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Similarities between Mormonism and Scientology
epologetics.org via alma.edu ^ | Dec. 23, 2007

Posted on 01/22/2011 2:19:40 PM PST by Colofornian

* Origins

o Based on entirely unevidenced stories

o Doctrines created and evolved over time, sometimes changing

* Founders

o Known for their extreme desire for wealth

o Known for telling stories and lies

o Convicted and imprisoned for illegal activities

o Died during their trouble with the law

* Legal troubles

o Involved in many illegal activities, in many cases as part of official organization doctrine and practices

o Support destruction of outsiders, especially apostates (blood atonement, shunning, "fair game")

o Legal troubles led to changes in doctrine (at least on the surface, note polygamy and "fair game")

* Teachings

o Pre- and post-mortal existence

o Eternal progression (godhood, clear thetan)

o Only way to know truth is to experience it yourself

o Christianity, Bible only partly true

o Focus on thriving and happiness in present life rather than the afterlife or eternal life

o "Salvation" by works

o Give "milk" instead of "meat"

o Official endorsement of lying about or avoiding discussion of controversial doctrines, especially origin of man and key figures (Heavenly Father, Xenu, spirit children, thetans, etc)

o Levels can be achieved (Operating Thetan levels, temple Mormons, eternal progression, different kingdoms)

o Resistance is dismissed as proof/evidence of validity

* Behavior

o Persecution complex

o Label and treat opposition as evil enemies ("Antis", "Suppressive Persons")


TOPICS: Apologetics; Other Christian; Other non-Christian; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: inman; lds; mormon; scientology; similarities
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Here's another Web site noting parallels between Mormonism and Scientology:

Similarities:

1. Pre-existence of humanity:
LDS: All humans pre-existed in the spirit world before being born on earth.
Scientology: People were thetans in past lives + belief in reincarnation.

2. Unlimited potential for humans:
LDS: Heavenly Father (God) is an exalted man and LDS men may become gods with omnipotence and omniscience. Scientology: People may become thetans again, regaining their freedom from matter, energy, space, and time (MEST).

3. “Salvation” only through their Church:
LDS: Exaltation and godhood only through the LDS Church.
Scientology: Recovering one’s thetanhood only possible through Church of Scientology.

Source: LDS (Mormonism) and Scientology: A Brief Theological Comparison

Also, in this link, under one of the supposed "differences," I actually see more of a connection...#6 mentions Mormonism's "exaltation to godhood"...Scientologists a "return to Thetanhood" as its "final goal."

1 posted on 01/22/2011 2:19:42 PM PST by Colofornian
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To: hennie pennie

*bookmark*


2 posted on 01/22/2011 2:23:50 PM PST by hennie pennie
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To: hennie pennie

You forgot that both are mentioned a lot in South Park.


3 posted on 01/22/2011 2:24:56 PM PST by Loud Mime (If you don't believe in God, you will believe in government. Choose your "G")
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To: Colofornian

They’re both invented by one man (each I mean).

“Thetan” sounds like Satan with a lisp, btw.


4 posted on 01/22/2011 2:25:25 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: All
The Salt Lake Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack -- btw a paper which apparently cannot now be linked to on FR -- published an article Friday about how the Mormon marketing campaign follows a pattern by another cult...guess who?

I wonder if some journalists are seeing other online articles such as: Did the LDS Church model their ads after Scientology’s?

Or perhaps this posting board of ex-Scientologists!
Hey! I might be a Mormon!!!

The first poster of this second above-linked thread said a year ago:

Fascinating approach for the cults to try and overcome crushing negative public perception.
* Make it look all technicolor lovely and normal
* Interview a person who believes they are dedicated to a good cause to help mankind
* Stay away from the crazeeeeeee beliefs.
* Make it all sound all simple and common sense.
* Hey, it works! Hey it's spiritual! Hey it can help you! Hey it's fun!
* Hey, read a book!
These scripted, orchestrated propaganda pieces use innocent dupes to lure unsuspecting victims.

5 posted on 01/22/2011 2:25:57 PM PST by Colofornian ( Life isn't FAIR!)
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To: Colofornian; Elsie

Wheres the pic of the Scientology Kittehs ???


6 posted on 01/22/2011 2:31:13 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
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To: All

An “obvious” similarity is that both were rooted in sci-fi novelists (L. Ron Hubbard & Joseph Smith) writing “novels”...Smith’s was simply put, The Book of Mormon.


7 posted on 01/22/2011 2:32:12 PM PST by Colofornian ( Life isn't FAIR!)
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To: Colofornian

I’ve seen a lot of parallels between Scientology and Satanism.


8 posted on 01/22/2011 2:34:24 PM PST by PetroniusMaximus
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To: Colofornian
IB4PD-SPAMLINKS! but my unofficial links already addressed that!!!!!
9 posted on 01/22/2011 2:42:20 PM PST by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: All
Also, L. Ron Hubbard could have easily substituted Kolob for Venus in his religion.

According to Scientology, when a person dies — or, in Scientology terms, when a thetan abandons its physical body — they go to a "landing station" on the planet Venus, where the thetan is re-implanted and told lies about its past life and its next life. The Venusians take the thetan, "capsule" it, and send it back to Earth to be dumped into the ocean off the coast of California.
Source: Thetan (Wikipedia

Seems to me that, per the Mormon myth narrative, when when an earthling is becoming "encapsuled" they leave from a "launching station" on the planet Kolob, where the Mormon spirit is implanted inside a human body, and once born with a Mormon family, the Mormon is told lies about its past life and its next life. The Mormon gods take the Mormon, "capsule" it in that body, and send it to Earth to be dumped at age 8 into the Mormon baptismal founts off of many international coasts.

