[strela]

Rumor has it that Scientology was actually based on a joke by L. Ron (a looneytune who was a subject-matter expert on looneytunes). He bet some friends of his that he could start his own religion, and that people would be stupid enough to believe it and practice its "tenets."

[Scutter]

and that people would be stupid enough to believe it and practice its "tenets."

Interesting that it has attracted so many actors (draw your own conclusions as to the intellect of the average actor).

[Physicist]

The version I heard is that Hubbard was having an argument with Robert Heinlein and A.E. Van Vogt, wherein Hubbard maintained that science could be made into a religion. Heinlein vehemently disagreed, so Hubbard bet them that he could do it.

[Reverend Bob]

No, it was not based on a "joke". Hubbard was always a bit of a con man on the lookout for an easy score. Even before Dianetics, Hubbard was bragging to fellow authors that he was going to start his own religion and make a ton of money. One witness to this was the late Lloyd Arthur Eshbach.

Frank Gruber knew Hubbard and included a great portrait of him on pages 80-81 of his THE PULP JUNGLE. Note that, for legal reasons, Gruber identifies him only as "Ron":

"Another pulp writer moved into the Fourty-fourth Street Hotel, while I was living there. Several times a week he would knock on my door in the evening and come in and kick it around. Jack Reardon was often there and sometimes Mort Weisinger and Steve Fisher.

"During one such session this writer began to relate some of his own adventures. He had been in the United States Marines for seven years, he had been an explorer on the upper Amazon for four years, he'd been a white hunter in Africa for three years. As he waxed enthusiastic about his exploits, I made a few notes, and after listening for a couple of hours, I said, 'Ron, you're eighty-four years old, aren't you?'

"He let out a yelp, 'What the hell are you talking about? You now I'm only twenty-six.'

"I read from my notes. 'Well, you were in the Marines seven years, you were a civil engineer for six years, you spent four years in Brazil, three in Africa, you barn-stormed with your own flying circus for six years...I've just added up all the years you did this and that and it comes to eighty-four years...'

"The writer blew his stack. I will say this, his extremely vivid imagination earned him a fortune, some years later. He wrote one book that directly and indirectly earned him around half a million dollars in a single year."

[ladyinred]

I will never forget the first time a Scientologist came to my door. I had never heard of L Ron Hubbard or his new religion at the time. The person at my door had the book Dianetics in his hand, and when I opened the door, he looked at me and said, "Do you know how to know?"
That was enough to tell me that I wanted nothing to do with this new religion! I never thought anyone would fall for this nonsense, but I was wrong.