tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58214892008-05-22T21:57:45.604-04:00Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comBlogger547125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-97460904092429982008-05-15T14:04:00.002-04:002008-05-15T14:07:24.446-04:00

How important are human rights? Well, without them you can be imprisoned without trial, you can have your property taken away, you can be enslaved, you can be discriminated against because of your race or beliefs, you can be tried in a secret court, you can have your letters opened and your phone tapped without due process, you can be arrested for expressing your opinion, you can be tortured and

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-84386671979133275062008-05-11T09:43:00.003-04:002008-05-11T14:07:12.263-04:00

Brazen Laird brought up the issue of "The 'disconnection' from family members". I thought the subject deserved its own article (especially on Mother's Day), so here it is: The "disconnection policy" that anti-religious extremists claim the Church of Scientology follows does not exist. It is a lie made up by people who don't like Scientology. Examples of the truth: I am the only member of my

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-8896262174158429442008-05-10T09:00:00.000-04:002008-05-10T09:00:01.259-04:00

On another blog I contribute to, Brazen Laird asked about the following issues: - John Sweeny's accusations: There are two sides to every story. Please investigate the other side, BL, before passing judgement. The other side of the story is presented here; BBC reporter John Sweeney. - The real story of Lisa McPherson is a tragic one, but it is not the story you have been told, BL. Please read

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-77836879720632069862008-05-09T09:08:00.001-04:002008-05-09T09:08:01.338-04:00

I just got the "Scientology News" magazine and I thought I'd pass on some of the great things from it. Since the new Basic books were released last July, the two Scientology Publications organizations (Bridge Publications in the US and New Era Publications in Europe) have had to increase their production capacity by four times! The project to get the Basics into all libraries all around the

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-62580195940547801612008-05-08T10:47:00.004-04:002008-05-08T10:58:16.443-04:00

There is a new Church of Scientology Video Channel on YouTube. It has about 3 hours worth of videos on all aspects of Scientology, from what Scientologists think about their religion, to what the Church does to help others in the fields of Human Rights, Disaster Recovery and more. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-9668192912980758202008-05-04T16:00:00.010-04:002008-05-05T00:03:56.618-04:00

I got a comment regarding my article Is Scientology A Cult?. The comment said a lot and you can read it here, but the main thing in it that I want to address is the author's depiction of "brainwashing". This term gets thrown around a great deal and it seems to have whatever definition the person using it wants it to have. Someone buys a used car that turns out to be a lemon and they accuse the

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-4105733467389120752008-04-29T16:51:00.002-04:002008-04-29T16:52:58.615-04:00

For everyone waiting for a comment reply, I can only apologize and plead extenuating circumstances. Life, the Universe and Everything is conspiring to make my life very busy just now, so you may have to wait till the weekend or even longer for a response. Part of the problem is that some of the comments are really loooooong. How you comment is up to you but please take pity on me and try to make

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-24608099856955453152008-04-28T10:36:00.002-04:002008-04-28T10:36:00.506-04:00

Dana asked: I'm asking this in a completely neutral way. I have enjoyed learning about the religion from your perspective and I think it's only fair that you be treated with respect, not as an enemy of sorts. I can actually see why people become Scientologists and do not assume they've signed over their brains (or minds of any sort) when they do so. But my question is -- even if I were

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-70945195083896149982008-04-27T13:52:00.010-04:002008-04-27T14:16:07.732-04:00

Lawtears said in response to my post "Is Scientology A Cult?": : Interesting, but not quite the stuff I wanted. I want your fire/passion/spirit. Think of it this way. A guy once said "I think therefore I am." I want YOU, the thing that does the thinking in your case, to tell me about X,Y,Z that's happened in YOUR life. The joys and well as (non-financial) cost. In your own brevity, of course.

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-79752382001910274742008-04-23T09:41:00.004-04:002008-04-23T09:50:33.929-04:00

I had an interesting comment from Lawtears which I would have published if it hadn't linked to his profile and his anti-Scientology blog. (See my rules about what I publish). What he said was this: At the anonymous demos, there's guys there that will say scientology is a cult because X,Y,Z happened. What I'd love to know is what your X,Y,Z is, that makes scientology NOT a cult. What are these 3

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-72946517691997632842008-04-22T17:29:00.006-04:002008-04-22T17:48:19.530-04:00

Scientologists tend to be very environmentally aware (me for example: Earth Day and Me Being Smug ). A basic idea of Scientology is that none survive alone, life is a cooperative activity. A basic concept of Scientology is the Dynamics, which are urges to survival that we all have. Very briefly these urges are self, family, groups, mankind, life forms, physical universe, spiritual universe,

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-70311127553556518922008-04-20T15:33:00.005-04:002008-04-21T08:23:33.624-04:00

FMS posted a comment responding to my post A Complaint about my blog . Here is his comment: Comment from FMS My answer got very long, so I decided it was best to post it to a new article. So here it is. Hey FMS, As you can see, I did post your comment. Thank you for the acknowledgment of all my hard work on this blog. I appreciate it. I think the reason you find few Scientologists talking

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-30864861451711391862008-04-19T08:36:00.003-04:002008-04-19T08:40:55.744-04:00

