So far, most of my videos have been about Scientology. As a former member of that organization, I have plenty of reasons to speak out against it and I will continue to do so. But my blog and website are called Critical Thinker at Large for a reason. I’m not the Ex-Scientologist at Large. So here we go with something new.Read More »Why Conspiracy Theories Suck
For anyone who pays attention to the Church of Scientology on a fairly regular basis, it has become obvious over the past couple of years that its public image has taken repeated well-deserved beatings. It’s so bad that at ths point I believe it has passed the point of no return. There is no road out for Scientology to gain a favorable public image and it’s only going down from here.Read More »[VIDEO] Scientology: Coming Apart at the Seams
I was able to contribute to a presentation about the dangers of Scientology which I’d like to share here.
There’s a bit of back-story about this which starts with studies on the subject of cognitive dissonance. This is a psychological term which is often used to describe what Scientologists and many other members of mass movements do when confronted with opposing information about their beliefs. Cognitive dissonance simply means “the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.” (Leon Festinger from A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance)Read More »Waking Up from Scientology
How many times have you been caught out trying to fake knowing all about something which you really know very little or nothing of? How many times in life do we pretend in order to impress, to try to entertain or at least not appear foolish? It happens all the time. We delight in catching others out when they do this, yet dread when we ourselves are met by someone smarter or more experienced or who can just see through our shenanigans.Read More »Knowing How to Not Know
I know it’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything and before I get into the main subject of my article, I thought I’d give a little personal perspective on what I’ve been up to that’s kept me away.
Like TV shows in each new season, characters come back a little older and a little wiser from the lessons of the previous season and are usually refreshed and ready to take on the new challenges offered by the show’s writers.Read More »Instituting Something Good
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Whenever one looks at the press releases or promotional materials of Dianetics and Scientology, one is presented with the picture of amazing success. Claims of “straight up and vertical expansion” are made, citing hundreds of thousands of square feet of new church building space as proof of this success. Far be it from me to challenge these claims, but I don’t know that a building’s girth ever helped enlighten anyone. I’m quite sure that the last time I was looking for help sorting out my relationship with the universe, I did not look in the yellow pages under “largest construction site in town.”Read More »We’re Closing to Better Service You