WHAT IS RELIGION?
Most religions mean good for man. They supply to their members a way of knowing who they are, if there is a purpose for living, and what happens beyond this singular lifetime.
There are two major categories of religion on Earth. The first is the Revealed Religion, such as those of the Judaic, Christian and Islamic line. The founders of these religions extoll that they were revealed by God a message for man. Those founders are known as prophets, messiah and the like. They give that message and it makes sense to their followers and answers the above questions. They grow in numbers.
The other major stream of religion is the Natural Religion. That is where a person has worked out the spiritual answers to the above questions, and he invites others to experience or know those answers. These make sense to their followers also. They also expand. They include Hinduism and Buddhism. Scientology is in the second category, of being a Natural Religion.
RELIGIOUS CRITERIA
In the west, scholars have determined tests to see what religions qualify as religions. Scientology certainly meets all three criteria generally used by religious scholars around the world to determine religiosity: (1) a belief in some Ultimate Reality, such as the Supreme Being or eternal truth that transcends the here and now of the secular world; (2) religious practices directed toward understanding, attaining or communing with this Ultimate Reality; and (3) a community of believers who join together in pursuing this Ultimate Reality.
Scientology’s beliefs in an Ultimate Reality that transcends the material world include its concepts of the thetan, the spiritual world (the seventh dynamic) and the Supreme Being (the eighth dynamic).
The second element can be found in Scientology’s life-rite ceremonies such as naming, marriage and funeral services, but predominantly in the religious services of auditing and training, through which Scientologists increase their spiritual awareness of themselves and attain an understanding of the spiritual world and, ultimately, their relationship with the Supreme Being.
As to the third element, a very vital community of believers can be found at any church of Scientology at almost any time of the day. Scientology is thus a religion in the most traditional sense of the term. Scientology helps man become more aware of God, more aware of his own spiritual nature and that of those around him. Scientology scripture recognizes that there is an entire dynamic (urge or motivation in life) devoted to the Supreme Being (the eighth dynamic), and another dynamic that deals solely with one’s urge toward existence as a spirit (the seventh dynamic). Acknowledgment of these aspects of life is a traditional characteristic of religions. Scientology holds in common with all great religions the dream of peace on Earth and salvation for man. What is new about Scientology is that it offers a precise path for bringing about spiritual improvement in the here and now and a way to accomplish it with absolute certainty.
