From: thomson@cs.sfu.ca (Brian Thomson)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Re: Frequently Asked Questions
Message-ID: <1991Sep4.163255.14633@cs.sfu.ca>
Date: 4 Sep 91 16:32:55 GMT
References: <1991Aug31.165532.335918@locus.com> <1991Sep1.200141.15975@cs.UAlberta.CA> <1991Sep04.071209.344984@locus.com>
Organization: Simon Fraser University
Lines: 25
Sender:thomson@cs.sfu.ca

Various people write:
>>> 1. A philosopher develops a philosophy about life and death;
>>   Hmmm, I wonder why that was changed to "philosopher" from "doctor of
>>philosophy" in my edition.
>
>This is probably timing.  My "New Slant on Life" is copyright 1965 and I'm
>guessing that Hubbard's honorary Ph.D. was after this.
>

Its very sad if the history of the subject is being altered so that
current Scientologists miss out on Hubbard's wonderfully eccentric
(lunatic?) personality.  His Ph.D was one of those degrees by mail
order from diploma mills (Sequoia University as I recall).  In the
mad world of the '50s Hubbard, along with most people, felt that one
needed academic qualifications to be credible.  The degree served
that purpose and he tacked the "Ph.D" to most of his writing.  He
also frequently claimed to have studied "atomic physics" at some
University.  He did but not long and not well.  His understanding of
Mathematics and Physics was extremely limited and those occasions
where he tried to portray his understanding are quite ludicrous.

This is not to discount his contributions.   But
lets not forget the man.  He was a charlaton and flim-flam man of
the first order.
-BST.