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From: dst+@cs.cmu.edu (Dave Touretzky)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: dead bodies: taking Milne's advice (Whenever Scientology makes factual claims about any domain of science, from physics to psychology, it falls flat on its face.)
Date: 11 Oct 1995 22:35:45 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
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Message-ID: <45hgs1$ovk@casaba.srv.cs.cmu.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: dst.boltz.cs.cmu.edu

Church spokesman Andrew Milne, displaying an impressive recovery of
rationality this past week, is actually confronting his critics now and
trying to answer them with facts and citations.  So let's follow his advice.
Milne writes:

>     If one wants the true information about Scientology why not ask a
>Scientologist?

Okay.  How about if I ask L. Ron Hubbard about the electrical properties of
human corpses?  Here is what Mr. Hubbard has to say on this topic:

  "Electrical resistance is measured in ohms.

  "The resistance of a dead female body is 5,000 ohms and of a
   dead male body, 12,500 ohms."


   -- from page 3 of "The Book INTRODUCING the E-METER", by L. Ron Hubbard,
      third edition, copyright 1966, 1968, 1983.  New Era Publications ApS.

Commentary:

This "fact" is nonsense.  The resistance of a corpse depends on a number of
factors, including the state of decomposition.  The notion that one can give
a precise resistance value for a generic dead body is ridiculous.  The
notion that the values for male and female bodies would differ by a factor
of precisely 2.5 is even more ridiculous.  And assuming resistance is
measured palm-to-palm, as when holding the cans of an E-meter, I believe the
values cited are way too low.

Whenever Scientology makes factual claims about any domain of science, from
physics to psychology, it falls flat on its face.  It's obvious that even as
late as 1983, Hubbard didn't have a clue about how to do real scientific
research.  He reports results to three digits of precision (12,500 ohms =
1.25 x 10^4) when no details about measurement technique, sample size, or
variance are given.  Kids learn better habits than that in high school.

A simple measurement of body resistance, which any medical student could
easily make on a selection of corpses at the local hospital, proves too
complex for L. Ron Hubbard to manage.  And we're supposed to believe his
reports of "research" on more complex issues, like the nature of the mind?
Give me a break.

-- Dave Touretzky, KoX (SP4), copyright scofflaw lurking under The Bridge.
   L. Ron Hubbard's TR 0 sez: "Blink if you must, but don't blink nervously."
   SCIENTOLOGY = FALSE MEMORY SYNDROME.   http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman