The Big Lie in the a.r.s. apologetic "FAQ"
Inducto
more or less ignored as being a very uninteresting representation of the CoS
apologist PR line* based on a quick scan, and which I assumed was without
anything that would be outrageously controversial or easily disproven.
However, it's been pointed out that it contains the following blatant,
festering lie that I can't in good conscience let to slip by (miKe`, you've
done a reasonable job in what you're trying to do, but you really ought to snip
this unsupported embarassment from the PR pack):
>15. Scientology is the fastest growing religion today.
This appears utterly false, based on every shred of available evidence (other
than CoS' emphatic unsupported claims); if anything, over the last 5 to 10
years, they may be the worlds' fastest shrinking religion.. One could argue
that in going from 0 in 1950 to a membership of perhaps 250,000 at a peak circa
1980, that CoS was the fastest growing religion of the 20th century -- that
happens to work out to an infinite percentile percentage of expansion, because
that's what you get when you start at zero. And it was probably true at some
point in CoS' ascendency in the 60s and 70s, that they were the world's fastest
growing religion over some period of time, going from say 15,000 in 1955 to
around 100,000 in 1965.
It is observable from changes in CoS' own listings of "churches" and "missions"
over the last few years that they're downsizing to smaller locations with
shorter operating hours, and closing a large number of locations entirely.
Everything from national polls and census, to the reports of former members
involved in membership and mailing operations, indicate that their truly active
membership has never been much more than 100,000, and is currently shrinking.
CoS themselves only list about 130 "churches" and 200 "missions" in their
publications and on their website; many of the churches are walkup offices in
rundown commercial space, and many of the missions nothing more than a token
presence in a members' back room space. The "yellow pages test" shows CoS'
locations disappearing over the last few years to the point where they only
have a couple of listings at best for the countries' largest metropolitan
areas, and no presence at all in huge sections of the country, one of the
smallest groups amongst the pages and pages one can flip through. Compare this
to the 10 million member mormon (LDS) church, which has over 30,000
congregations and owns thousands of substantial church buildings worldwide, and
easily more than ten times the number of listings in most areas' yellow pages.
[Here's a bit of data, for those who like to see evidence]
"45,000 people claim Scientology", 1991 National Survey of Religious
Identification (based on survey sample of over 100,000 US residents);
apparently about half CoS' membership is in the US.
From "The Top 10 of Everything 1998" as posted by Rob; the following figures
more or less in accordance with similar lists I've seen from other sources
(such as http://quis.qub.ac.uk/qubcu/hope/ffwd.htm):
Largest religions in the world, in decreasing order
1 Christianity
2 Islam
3 Hinduism
4 Buddhism
5 Sikhism
6 Judaism
7 Confucianism (5,254,000 adherents)
8 Baha'ism
9 Jainism
10 Shintoism
In the US, in decreasing order
1 Protestant
2 Roman Catholic
3 Afican-American Christian
4 Orthodox Christian (5,602,000 members)
5 Jewish
6 Muslim
7 Episcopalian
8 Buddhist
9 Hindu
10 Baha'i
Fastest Growing
1 Sikh 18,900%
2 Hindu 810%
3 Muslim 537.5%
4 Buddhist 290%
5 Baha'i 117%
6 Evangelical Christian 42.8%
7 Orthodox Christian 28.4%
8 Roman Catholic 14.2%
9 Jewish -16.4%
10 Episcopalian -27.3%
"Eight million people, yes, over a period of the last - since 1954." -- CoS
International President Heber Jentzsch on ABC Nightline, Feb. 14, 1992,
answering interviewer Forrest Sawyers's questions "How do you get to call them
members?.....They took one course, maybe?"
* By the way, would someone please frequently post something easily
recognizable as a "critical" FAQ, or perhaps better yet -- and in the spirit of
evenhandedness that seems to evade CoS and its apologists -- a list of the
various FAQs in existence and their web addresses? Thanks.
SIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIGSIG
Induct YourSELF into new realities
Avoid highwaymen on the road to personal and spiritual betterment -- beware
dead ends and unlit paths
Jim Bianchi
>"miKe`" <cont...@no-spam.email.msn.com> has been posting a "FAQ" which I've
>more or less ignored as being a very uninteresting representation of the CoS
>apologist PR line* based on a quick scan, and which I assumed was without
>anything that would be outrageously controversial or easily disproven.
Good msg, guy. I'll also point out this FAQ is couched using words
that tend to deliberately cause a definite skew to things, a skew that acts
in scns favor. For example, the very words you chose to speak about:
"Scientology is the fastest growing religion today." The result of a
statement like this is to cause people to start arguing about "is it
actually the fastest growing?" As opposed to "the fastest growing
WHAT?"
Scn has appropriated the mantle of "a religion" by default, merely
through the device of making outrageous statements like "scn is the fastest
growing religion today."
I think it is a big mistake to refer to scn as a 'church' or a
'religion,' ever. For it is very definitely not. Not only is it not a
religion, it isn't the fastest growing anything.
--
ji...@sonic.net
Eclectic Garbanzo BBS, (707) 539-1279