Archive-name: scientology/skeptic/faq URL: http://www.daisy.freeserve.co.uk/faq.htm Maintainer: Hartley Patterson <hpttrsn@daisy.freeserve.co.uk> Posting-Frequency: monthly

An Alt.Religion.Scientology FAQ (1.1)

1. What's an FAQ?

FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. Newcomers to popular newsgroups, forums and websites often have the same questions they want answered, a FAQ is intended to be an aid to those who get bored of repeating the same answers every week.

This FAQ expresses the author's views, not those of any other ARS poster, though on occasion he does state what he believes to be the majority view on issues. FAQs do not require unanimous approval of every word in them, just sufficient truth not to get buried under a mountain of abuse.

The author is not nor has ever been a scientologist and is a critic of the Church of Scientology (CoS).

2. What is Scientology?

This is an FAQ for ARS not for Scientology so this will be very brief:

American author L Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), founder of Scientology, first presented his ideas in the bestselling book "Dianetics - the Modern Science of Mental Health" (1950). Scientology, an expansion of Dianetics, followed in 1952, the Church of Scientology appeared in 1954.

CoS headquarters are in Los Angeles and its main training facility is in Clearwater, Florida. The CoS has branches in 59 countries; about half of CoS members are believed to be US citizens and another third are in Europe.

The CoS claims to have over 9 million members; this is untrue. Its own data and independent sources suggest an active membership of 50-100,000. In addition there are scientologists who practise their faith outside the Church ('Freezoners'). Some have set up their own organisations, though the CoS remains the largest group. The CoS considers all Freezoners to be 'squirrels', the scientology term for heretics.

The CoS has a number of 'front groups' that promote Hubbard's teachings such as Narconon (anti-drugs), Criminon (anti-crime), CCHR (anti- psychiatry) and WISE (anti- oops sorry pro-business).

There is a wealth of information about Scientology on hundreds of Internet websites, more than you will ever have time to read. Type 'Scientology' into a Search Engine such as Google and you'll find them. Please try Searching first for answers, only when you can't find something specific should you post questions here.

*** A comprehensive list of websites about Scientology:

http://www.altreligionscientology.org/ As an exercise you might like to open your web browser now and put any words or phrases you don't understand in this FAQ into a Search Engine.

3. What do scientologists believe?

Scientology is an 'applied religious philosophy'. It is unique; it does not conform to the stereotypes of 'cult' or 'religion' or even 'scam' portrayed in the media. This is an important point that newcomers often take some time to grasp as they try to fit Scientology into preconceptions of whose existence they are not aware.

Scientology is not derived from Christianity, being an original belief set devised/researched by L Ron Hubbard. Concepts that are considered important in some religions such as a personal relationship to God do not exist in Scientology.

The CoS claims Scientology to be compatible with other religions. This is untrue.

*** The Internet Encyclopaedia on Scientology:

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

4. I have some questions for Scientologists, are there any here?

Ordinary members of the CoS do not usually post here and are discouraged from doing so. It's also likely that they couldn't answer the questions you want to ask anyway for doctrinal reasons.

5. Can someone please Email me a copy of the secret scriptures?

You are referring to the unpublished writings of L Ron Hubbard that constitute advanced courses in Scientology such as the OT (Operating Thetan) levels. Anyone considering trying out Scientology should be aware that the CoS holds that these levels should be studied in order and that premature contact with the secret scriptures can result in serious harm.

Copies of the secret scriptures were stolen or reconstituted from memory and summaries of them can be easily found on the Internet. Exact copies pop up on websites beyond the reach of CoS lawyers from time to time.

Allegedly.

You could not understand the secret scriptures in the same sense that you could not understand the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem without being a Mathematics PhD. Please take our word for this, they are only of value to scientologists.

6. What is a newsgroup?

Newsgroups (Usenet is the official name) are part of the Internet, they are discussion groups that everyone with an internet connection can access.

Specialised newsreader programs include Agent and Gravity.

Email programs such as Microsoft's Outlook Express and Mozilla's Thunderbird have integrated newsgroup readers.

To access newsgroups you need to connect to a newsgroup server. If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) does not provide one or does not carry ARS (most do) then free access to scientology newsgroups is available from nntp.lightlink.com.

Portals such as Google offer newsgroup access on webpages but this has certain disadvantages and we don't recommend them unless you have no alternative.

If you have technical problems accessing ARS then it is definitely On Topic to ask for help. We have a team of geeks awaiting your call.

