[extropy-chat] Engineered Religion (was Atheism in decline)

[Keith Henson]

At 07:36 PM 19/03/05 -0500, Joseph Bloch wrote:
>Samantha Atkins wrote:
>
>>
>>On Mar 18, 2005, at 3:03 PM, john-c-wright at sff.net wrote:
>>
>>No religion I know of, engineered or not,  has stayed under the control 
>>of its founder or true to its initial vision.  Most of the non-founders, 
>>especially after a generation or two, seem to enshroud, mummify and 
>>dogmatize the form and lose touch with or never really fully grasp the 
>>essence.  over time the layers of form even make the essence much more 
>>difficult to obtain.
>
>
>I don't have any first-hand knowledge of it, but wouldn't Scientology fall 
>into this category? How has it strayed from L. Mother Hubbard's original 
>vision?

Hubbard's vision was that of a vicious mind bending cult that prays on 
human psychological weaknesses left over from the stone age.  It has not 
strayed far from its roots.

A thumbnail of my experience is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Henson

"sex drugs cults henson" (without the quotes) in Google will take you to an 
article that was inspired by my experiences with this cult.

Keith Henson