Last month I was happy the hear that Scientology (including some other sects like Universal Church) were officially labelled as a cult by a commission. Can't have my tax money going to these fuckers right?
Belgium Won't Recognize Scientology
The Belgian government officially recognizes just six religious groups: Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Anglicanism, Protestantism and Greek Orthodox. Official recognition means getting state subsidies and so others want in as well. Scientology applied, but was turned down.
Belgian Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx declined to discuss the matter with the group, which she described as a sect, local radio RV1 reported. ... In Belgium, Church of Scientology is already involved in a fraud investigation.
Other groups have also applied, including Buddhists, but while not yet recognized they at least received positive responses. As with everywhere else they go, the Church of Scientology keeps having to deal with the fact that people recognize that their "religion" is a science fiction story made up by a science fiction author who was more than just a little strange perhaps hoping that creating a religion would help him make money.
But what do I read today? I can't find an english article yet but it turns out that scientology filed in a complaint saying that they are wrongfully on that list and that they've had no chance to defend their views. And you know what? THE FUCKING JUDGE AGREED WITH THEM (this one is for you asshole ) so they are off the list again. Luckely the commision goes back in appeal. Hopefully it turns out back as it should be (and if not, we'll get them for fraud anyway)original article (in case you can read dutch)
I passed some Scientologists peddling Dianetics and those ridiculous E-meters of theirs in a street stall a few days ago. I couldn't resist crashing their little party and try to warn the people-with-idiot-expressions listening to their nonsense that they were quacks. I doubt that it helped much, but I had to try.
CotK <mew> | HAB | JL | MM | TTC | Cybertron
TAX THE CHURCHES! - Lord Zentei TTC Supreme Grand Prophet
And the LORD said, Let there be Bosons! Yea and let there be Bosoms too!
I'd rather be the great great grandson of a demon ninja than some jackass who grew potatos. -- Covenant
Dead cows don't fart. -- CJvR
...and I like strudel! -- Asuka
Lord Zentei wrote:I passed some Scientologists peddling Dianetics and those ridiculous E-meters of theirs in a street stall a few days ago. I couldn't resist crashing their little party and try to warn the people-with-idiot-expressions listening to their nonsense that they were quacks. I doubt that it helped much, but I had to try.
Here's something to try. When they ask you to hold the E-Meter metal thingies, spit on your hands and then squeeeeeeze really hard. They go nuts when you do that.
To summarize, in the mid-nineties a commision placed Scientology on a list of cults ("cult" as in, "dangerous group of whacko's"). Scientology sued the chairman of the Chamber (which is, I suppose, the equivalent of a lower house) because they felt they weren't given a chance to defend themselves. The judge ruled in their favour - on a technicality, basically - and now they have been granted €1 in damages and an apology in the papers as well as the Staatsblad (collectionof all passed laws, nobody reads it).
Decroo - the chairman of the Chamber - is going to appeal because they're still a loony cult, and because the judge violated the seperation of powers in his ruling.
My prediction is that they'll be back on that list pronto. There isn't much love for dangerous cults in this country.
(BTW, Wautd - het Nieuwblad ? Leest toch De Standaard, daar staat tenmiste meer tekst dan prentjes in )
Lord Zentei wrote:I passed some Scientologists peddling Dianetics and those ridiculous E-meters of theirs in a street stall a few days ago. I couldn't resist crashing their little party and try to warn the people-with-idiot-expressions listening to their nonsense that they were quacks. I doubt that it helped much, but I had to try.
Here's something to try. When they ask you to hold the E-Meter metal thingies, spit on your hands and then squeeeeeeze really hard. They go nuts when you do that.
Any particular reason why they get agitated over that. I mean, what's the pseudoscientific explanation? Is it suppose to affect the E-meter in some way?
Never apologise for being a geek, because they won't apologise to you for being an arsehole. John Barrowman - 22 June 2014 Perth Supernova.
Countries I have been to - 14.
Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, USA.
Always on the lookout for more nice places to visit.
Bounty wrote:
(BTW, Wautd - het Nieuwblad ? Leest toch De Standaard, daar staat tenmiste meer tekst dan prentjes in )
Als limburger lees ik het Belang (maar meestal leen ik het Nieuwsblad van een collega)
Thetta get ég ekki skilidh piltar. Thidh thurfid adh muna eftir thví adh menn nota ensku hér.
CotK <mew> | HAB | JL | MM | TTC | Cybertron
TAX THE CHURCHES! - Lord Zentei TTC Supreme Grand Prophet
And the LORD said, Let there be Bosons! Yea and let there be Bosoms too!
I'd rather be the great great grandson of a demon ninja than some jackass who grew potatos. -- Covenant
Dead cows don't fart. -- CJvR
...and I like strudel! -- Asuka
Didn't Germany revoke the CoS's tax-exempt status by classifying them as a "business enterprise" or something like that?
The M2HB: The Greatest Machinegun Ever Made.
HAB: Crew-Served Weapons Specialist
"Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope." --P.J. O'Rourke
"A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." --J.S. Mill
I'd think trying to get the CoS's status changed to enterprise would hurt them, but then I realize that they wouldn't lose their tax exempt status.
WE, however, do meddle in the affairs of others.
What part of [ ,, N() ] don't you understand?
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Mr Golgotha, Ms Scheck, we're running low on skin. I suggest you harvest another lesbian!
mr friendly guy wrote:Any particular reason why they get agitated over that. I mean, what's the pseudoscientific explanation? Is it suppose to affect the E-meter in some way?
