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From: bill@scconsult.com (Bill Stewart-Cole)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,alt.censorship
Subject: Re: Crime Organisation $poofology threatens Dutch ISP
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 01:49:51 -0500
Organization: Stewart-Cole Consulting
Lines: 71
Message-ID: <bill-1410950149510001@sc1.scconsult.com>
References: <vLndwkJC7c0S085yn@telebyte.nl> <akkerman.813243234@dutiag> <45d1il$3of@fountain.mindlink.net> <7TmewMsCo3KE084yn@xs4all.nl> <45em25$79p@fountain.mindlink.net> <QkSpHeG00YUrRobJIv@andrew.cmu.edu> <45kdns$fjj@fountain.mindlink.net>
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In article <45kdns$fjj@fountain.mindlink.net>,
brian_thurston@mindlink.bc.ca (Brian Thurston) wrote:
>William Bardwell <wbardwel+@CMU.EDU> wrote:
>
>>brian_thurston@mindlink.bc.ca (Brian Thurston) writes:
>>> The Church of Scientology believes that the publication of these
>>> "secret scriptures" could cause irreparable harm to the people of
>>> earth and its practitioners. We don't even have to speculate that it
>>> is true, it is just a belief.
>
>>Uh, so what? This is irrelevant to them being trade secrets or
>>copyright, and says nothing about fair use of copyrighted material...
>>This is irrelevant to the legal issues...
>
>Unfortunately William, you have clipped out the part where we changed
>subjects.
>
>We are now exploring purely ethical/moral grounds now for respecting
>Freedom of Expression through religion.
Perhaps.
Then your argument is NOT that there are legal grounds for forbidding fair
use quotation and criticism of the OT materials, but that good people
should respect Scientologists' religious beliefs and not engage in such.
I am tempted to get Henriesque about that, but I'll control the urge.
The calm response is that the 'secret scriptures' are so in conflict with
the public face of the CoS that keeping them secret amounts to a massive
fraud on everyone the CoS tries to recruit. To NOT inform people about
what the core beliefs of the CoS are is morally irresponsible. It is
apparent from the affidavits of people who have left from Flag and Hemet
that the severeity of the deception practiced on pre-clears puts them into
a position where when they finally get to OT3 and confront the ascientific
and rather dismal cosmology generated by Hubbard they have a tendency to
crack mentally. In essence, the wild shift from the "road to total
freedom" to "the battle against xenu and the marcabs" so sharply made in
such an environment of belief control causes severe mental breakdowns. The
Cos is not just deceiving people, it is (in vernacular terms) driving them
crazy. You are lucky to have gotten out before reaching that point, and
to have had so long to remove yourself from the central authority that
treats debate as treason. People who have not been subjected to that can
read the OT materials and giggle. It does not, as LRH says it does, induce
illness and even death. You are long enough out that i suspect you are
past it being a serious shock at it, and to really understand the debate
here you need to read the OT materials.
[snip]
>
>The weighting of public interest against freedom of religion is a
>difficult choice. It is unfortunate that it has come to this in the
>first place.
But there is no freedom of religion issue here.
Scientologists may practice as they choose. I may think it's silly, but if
they want to use a primitive ohmmeter in conjunction with discussing their
problems and call it religion, that's fine. If they want to not talk about
their inner secrets, that's fine. If they expect everyone else to not talk
about them, they can go to hell. Keeping me from calling the Xenu story
absurd and telling everyone that this ascientific pap is the heart of
Scientology is not within the practice of religion, it is an attempt to
inflict others with your self-delusion.
--
Bill Stewart-Cole
What is Stewart-Cole Consulting?
Hell if I know. I'll find out when I finish the web page.
Current projected date: 10/1. I'm not saying what year
ÿ