“It is widely believed that the creation of Scientology was the result of a bar bet between L. Ron Hubbard and Robert A. Heinlein.
The story says L. Ron Hubbard dared that he could create a religion all by himself.
According to Scientology critic Lindsay this is “definitely not true”, no such bet was ever made, it would have been “uncharacteristic of Heinlein” to make such a bet, and “there’s no supporting evidence”.
However, several of Heinlein’s autobiographical pieces, as well as biographical pieces written by his wife, claim repeatedly that the bet did indeed occur.”
I’ve heard Harlan Ellison, who was also part of the bet mention it many times in interviews.
Everybody else sobered up and didn’t bother with the bet but Hubbard actually did it.
They have to got to be the most gullible, stupid people on earth.
Scientology was designed to separate fools from their money.
It has been an unbridled success story!
The owners of the franchise are not practicing members. ‘nuf said.
Harlen Ellison could have come up with something even MORE Sinister (and probably more INTERESTING! :^)), but LRH did a pretty good job deceiving bunches of people.
There is a retired fellow in Pinehurst named Wayne Greene who was a friend of Ron Hubbard. Wayne is pretty famous for starting “BYTE” magazine about the time the IBM PC was announced.
Here is his wikipage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Green
Every once and a while, Wayne is interviewed by a local radio station about the early days of personal computers. Wayne always steers the discussion to Scientology and talks about the origins.
He tells the bet story, but with a twist. LRH was really P.O.ed at the medical and psychiatric community for classifying him as a nut on several occasions. LRH claimed to be just a sci-fy writer. LRH was practicing his Dianetics for a fee and was in trouble for practicing medicine without a license. He was facing indictment and jail time when he made the bet. However, Wayne said the bet was really a two-part bet:
Part One was that Wayne could beat the rap by claiming he was a religious leader and practicing a religion.
Part Two was that he could document the new religion in writing to show the medical board and the courts.
JRH won both parts of the bet by making up the Scientology religion and avoiding charges.
JRH hated psychiatrists and that is one of the major themes of Scientology. It also served to underscore the legal distinction of practicing medicine or religion. By dissing psychiatrists, he was establishing that he was doing anything but practicing medicine.
Wayne is pretty old now (91) and I hope there are recordings somewhere of his interviews.