I've been meaning to upgrade my blog to the latest style of template. The new Blogger templates are very easy to use and well thought out. My site had an old style template which was basically just HTML with special tags in it and I'd customized it, so upgrading looked like it would be a pain because I'd have to transfer everything over. But I decided to bite the bullet and just do it! So

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-6174752186000723152008-04-18T00:02:00.004-04:002008-04-19T11:24:32.752-04:00

Jim Gatos asked some interesting questions: Jim Asked: 1. When can someone say publicly, "I am a Scientologist"? When they read a book or two? When they get audited? When they get "Clear?". Just curious. My answer: A person can say "I'm a Scientologist" whenever they like, it's up to them, there are no rules about it. Personally my definition of a Scientologist is someone who knows what

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-35426689569934412542008-04-15T22:08:00.007-04:002008-04-19T11:48:22.086-04:00

If someone leaves a religion and then bad mouths it they are called an "Apostate". How reliable are their stories about the religion they are leaving? It's an important question because in order to accurately evaluate information you need to have a measure of the reliability of the source. Can you trust the source or is the source suspect? When it comes to ex-members of religions, and especially

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-41129370365067003912008-04-13T19:00:00.004-04:002008-04-13T19:05:04.834-04:00

A poster called prem, who has a hidden profile, says: You never publish any comment or question about scientology that is uncomfortable for a scientologist to answer. You cherry pick questions which you have "clean" answers for and censor the rest. So, prem, how do you know? If I didn't publish something then how do you know I didn't? The only other post I ever had from you was one that was

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-8419150398204089542008-04-12T15:12:00.007-04:002008-04-19T11:50:10.951-04:00

How do you understand others so you can have successful relationships with them? How do you improve an existing relationship? How do you fix a failing or broken relationship? These are questions that many people ask themselves daily. Unfortunately few people know the answers, but the good news is that there are answers and you can find them. The Scientology Handbook contains an entire chapter

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-38846875421071402932008-04-11T09:04:00.005-04:002008-04-19T11:59:22.417-04:00

I just got this awesome comment from kenfriend7. I think it is so valuable for people interested in researching Scientology that I am also posting it here as a main article. Thank you ken! kenfriend7 said: Here are 24 articles by religious scholars on Scientology, and eight articles on related subjects, in as many places as I could find them. I don't know if you have all these already, but I

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-60728325761384045322008-04-08T23:49:00.005-04:002008-04-08T23:57:17.529-04:00

I got a comment from Simon, who said: Hi there, I did some research about the sites you link to (scientologymyths.info, religiousfreedomwatch.org, youthforhumanrights.org, appliedscholastics.org, drugfreeworld.org), and they all seem to be run by the church of scientology. What's up with that, doesn't independent organisations ever say anything nice about your religion? Hey Simon, I am

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-66155262667498486042008-04-07T15:03:00.005-04:002008-04-07T18:25:19.479-04:00

I find it amazing the lengths that anti-religious extremists will go to in their attempts to convince Scientologists of the error of their ways. They make up all sorts of stories, like a comment I just received from "Petra" who has a hidden profile. She starts off with how much her son liked Scientology and that he passed away some years ago and that she found confidential Scientology materials

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-2953767973943023112008-04-06T12:51:00.006-04:002008-04-06T13:00:15.517-04:00

In my browsing around I just found this cool website: Governments and courts of countries worldwide recognize the religious character of the Church of Scientology. It contains data about recognitions of Scientology, a long list of countries that have recognized Scientology as a religion and it also has a downloadable 28 page booklet that gives even more data on court and government recognitions

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-89771164150307605892008-04-03T19:37:00.004-04:002008-04-19T12:16:50.070-04:00

Here is my reply to a comment from Titch. He had the goodness to actually include his name and location in the post, which I appreciate because it says to me that here is someone who is willing to engage in a real dialog and not cower behind anonymity. Titch: im 18years old and happy to say ive read everything i can get my hands on to do with scientology. Could you tell me which Scientology

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-7068350549389271482008-04-02T11:27:00.002-04:002008-04-19T11:32:13.453-04:00

leith asked the question what have aliens got to do with scientology? Hey leith, thanks for your question. The answer is zip, nothing, nada. In Scientology we believe that man is a spiritual being (See the video "Scientology Beliefs: The Parts of Man" You can see a list of other videos about what we believe here: Scientology Videos Here is more on how come the subject of aliens ever go

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-77549521490569056572008-04-01T23:26:00.002-04:002008-04-19T11:30:43.627-04:00

bookslave had a question about joining a Church of Scientology. I answered the question in a comment, but I thought it might be of interest to the causal browser so here it is repeated: Hey bookslave, All you have to do to join the Church is: find a Church of Scientology, walk in the front door and say "Hello." :) About the only other thing I'd suggest is to finish the books you are reading so

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821489.post-13972902851205608952008-03-30T15:57:00.003-04:002008-03-30T16:03:21.207-04:00

Jim Gatos asked a couple of good questions about my post, Answer to Comment on Fair Game. I answered the questions there, but I thought they are of general interest so I am also posting the questions and answers as a blog article: Jim Said: I can sympathize with how you must have felt, but may I ask; 1. Can you give us any clue as to what your offense was? If you'd rather not mention it that's

Grahamehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05391080535858750246noreply@blogger.com