The tenth installment of my question-and-answer video show, where I take up questions subscribers and commenters have asked me in my videos and answer them as best I can. Questions in this video are:
(1) Do you think most staff members are there to truly help a person spiritually or is it more about the stats and how much money or sales they can make? I always wrestle with that question and would like to think they are there to help. I’ve heard other people say they don’t care at all about people in general and it’s all about the money.
(2) I was in Scientology a long time ago, and only recently realized it was a cult. I don’t remember much about the thought control that apparently went on, I just remember reading a lot. You’ve talked perhaps to many others. Do you know of a book that would be good to read, or a person I might talk to, just to ferret out any effects it has had on my thinking? I am fine, just thought I should do it.
(3) I was never ‘in’ but have taken a huge interest in seeing the Church of Scientology go down and you are doing a great job in helping that happen. My question is, did you start doing this (or do you still do it) primarily to help others get out and stop people from taking those first tentative steps to get in? Or do you think it’s as much for your “recovery,” if that’s the right word? In other words reconciling the who you are now with the guy who was “in” for so many years?
(4) Why don’t all you ex-Scientologists get together and create an organization to meet the needs that all drove you to it in the first place? It could also be a place to which current members could escape. It would be a skeptical organization, an intellectually honest organization, an open organization that would embrace the scientific method of gaining knowledge.
(5) I have a tough question for you: When you were in the Sea Org, did you engage in the atrocious behavior that you now attribute to the entirety of the Sea Org? Just wanted to know if this organization had a negative affect on your own personal morality. I wonder if most people who are otherwise decent people would sink to levels of depravity and cruelty like we have heard about in the Sea Org. Thanks Chris, you rock!
(6) With whom does the guilt/blame for Scientology lie? LRH? Miscavige? Is it to be apportioned among all the members of Scientology somehow? Does it lie with Scientology itself, as something somehow distinct from actual people? Is there no guilt involved anywhere?
(7) Atheists don’t think or say there is no God. That’s an anti-theist. Atheists think there is not enough proof for them to believe in a god, so you’re actually an atheist but you don’t know what it is so you claimed not to be one and to be an anti-theist agnostic… agnostic just means the research of knowledge. You can be a theist or atheist and be also agnostic, it really doesn’t mean much.
AND
I don’t see how being atheist, meaning, not having a religious belief, is a religious belief. Please explain. Or did you not get the fact that being atheist doesn’t mean you don’t believe in God, it means that you fail to see proof of it? But of course, atheists all have their own beliefs on God and that’s a different thing altogether….
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Another superb Q&A video, Chris.
Chris, can you give us your thoughts on Minister Farrakhan and the NOI joining CoS? Thank you.
Hi Chris–
I have really been enjoying your Q and A videos and thank you for giving such an insightful view into the Scientology world and sharing your experiences.
I know you have said you achieved the state of Clear during the years you were in. I have been curious though as to why you never reached or achieved any OT Levels. Was it because of a common reason I’ve heard about, that members in the Sea Org are just so busy with ‘upping their stats’ and working the majority of their time, that they just don’t have any extra time to spare for themselves, going up the Bridge? Or did you just not have the desire to do those actions?
Hi Chris
On you Critical Q&A #10 you get into a discussion about definitions of atheism verses agnosticism. Like you I find this whole area a little frustrating. Three points:
1. In this area I think a lot depends on the question and the questioner. When someone asks ‘Do you believe in God?’ most commonly they’re asking whether you believe in Yaweh or Allah or Buddah etc, or even some sort of vaguely defined supernatural force or creator. If you’re not on board with any of those beliefs then they’ll normally apply the label atheist. I happen to think this is pretty OK shorthand. For me I don’t believe in any of those things so the shorthand answer to their question is ‘No I don’t believe in God or the supernnatural. I’m an atheist.’
2. ‘You can’t prove God doesn’t exist, therefore how can you claim be an atheist?’ – this is the sort of statement that can often come up next. And if you agree in principle with this proposition then the person often goes on to argue that you’re really an agnostic who mistakenly thinks he’s an atheist. The error they are making is misunderstanding and misapplying the word atheist. Atheism is about lacking belief rather than conclusively ruling anything out. Recently I saw a video of comedian Ricky Gervais which summed it up – paraphrasing, he said “I wish there was a God. I really do. From what I’ve heard he’s wonderful. But I can’t believe in something I don’t believe in.” Religious people are often incredulous that you don’t believe in Gods or in a supernatural dimension. Annoyingly, they often don’t accept that you’re genuine or that think you’re temporarily in a state of non-belief through intellectual error or general apathy. As ex-Catholic who was very much a believer I know what it is like to genuinely believe in God and what it is like to lack belief.
3. On belief. People I talk to often mistakenly seem to think that belief is somehow a choice to make. You hear people say it – “I choose to belief in God” or “I know there’s no proof but I believe because I have faith.” A lot of people genuinely believe in God (billions do) but I don’t see this belief as a ‘choice’ they’re making. Belief is a position you arrive at based on your exposure to religion/spirituality through cultural and family. You can’t decide to believe. You either have a belief in God/supernatural or you don’t, or you’ve yet to form any belief/non-belief (agnostic).
I do count myself as a ‘small a atheist’ (ie a non-believer in Gods or the supernatural). People tend to take this label a lot better than the dreaded “atheist” which has so much negative baggage. I just agree with them that there’s no conclusive proof to disprove God/supernatural, and that I’m open to changing my mind, but that the natural word is functioning as if there is no God or supernatural dimension. A Godless word makes much more sense than a world containing a God (no need to account for the problem of needless suffering, explaining a parochial God who favours certain tribes, needless expansion of the universe and so on).
Anyway keep the videos coming. I really enjoy them. I’m not an ex-Scientologist but I have taken an interest. As an ex-Catholic there are some similarities in breaking away from a self- destructive way of thinking.
Cheers
Chris