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Comment by temphn | Hacker News Reader

What is bizarre is this: how are they getting the money to build all these huge, fancy buildings and hold these kinds of ceremonies? This must be hundreds of millions of dollars. And they aren't all in podunk towns; one was even in Israel.

Are they that good at wringing money out of people? Wow.

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I'm pretty sure the whole "religion" is designed as a machine to extract the maximum possible amount of money from psychologically vulnerable people. Basically it's like an RPG - you level up slowly, paying gradually more as you move up the stages. The level of craziness starts off low then climbs in step as you effectively prove at each step that you are credulous enough to swallow the next stage up. So they don't tell you about the alien spirits reborn in volcanoes until they are well and truly sure you will fall for it (and the accompanying multi-thousand dollar tomes of gold-lettered L. Ron Hubbard-penned secret ultimate final truth (oops - ultimate until the next stage!)) And there are all sorts of ways in which doing the right thing and supporting your new friends involves parting with lots of money - for doing so of course you are congratulated and told you are wonderful by your new best friends.

> I'm pretty sure the whole "religion" is designed as a machine to extract the maximum possible amount of money from psychologically vulnerable people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_controversies#L._Ro...

I know the BBC have had some bad press lately with the child sex abuse scandal, making them not-so-angelic, but I find it INCREDIBLY hard to believe the BBC would organise a protest anywhere. It'd probably illegal for them to do do, but I'm not 100% on that.

The BBC is funded by us, UK residents, and if we own a television that allows us to watch TV as its aired then we are forced to pay a fee by law. I would find it a total misappropriation of funds if they were to organise any kind of protest and I would insulted if they were to assume my allegiance like that - I'm sure MANY would feel the same.

Don't get me wrong, I do not support Scientology and I think they're a very shady organisation but I pay the BBC for television, not to organise protests.

... what are you responding to?

I linked to the part where multiple people report Hubbard said religion is a good way to make money. The only mention of the BBC and protests is Scientology making wild claims about the BBC.

Apologies, I forgot to mention that's what I was referring to.

I'm using my phone and it doesn't play ball with URI fragments and Wikipedia. I must have clicked your link to read, was thrown to the beginning and caught the stuff about the BBC. I felt compelled to comment about it because of how ridiculous it is.

Everything about scientology to me is ridiculous really. From the founder's intentions and previous occupation as a sci-fi writer to the fact people are prepared to go militant over it.

From what I read, they're pretty good indeed. Time magazine's "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power" article @ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/time-behar.html

Yes, they are that good. Why do you think they make celebrity recruiting so important and celebrity members so prominent? It's celebrity endorsement, like any other commercial.

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