throughout that country.
In the United States, the Church's use of the Freedom of
Information Act, taking government agencies to court and
holding them accountable to release vital documents to
the public on a variety of subjects, has been heralded as
a vital action to ensure honesty in government.
In certain cases, the Church has used the courts to
protect its copyrighted materials, or to ensure its
rights and the rights of its members are safeguarded.
During the history of the Church, a few unscrupulous
individuals, lusting for money, have observed how
Scientology is prospering and rapidly expanding, and have
abused the legal system to try to line their own pockets.
In the handful of cases where such attempts have
occurred, they have uniformly failed.
16.6 Are there any laws against the practice of Scientology?
Has it been banned?
Of course not.
In fact, the Church has received numerous recognitions,
citations and validations from various governments for
contributions to society in the fields of education, drug
and alcohol rehabilitation, crime reduction, human
rights, raising moral values and a host of other fields.
16.7 How does Scientology view deprogrammers and groups that
attempt to force people to denounce their chosen religion?
These so-called "deprogrammers," better described as
psychiatric depersonalizers, are money-motivated
individuals who kidnap others for profit. Their methods
include brainwashing, imprisonment, food and sleep
deprivation and various forms of torture.
Such activities are clearly against the principles held
by Scientologists -- and have been proven to be against
the law as well. Psychiatric depersonalizers in many
countries have gone to jail for their violent and illegal
practices.
Situations in which families have expressed concern over
family members' involvement in various religions can
generally be handled with communication. No one need
resort to violence and mercenaries to resolve the upset.
The Church does not condone the use of violence and
advocates that each person has an inalienable right to
their own beliefs.
16.8 Why is Scientology opposed to psychiatry?
As the stepchildren of the German dictator Bismarck and
later Hitler and the Nazis, psychiatry and psychology
formed the philosophical basis for the wholesale
slaughter of human beings in World Wars I and II.
Psychiatry uses electric shock, brain-mutilating
psychosurgery, and mind-damaging drugs to destroy a
person and make him "docile and quiet" in the name of
"treatment."
Psychiatric methods involving the butchering of human
beings and their sanity are condemned by the Church.
Scientologists are trying to create a world without war,
insanity and criminality. Psychiatry is seeking to create
a world where man is reduced to a robotized or drugged,
vegetable-like state so that he can be controlled.
A primary difference between Scientology and psychiatry
is that psychiatrists routinely tell their patients what
they think is wrong with them. This interjects lies or
ideas which are not true for the individual himself, and
thus psychiatric "therapy" violates the basic integrity
of the individual.
On the other hand, Scientology technology enables a
person to find out for himself the source of his troubles
and gives him the ability to improve conditions in his
own life and environment. The underlying difference is
the fact that Scientology recognizes that man is a
spiritual being, while psychiatrists view man as an
animal. Scientology is a religion. Psychiatry is strongly
opposed to all religions as it does not even recognize
that man is a spiritual being. Scientologists strongly
disagree with the enforced and harmful psychiatric
methods of involuntary commitment, forced and heavy
drugging, electroconvulsive shock treatment, lobotomy and
other psychosurgical operations.
By the Creed of the Church of Scientology, the healing of
mentally caused ills should not be condoned in
nonreligious fields.The reason for this is that violent
psychiatric therapies cause spiritual traumas.
At best, psychiatry suppresses life's problems; at worst,
it causes severe damage, irreversible setbacks in a
person's life and even death.
16.9 Why do some people oppose Scientology?
There are certain characteristics and mental attitudes
that cause a percentage of the population to oppose
violently any betterment activity or group. This small
percentage of society (roughly 2.5 percent) cannot stand
the fact that Scientology is successful at improving
conditions around the world. This same 2.5 percent is
opposed to any self-betterment activity.
The reason they so rabidly oppose Scientology is because
it is doing more to help society than any other group.
Those who are upset by seeing man get better are small in
number compared to the millions who have embraced
Scientology and its efforts to create a sane civilization
and more freedom for the individual.
