Reality

Question answered by honorarykid in Scientology

Anonymous asked this question on 9/27/2000:

Did Hubbard really say that reality, including the phisical universe is just an agreement? Do Scientologists believe this? If so, how many people does it take to change reality? Was the earth flat when the majority of people thought it was? Is this how Scientologists accept the official doctrine on Hubbard's life history and the statements about church membership and expansion? Could a person who believes that reality is just an agreement be a credible witness to any event?

honorarykid gave this response on 9/28/2000:

- Did Hubbard really say that reality,
- including the phisical universe is
- just an agreement?

Yes, Hubbard really said it.

- Do Scientologists believe this?

I don't know. But I believe that most of them, if pressed, would say they believe it.

- if so, how many people does it take to change reality?

Hubbard never got specific on that point.

- Was the earth flat when the majority of people thought it was?

Since it formed, the Earth has always been an oblate spheriod, no matter how many people believed in the incorrect assumption that the Earth was flat. But, to be true to history, only the uneducated masses actually believed in a flat Earth. Most scholars and learned men since the height of Egyptian civilization understood that the world was round (although most of them still erroneously accepted that the Earth was the center of the Universe, which is why Gallileo was so reviled. He had the audacity to say that the Earth revolved around the Sun).

- Is this how Scientologists accept the official doctrine on
- Hubbard's life history and the statements about church
- membership and expansion?

Yes, I believe so. They don't rely on empirical evidence for determining the truth of claims if they've already been told what to believe about those claims by their superiors (called "seniors") within the cult. In fact, they will refuse to even examine evidence, in many cases, if they suspect that the evidence will contradict what they've been told.

- Could a person who believes that reality is just an
- agreement be a credible witness to any event?

Perhaps some could still be credible, had they been around and been in agreement with intelligent, credible, non-deluded people. But obviously they would be less credible if they'd been around people who had a vested interest in coercing their agreement, or with whom the agreements were inane or bizarre fictions.

Anonymous rated this answer:

U-m-m... If, "the truth shall set you free"-then how are these people ever going to get out their bodies?

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