Nothing that'll blow you away, but a quick, fun, and thought provoking read. His take on the Slate article's "That's not to say that all religions are "equal" or equally deserving of respect" would be that actually none are deserving of any respect and he makes a brave effort of explaining why.

i am totally on jesse's side re: historical relativism. most of the ridiculousness in, i.e., the old testament is easily understood via legitimate, but perhaps not fully-informed concerns about public health and maintaining social order in an anarchistic system. there is a cognitive difference in constructing such a ridiculous mythology after the advent of, say, prisons and public schools.

Re: Hitchens, haven't read him, if I do it'll probably be the god one 'cause I think it's gonna piss me off. As opposed to the one where he supports the war in Iraq, which I KNOW will piss me off. At what point does "secularism" become a faith of it's own?

From 1990 to 1993, the IRS conducted a full and extensive investigation of all aspects of Church finances. Truckloads upon truckloads of banker's boxes went back and forth. It was the longest investigation in IRS history.

And what did this investigation determine? That the Church of Scientology operates as a non-profit; that nobody is getting rich off of Scientology; that all moneys are used for Church expansion and Church social-betterment projects.

You're of course free to disagree with the IRS's fundings, and to speculate endlessly.

I like how whenever you post a Scientology story, you always get one or two people out of the blue who show up to defend them. It's like the have a cadre of people with google alerts on "Scientology' who are in charge of responding to things online.

I wonder if they do do that.

Well, I won't speculate about the present, unless someone can post some real evidence, but no speculation is needed to know that the founders of Scientology were skimming from the top in the 70's and 80's.

of COURSE they do that. It's Church Social-Betterment Project #64.

RumorsDaily,
You seem to find it perfectly ok that, whenever there's a story on Scientology, some people show up to bash it. Why then, is it so offputting to you that some people would show up to defend it?

Crazymonk, please provide some evidence, any evidence, that would support your claim.

http://skull.piratehaven.org/~atman/factnet/app1a.txt

If I had direct access to the records of the court cases cited in the above link, I would post those as well.

The fact that the IRS eventually gave Scientology tax-exempt status (which was clearly a controversial decision) doesn't undo the findings of prior cases.

Greg, the people who bash Scientology are all people who regularly frequent this website, not people who seek it out in order to bash. The presence of people like yourself is the anomaly. How did you happen upon this discussion?

Also, not to undercut your persecution complex, but these same commenters took rabid and consistent pleasure in criticizing:

Mormons
Evangelicals
Creationists
Witnesses
Hamas
Heaven's Gate
Ayatollah
FLDS
Circumcision
Jonestown.

see, i.e., http://www.crazymonk.org/topics/religion

What stands out on this site is someone defending religion, period. You are among well-educated and snarky heathens, by and large. Indeed, I would venture a guess that CM's religion topics have spurred more debate than any other.

Although to be fair, being a Scientologist and having a persecution complex is rather understandable. They are mocked more than any other religion I know of. But hey: Battlefield Earth.