Scientology: Defining the Line Between Cult and Religion

Scientology: Defining the Line Between Cult and Religion

An Argumentative Essay

55,000 citizens of the United States believe this to be true. Xenu is the ruler of the Galactic Confederation which holds 76 planets, including a planet named Teegeeack which is now known as Earth. Approximately 75 million years ago he transported billions of his followers in spaceships that were set on planet Earth. He did this because of an overpopulation problem he sought to fix.

As most religions have some sort of creation story of how life began, this is how the creation story in Scientology begins. An evil alien overlord who is trying to narrow down his population by deciding to send an excessive amount to our very own planet, Earth. It may seem a little obscure for some, but it all has to start of somewhere right?

When the spaceships arrive on planet Earth, they place all the living beings around the base of volcanoes and kills them all by exploding hydrogen bombs in each of the volcanoes. Although his reasoning is backed by his reason of overpopulation, all of the living beings have souls called Theatans that still remain on Earth since they can not be destroyed. These Theatans remain on Earth to inhibit the lifeforms that come that are also known as Homeosapians. Before they could ever have enough information to go against their evil overlord, Xenu takes all the Theatans into what we now know as a movie theater to show them brainwashing 3-D imaging that give them the ideas of conformity, spiritual harm, and unhappiness.

The creation story aligns itself with a formality that most religions contain and even a morality story that would be equivalent to the story of Adam and Eve. Although the context may seem questionable to most who are acquired to the common western religions such as Christianity, what makes these stories less true besides them being different then most religions? All religions are thought of as an insane different way of thinking and therefore rejected at first, but who is to know that Scientology isn't the new Christianity?

Scientology is a newer religion which is why it is often questioned due to its newer concepts of ideals. The controversy as to whether Scientology is a cult or religion is relevant to today's society because of its recent occurrences in the spotlight due to actors that support this new religion such as, Tom Cruise and John Travolta. With famous actors being in support of this religion, many overlook Scientology as something that doesn't affect them personally so people don't care too much as to what Scientology has in store for the future. Those who have analyzed this new religion have found evidence that aligns this religion towards being a cult, such as, financial exploitation, and in-group/out-group mentality. Religion and cults are thought of as being opposite