10 posted on 01/22/2011 2:42:27 PM PST by Colofornian ( Life isn't FAIR!)
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To: Colofornian

And really funny South Park shows about bof uv ‘em.


11 posted on 01/22/2011 2:42:41 PM PST by flowerplough (Thomas Sowell: Those who look only at Obama's deeds tend to become Obama's critics.)
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To: Colofornian

When I was still in school, I used to read pulp SF magazines.

I remember that one of them included a letter to the editor from L. Ron Hubbard, explaining why he wasn’t submitting any more stories.

What he said, basically, was that he planned to start a new religion, because he could make a lot more money that way than he could writing SF stories.

If there is a resemblance between the two founders, presumably it is because Hubbard looked at Joseph Smith and the LDS and decided it would provide him with a very useful model for a successful religion. He gave it an SF twist, because that was what he was good at, and it probably amused him.


12 posted on 01/22/2011 2:46:03 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Colofornian; All
Seems to me that, per the Mormon myth narrative, when an earthling is becoming "encapsuled" they leave from a "launching station" on the planet Kolob, where the Mormon spirit is implanted inside a human body, and once born with a Mormon family, the Mormon is told lies about its past life and its next life. The Mormon gods take the Mormon, "capsule" it in that body, and send it to Earth to be dumped at age 8 into the Mormon baptismal founts off of many international coasts.

Then, when the Mormons want to send deceased spirits on ahead back to Kolob from which they originated, they go to over 130 launching stations around the world -- baptismal tanks located in temples. There, they coerce teen-agers & young adults to get dunked on behalf of these dead spirits...once their records have been genealogically id'd & a sponsor found...

Hmmm...

What does it matter that L. Ron Hubbard is dead?

I say, just transfer the Mormon narrative over to his series of novels and just pick up where Hubbard left off!

13 posted on 01/22/2011 2:47:46 PM PST by Colofornian ( Life isn't FAIR!)
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To: PetroniusMaximus

I’ve seen a lot of parallels between Scientology and Satanism.

I've seen a lot of parallels between Mormonism and Satanism (and the Occult), especially in their temple ceremonies, their architecture, and Joseph's frequent use of a peep stone.

14 posted on 01/22/2011 2:48:58 PM PST by Zakeet (Always trust in the five G's: God, Gold, Guns, Grub, and the Government screwing up)
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To: Colofornian

I cannot look at Greta anymore without thinking, here’s a seemingly intelligent woman, who believes Scientology.


15 posted on 01/22/2011 2:52:37 PM PST by Graybeard58 (Don't tell Obama what comes after a trillion)
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To: PetroniusMaximus
I’ve seen a lot of parallels between Scientology and Satanism.

You should do a web search on "Frater H" who was apparently none other than L. Ron Hubbard, if the very many sites purporting to cover his pre-Scientology days have even a grain of truth to them.

16 posted on 01/22/2011 2:53:00 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: Graybeard58
>>>> "I cannot look at Greta anymore without thinking, here's a seemingly intelligent woman, who believes Scientology." <<<<

No kidding - only person I actually listen to on FOX is M.Kelly; I was amazed when Greta came to FOX and other FOX personalities were standing up for her and treating the cult scientology as if it were mainstream Christianity.

I feel sorry for her.

17 posted on 01/22/2011 3:01:58 PM PST by hennie pennie
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To: Cicero
If there is a resemblance between the two founders, presumably it is because Hubbard looked at Joseph Smith and the LDS and decided it would provide him with a very useful model for a successful religion. He gave it an SF twist, because that was what he was good at, and it probably amused him.

Well, Hubbard did have to "twist" any sci-fi that Mormon leaders hadn't already done before him -- just a lot less detail.

For example:

* Lds "prophet" Brigham Young: Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet that shines of an evening, called the moon? ...when you inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most learned are as ignorant in regard to them as the most ignorant of their fellows. So it is with regard to the inhabitants of the sun. Do you think it is inhabited? I rather think it is. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it was not made in vain.
Source: Journal of Discourses, Vol. 13, p. 271...1870 -- so keep in mind, Young had already been leading the Lds church for over 25 years or so when he made this comment -- including around 25 years as its "prophet."

Brigham Young's first counselor was "apostle" Heber C. Kimball: "Where did the earth come from? From its parents earths...The earth is alive. If it was not, it could not produce." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, p. 36, 1857)

BTW, where did Brigham Young get his "source" re: the habitation of the moon?

Oliver B. Huntington: Nearly all the great discoveries of men in the last half century have, in one way or another, either directly or indirectly, contributed to prove Joseph Smith to be a prophet. As far back as 1837, I know that he said the moon was inhabited by men and women the same as this earth, and that they lived to a greater age than we do--that they live generally near the age of 1000 years. He described the men as averaging nearly six feet in height, and dressing quite uniformly in something near the Quaker style. In my Patriarchal blessing, given by the father of Joseph the Prophet in Kirtland, 1837, I was told that I should preach the gospel before I was 21 years of age; that I should preach the gospel to the inhabitants upon the islands of the sea, and--to the inhabitants of the moon, even the planet you can not behold with your eyes. The first two promises have been fulfilled, and the latter may be verified. From the verification of the two promises we may reasonably expect the third to be fulfilled also. (Source: Young Woman's Journal, Vol. 3, pp. 263-264, 1892)

18 posted on 01/22/2011 3:13:47 PM PST by Colofornian ( Life isn't FAIR!)
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To: Colofornian

IB4PDSPAM


19 posted on 01/22/2011 3:39:14 PM PST by Godzilla (3-7-77)
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To: Godzilla

Great Dane to the Rescue!

20 posted on 01/22/2011 3:46:13 PM PST by Utah Binger (Southern Utah where the world comes to see America)
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