Why convert to that!

The press has been breathlessly reporting the details of the romance between the actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Now we learn[1] that she is converting from Catholicism to Scientology.

I understand the abandonment of Catholicism part of the decision. It seems a logical thing to do for anyone who disagrees with the man who the church regards as God’s sole authority on Earth.

But to take up Scientology?

I can understand someone transferring her faith to another denomination or even another religion which provides a perspective on a deity that more closely represents her own feelings.

But to take up Scientology?

With all the information available today on this made-up religion, why would anyone choose to follow it?

I will admit I briefly considered Scientology in the ’60s. After all, what could be wrong with a religion based on science? I tried to find out something about it and ran into a magazine article[2] which reported on their investigation of Scientology’s e-meter. The finding was that it was nothing more than two tin cans crudely connected to a galvanometer. It was just a device to fool the suckers and collect their fees. So, I determined right then that Scientology had nothing for me.

Of course Scientology is not really based on science, but on science fiction – and bad science fiction at that – combined with elements of Crowley’s pseudo-historical secret society, the Ordo Templi Orientis of which Hubbard was once a member.

Why would any thinking person take it up?

Footnotes:

1. USA Today, 13 June 2005
2. Memory says it was Popular Science, but I cannot be sure of which magazine.