16.10 Is Scientology trying to rule the world?
No. Scientology's aim, as expressed by L. Ron Hubbard, is
that of creating "a civilization without insanity,
without criminals and without war, where the able can
prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man
is free to rise to greater heights. . . ."
"We seek no revolution. We seek only evolution to higher
states of being for the individual and for society."
Scientology does want to improve and reform societal
ills, and Scientologists believe there can be a better
world by doing so.
It is not Scientology's mission to save the world. It is
Scientology's mission to free *you*.
16.11 Can Scientology do anything to improve the world
situation?
Yes, and it does so every single day.
By making the able individual in society more able and
more certain of his abilities, and by continuing the
Church's expansion and social reform programs throughout
the world, the world can become a better place.
It is possible to bring people to higher levels of
communication with the environment and those around them.
And as one raises the level of communication, one raises
also the ability to observe and change conditions and
thereby create a better world and a better civilization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of "A SCIENTOLOGY CATECHISM"
[Part 3 of 3]
Part Nine of _What is Scientology?_
Copyright (c) 1992 Church of Scientology International, All Rights Reserved
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the L. Ron Hubbard Library for
permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of
L. Ron Hubbard.
"Dianetics," "E-Meter," "Flag," "Freewinds," "Hubbard," "OEC,"
"OT," "Purification Rundown," "Scientology," and "The Bridge" are
trademarks and service marks owned by the Religious Technology
Center and are used with its permission. "Scientologist" is a
collective membership mark designating members of the affiliated
churches and missions of Scientology.
============================================================================
--------------< FAQ: Codes and Creeds of Scientology >----------------
The following Codes and Creeds of the Church of Scientology, were
taken from the book _What is Scientology?_ (Church of Scientology
International, 1992) along with the introductory paragraphs before
each code and creed.
[Grateful acknowledgement is made to the L. Ron Hubbard Library for
permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of
L. Ron Hubbard.]
This file contains:
The Creed of the Church of Scientology
The Auditor's Code
The Code of Honor
The Code of a Scientologist
The Supervisor's Code
The Credo of a True Group Member
The Credo of a Good and Skilled Manager
======================================================================
The Creed of the Church of Scientology
The Creed of the Church of Scientology was written by L. Ron Hubbard
shortly after the Church was formed in Los Angeles on February 18, 1954.
After he issued this creed from his office in Phoenix, Arizona, the
Church of Scientology adopted it as official because it succinctly
states what Scientologists believe.
-----
We of the Church believe:
That all men of whatever race, color or creed were created with
equal rights;
That all men have inalienable rights to their own religious
practices and their performance;
That all men have inalienable rights to their own lives;
That all men have inalienable rights to their sanity;
That all men have inalienable rights to their own defense;
That all men have inalienable rights to conceive, choose, assist
or support their own organizations, churches and governments;
That all men have inalienable rights to think freely, to talk
freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter
or write upon the opinions of others;
That all men have inalienable rights to the creation of their own
kind;
That the souls of men have the rights of men;
That the study of the mind and the healing of mentally caused ills
should not be alienated from religion or condoned in non-religious
fields;
And that no agency less than God has the power to suspend or set
aside these rights, overtly or covertly.
And we of the Church believe:
That man is basically good;
That he is seeking to survive;
That his survival depends upon himself and upon his fellows and
his attainment of brotherhood with the universe.
And we of the Church believe that the laws of God forbid man:
To destroy his own kind;
To destroy the sanity of another;
To destroy or enslave another's soul;
To destroy or reduce the survival of one's companions or one's
group.
And we of the Church believe that the spirit can be saved and that the
spirit alone may save or heal the body.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Auditor's Code
This code first appeared as a chapter in the book _Dianetics: The Original
Thesis_ (later retitled _The Dynamics of Life_) written by L. Ron Hubbard
in 1947 and eventually published in 1951.
The ensuing years saw a great deal of auditing done by auditors other than
Mr. Hubbard and from these experiences he was able to refine the Code and
thus improve the discipline of auditing.
The Auditor's Code was revised in 1954, appearing in Professional
Auditor's Bulletins 38 and 39.
