But after reading the book review on Wright's new hard-hitting journalistic manifesto, I had to link.
The thing that bothers me so much: everyone knows that L. Ron Hubbard was a science fiction writer before he "invented" Scientology. And when you read about what Hubbard claims is the "true" history of the universe, it makes you want to bang your head on your keyboard.
“The planet Earth, formerly called Teegeeack, was part of a confederation of planets under the leadership of a despot ruler named Xenu,” said Hubbard, who was a best-selling science fiction writer before he became the prophet of a new religion. To suppress a rebellion, Xenu tricked the confederations into coming in for fake income tax investigations. Billions of thetans were taken to Teegeeack (you remember: Earth), “where they were dropped into volcanoes and then blown up with hydrogen bombs.” Suffice it to say I’m not hanging around Earth next time I’m between lives. Hubbard apparently could go on for hours — or pages — with this stuff. Wright informs us, as if it were just an oversight, that “Hubbard never really explained how he came by these revelations,” but elsewhere he says they came to him at the dentist’s office. Of the Borgia-like goings-on after Hubbard’s death in 1986, Wright says cheerfully, “Every new religion faces an existential crisis following the death of its charismatic founder.” He always refers to Scientology respectfully as “the church.”How can any sane person not understand that he was just creating more science fiction? What amazing revelation brought him this "knowledge"? It's really sad.
A more sane realization is that Hubbard likely invented the church just to get away with not paying some taxes. Then, after he realized how many suckers there are out there, it became a revenue stream for him, rather than a tax shelter...
To be honest, people in Christianity or Islam are not much better. They claim ancient people had "revelations" from angels or directly from God. They believe all the fantastic claims of the Bible and Quran about how the earth/people came to be. The amount of evidence for their claims is exactly equal to those of Hubbard.