7. So who's in charge?

No one. A few newsgroups are Moderated: contributions are diverted to an Email address where a human moderator removes unwanted posts such as spam.

Most, including ARS, are not - what you post is what everyone will see.

Think before you press Send! That's not to say anarchy rules: normal laws apply so you can be sued for libel and your ISP may well have a clause in its Terms of Service (TOS) about causing offence on newsgroups.

8. Can I delete or change my posts?

You can't edit posts once sent, you can try to delete them but some news servers ignore the Cancel command - another reason for thinking before posting. Posts are deleted by news servers after a few weeks anyway, though there is a Usenet archive currently hosted by Google.

9. Can I post anonymously?

Usenet doesn't check to see if you are using a real Email address so you can post as anon@nowhere.net if you like. Please try to pick a unique nickname and address so you won't be confused with someone else.

There is a normally invisible Header (some newsreaders can display it, there are two examples below) attached to posts that gives details of where you posted from, if you want to hide that as well you can use Anonymous Remailers, a system that bounces your post around the Internet like in those Hollywood hacker films.

A simpler way is to ask someone you trust to post your message for you.

By default, your ISP customer services department is staffed by idiots who know nothing about the law. They will reveal your identity to anyone sending them an Email full of legal phrases.

10. What are all these strange words?

Scientology has a lot of jargon that inevitably gets used here. We're not going to apologise for this any more than alt.fan.tolkien posters should apologise for talking about mathoms and ringwraiths.

There are several glossaries available on websites, and one is auto-posted to ARS monthly.

*** An ARS glossary:

http://www.daisy.freeserve.co.uk/jargon.htm

11. Wasn't ARS started as a joke by someone using a fake Email address?

Yes. Here it is:

* From miscaviage@flag.sea.org Wed Jul 17 12:46:28 1991 * * lab!flag !miscaviage * From: miscaviage@flag.sea.org (David Miscaviage) * * Subject: newgroup alt.religion.scientology * Message-ID: 80235@flag * Date: 17 Jul 91 08:06:31 GMT * Control: newgroup alt.religion.scientology * * * Approved: miscaviage@flag.sea.org

ARS was little used for a while, but as the Internet spread ex- scientologists and the merely curious discovered it. The Church of Scientology became increasingly concerned about what it saw as the 'false and derogatory' information and copyrighted material being posted, as several leaked internal memos indicate.

Around Christmas 1994 forged cancels began to appear. The forger, nicknamed 'Cancelpoodle' after the legitimate spam canceller 'Cancelmoose', attracted the attention of the wider Usenet and Internet community - no one had seriously tried to wipe out a newsgroup like this before.

Since that time Lazarus, a robot program, has been checking ARS for cancelled posts and posting alerts about any it finds.

12. Didn't a CoS lawyer try to delete ARS?

Here you go:

* Control: rmgroup alt.religion.scientology * * * netcom.com!hkk * From: hkk@netcom * Subject: cmsg rmgroup alt.religion.scientology * Message-ID:

* Followup-To: alt.config * * Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) * Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 22:52:23 GMT * * * * We request that you remove the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup from * your site.

* The reasons for requesting its removal are: (1) It was started with a * forged message; 2) not discussed on alt.config; (3) it has the name * "scientology" in its title which is a trademark and is misleading, as * a.r.s. is mainly used for flamers to attack the Scientology religion;

* (4) it has been and continues to be heavily abused with copyright * and trade secret violations and serves no purpose other than condoning * these illegal practices.

* Please confirm that you have removed this newsgroup from your system.

* Helena K. Kobrin Counsel for trademark and copyright owner

As mentioned earlier 'Path' above reveals that Helena was posting from Netcom, as is also shown by her Email address.

13. And the CoS is still hostile to ARS?

ARS is nowadays just a minor front in a still expanding 'war' between the CoS and its critics which includes pickets, media exposure, law suits and other activities outside the scope of this FAQ.

In 1998-9 another attack on ARS was made, thousands of spam posts each day that forged the names of regular posters and were dubbed 'sporgeries'. Its only lasting effect was to attract the attention of more Internet users, as regular readers quickly learnt how to filter out the spam.

14. This is a hate group trying to destroy the Scientology religion.

Was that a question? The CoS says so, yes. Naturally no one here is going to admit to being a hatemonger or a religious bigot! You'll just have to read ARS and make up your own mind on this.

Amongst critics, opinion differs about the 'destroy' bit. Some say they are here to stop the alleged abuses committed by the CoS and are not concerned with scientology as a set of beliefs. Others do not believe the two can be separated - any scientology organisation is bound to end up as bad as the CoS.

