Notice: Fredric Rice may have removed segments of the replies given to questions if they contained copoyrighted materials. After a very short while, Scientology "experts" refused to answer questions and started cut-and-pasting copyrighted cult propaganda. Additionally I removed URLs in some of the replies, and left them in others. And it's also important to note that eventually the unfortunate "Greg Churilov" cultist was ejected from askme.com for his typical Scientological behavior.

spook69176 asked this question on 4/18/2000:

Why do you have to pay money or time (work for the church) to become a Scientologist?

Greg Churilov gave this non-answer on 4/19/2000:

This question has many layers, I am going to answer in several ways. 1) Why should you get anything for free? America was built on the time-honored principle that your contribution and exchange is rewarded by goods or services from the other party. Scientology owes nobody its help. All the knowledge in Scientology was hard-gained by a lifetime of commitment and devotion from L.Ron Hubbard, and is preserved as a legacy by the ceers. Why wouldn't you expect to exchange some value for that?

2) It is traditional and customary for a religion's parishioners to contribute to it.

[A lie in the case of the Scientology crime syndicate. First off, the money that the crooks extort out of their followers isn't voluntary. The cult's victims are brainwashed through processes called "TRs" or "Training Routines" that make the subject pliable and open to suggestion. Additionally the crooks apply a hypnotic brainwashing process they call "auditing" which further turns the cult follower into an unthinking robot clojne of L. Ron Hubbard, able to believe any lie regardless of how obviously false.

In the Scientology cult, nothing is free. And it's one long protracted bait-and-switch fraud. After the cult victim begs, borrows, and steals every last cent to "go clear," they find that the reason why they didn't achieve the superhuman powers that their cult ringleaders promised them is because they're infested with the invisible murdered space aliens that Xenu blew up on Earth using fusion bombs.

Then begins yet another horribly expensive process to try to rook the cultist out of even more money at the end of which is it found that the cult victim is still not achieving the superhuman feats that the cult's ringleaders promise.

The solution? Another expensive process bait-and-switch that removes the new problem keeping the victim from attaining his goals. And on and on and on. The bait-and-switch only ends when the cult victim escapes the cult or dies - flr]

Some, like the Mormon Church, take a 10% "tithe" from a parishioner's income. Others depend heavily on Governemt subsidy.

[Except that Mormons give a percentage voluntarily and get services back for that percent. In the mormong cult, you fork over your brain and then every last penny you can beg, borrow, or steal. And you have no choice in the matter. If you don't fork it over, the cult's done with you and out you go - flr]

Scientology depends for its survival on the contributions of its parishioners.

[And that's a lie. The Scientology crime syndicate's survival depends upon the ignorance and gullibility of its victims -- victims like Greg here, in fact, who have been in the cult for 18 years now with no sign of mental stability -- and marked signs of insanity. How much money is Greg into the cult for by now? He won't say, I would bet, if someone were to ask. Indeed, the cultist is probably programmed to pretend that asking such questions is "attacking" his "religion" - flr]

This money goes to build new centers, new fdrug-rehab buildings, new literacy projects and many other good works.

[That's a lie. In fact nobody really knows where all the money goes. Hubbard managed to make away with over 200 million dollars according to Lt. Emmons of the Clearwater Police Force. And that was just pennies of what these Scientology crooks manage to take in every year. There is a lot of money sitting in numbered bank accounts in Luxomburg and in Swiss accounts, and assetts continue to get seized from time to time, but where the money goes is something you can easily figure: Into the pockets of the cult's ringleaders - flr]

3) What do you know of that you have received for free do you REALLY value? There is a saying, "you get what you pay for".

Giving something as priceless as Scientology technology away for free would be a disservice to the subject and an insult to your capacity to contribute. best, Spirit

[There's that attempt to justify his master's easy ability to rook their victims out of every last penny after they've utterly brainwashed them - flr]

Further facts about this criminal empire may be found at Operation Clambake and FACTNet.

Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.