Critics presently have no formal organisation; such bodies have in the past provided the CoS with targets to infiltrate, undermine and destroy as was the fate of the Cult Awareness Network and the Lisa McPherson Trust. The sometimes referred to 'ARS Central Committee' does not exist, being a humorous reference to CoS paranoia about imagined plots against it.

15. Will posting on ARS cause the CoS to make trouble for me?

If you are a CoS member, post without permission and disagree with CoS policy or doctrine you will probably be Declared. If you are not a CoS member or ex-member then simply expressing your opinion is safe enough, the CoS has too many critics nowadays to pursue them all.

The CoS has a documented history of attacking its perceived enemies, sometimes in long term and carefully planned 'dirty tricks' operations.

Before doing anything other than posting you should find out about these.

16. So what is On Topic for this newsgroup?

Anything connected with Scientology or the Church of Scientology; since this is supposed to be a newsgroup, news and new information are particularly on topic.

Posts that are just long reprints from webpages or books about scientology are on topic but not encouraged, it's better to put in a hyperlink or a reference.

Some people have been posting here for a long while, have become friends and can wander off topic and start discussing cats, cookery or life on Mars. This is normal human behaviour.

You may see a lot of posts about psychiatry. Scientology beliefs include a strong dislike of psychiatry, opinion differs on whether this makes psychiatry a suitable topic for ARS. The posts seem to be intended as spam, as the authors are not interested in actually discussing psychiatry.

17. Are there do's and don'ts for posting?

Sure. Some are conventions for the Internet in general, for example typing IN CAPITALS means that you are shouting which may not have been your intention.

Crossposting (posting to several newsgroups at once) is not encouraged; we have enough traffic without sharing off topic threads with other newsgroups. Please trim or do not reply to crossposts unless they serve a genuine purpose.

The more readable your post, the more people will read it. This means doing simple things like not reposting the full text of a long article just to put a short comment at the end of it (or worse, in the middle of it), quoting at least a few lines so it is clear to what you are replying, separating your text into paragraphs, etc.

On Google Groups to quote the previous message in your reply click the "show options" link then the blue "Reply" link at the top of the post. The full text of the previous message is then included in the composition box, as it is in newsreaders by default.

Please make allowances for posters who are not native English typists.

Offering fallacious or fraudulent arguments attracts abuse and flaming on ARS.

*** Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit:

http://www.xenu.net/archive/baloney_detection.html

18. There's a lot of rubbish on ARS, how can I get rid of it?

Your newsreader should have a facility for blocking posts from people or about subjects. Most ARS readers have a carefully maintained killfile. This is an unfortunate by-product of the popularity of the Internet, along with spam filters, virus checkers and firewalls.

ARS has its share of trolls, the Usenet equivalent of children who throw stones at windows and then run away. They are best ignored unless in answering them you have something of interest to say. Some trolls crosspost as well.

OSA (Office of Special Affairs in the CoS) remains interested in ARS, maintaining one or more 'OSAbots' here whose posts are intended to confuse and deter casual readers. When a 'flap' is on (some event upsetting to the CoS) these posts increase for a few days in the hope that they will swamp normal traffic.

19. I don't have the time to read ARS, how do I keep up to date with what's happening?

ARS Week in Review may be for you then, it is a digest of significant events as posted to ARS. It does not include discussion of such news, scandal, gossip or flamewars, for those you have to read ARS directly.

*** ARS Week in review archives:

http://www.xenu.net/archive/WIR/

20. Is this the only scientology newsgroup?

alt.clearing.technology (ACT) mostly discusses the beliefs and their application and is mostly used by Freezoners.

de.soc.weltanschauung.scientology discusses scientology in German.

alt.binaries.scientology (ABS) is for pictures and such, the others being plain text only newsgroups. A post to ARS saying 'new picture of Saint Hill Manor on ABS' is OK.

There are also web based discussion boards about Scientology such as those at Beliefnet, Factnet and Clambake. You may find one of these more friendly and accessible than ARS.

21. Is this the only Usenet Scientology FAQ?

No, there have been a number of them in the past;

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/faqsearch.html archives thirteen of them! Most date from the mid-1990s and the information in them is nowadays to be found on web pages or is out of date.

***************

Special thanks to Deana Holmes for preserving ARS history, Homer Smith for Lazarus and lightlink and the secret masters of Usenet for keeping ARS alive and kicking the cult since 1991.

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