IIRC, the e-meter just reads current or some other trivial thing. If you get your hands wet, you conduct better, and if you squeeze hard, you make the meter shoot up. This agitates them because they want the reading to be as low as possible, to show you that something bad is going on inside you that only they can fix. Can't remember the particulars, though.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance--that principle is contempt prior to investigation." -Herbert Spencer
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, III vi.
Scientology... isn't that the belief that we're all aliens really and that the only way we can revert back to our true ethreal alien form is by ridding out lives of stress and the only way to so that is to spend all our money bying the books and selling them to other people so we can buy more books to sell, or something?
Can we say pyramid scheme kiddies?
Right on, Belgium! \m/^^\m/
Sing what you can't say, forget what you can't play
Wicked Pilot wrote:Just quit subsidizing religions completely and the Scientologist won't have anything to complaign about.
I concur with this sendiment. And more. <points to sig>
CotK <mew> | HAB | JL | MM | TTC | Cybertron
TAX THE CHURCHES! - Lord Zentei TTC Supreme Grand Prophet
And the LORD said, Let there be Bosons! Yea and let there be Bosoms too!
I'd rather be the great great grandson of a demon ninja than some jackass who grew potatos. -- Covenant
Dead cows don't fart. -- CJvR
...and I like strudel! -- Asuka
mr friendly guy wrote:Any particular reason why they get agitated over that. I mean, what's the pseudoscientific explanation? Is it suppose to affect the E-meter in some way?
IIRC, the e-meter just reads current or some other trivial thing. If you get your hands wet, you conduct better, and if you squeeze hard, you make the meter shoot up. This agitates them because they want the reading to be as low as possible, to show you that something bad is going on inside you that only they can fix. Can't remember the particulars, though.
An E-Meter is just a common electrical multimeter that's got it's negative and posative ends wrapped in something not-quite conductive. If you spit or squeeze hard, it makes them go wild, because of that. Scientologists don't like it when their religious icon appears to function from the same technology as movie theater lobby coin-operated 'love testers'.
mr friendly guy wrote:Any particular reason why they get agitated over that. I mean, what's the pseudoscientific explanation? Is it suppose to affect the E-meter in some way?
IIRC, the e-meter just reads current or some other trivial thing. If you get your hands wet, you conduct better, and if you squeeze hard, you make the meter shoot up. This agitates them because they want the reading to be as low as possible, to show you that something bad is going on inside you that only they can fix. Can't remember the particulars, though.
An E-Meter is just a common electrical multimeter that's got it's negative and posative ends wrapped in something not-quite conductive. If you spit or squeeze hard, it makes them go wild, because of that. Scientologists don't like it when their religious icon appears to function from the same technology as movie theater lobby coin-operated 'love testers'.
I'll go see if their stall is still there tomorrow. I've got to try this.
CotK <mew> | HAB | JL | MM | TTC | Cybertron
TAX THE CHURCHES! - Lord Zentei TTC Supreme Grand Prophet
And the LORD said, Let there be Bosons! Yea and let there be Bosoms too!
I'd rather be the great great grandson of a demon ninja than some jackass who grew potatos. -- Covenant
Dead cows don't fart. -- CJvR
...and I like strudel! -- Asuka
Lord Zentei wrote:I passed some Scientologists peddling Dianetics and those ridiculous E-meters of theirs in a street stall a few days ago. I couldn't resist crashing their little party and try to warn the people-with-idiot-expressions listening to their nonsense that they were quacks. I doubt that it helped much, but I had to try.
I'm visiting New York and also ran into a bunch - once with those "E-Meters" - great fun for mocking purposes.
Well, I forgot the smiley on my post, so we're even.
I wonder what the ... erm... Belgian method for putting religions on that list is. In Australia I think you need to satisfy certain requirements doctrine-wise (like, not being 'I am t3h king, give me money') and have a certain proportion of the population as adherants.
Stark wrote:Well, I forgot the smiley on my post, so we're even.
I wonder what the ... erm... Belgian method for putting religions on that list is. In Australia I think you need to satisfy certain requirements doctrine-wise (like, not being 'I am t3h king, give me money') and have a certain proportion of the population as adherants.
There goes my plan for the first Australian church of 'I am t3h king, give me money'
Stuart: The only problem is, I'm losing track of which universe I'm in.
You kinda look like Jesus. With a lightsaber.- Peregrin Toker
A similar article appeared in De Standaard today, and there it was the Universal Church of the God-King or something that was bitching and getting their day in court; no word of Scientology.
So one of the papers confused their cults
Anyway, the recognised religions are just those who get money from the government. There is a large Buddhist comunity, for example, with temples and charities but they get their funding through donations and merchandising.
Guardian Of Tears wrote:Scientology... isn't that the belief that we're all aliens really and that the only way we can revert back to our true ethreal alien form is by ridding out lives of stress and the only way to so that is to spend all our money bying the books and selling them to other people so we can buy more books to sell, or something?
Can we say pyramid scheme kiddies?
Right on, Belgium! \m/^^\m/
Rather its the belief that we are suffering because the dead souls of aliens called thetans are infesting us, and through scientology we can rid ourselves of these thetans and gain amazing powers.
Never apologise for being a geek, because they won't apologise to you for being an arsehole. John Barrowman - 22 June 2014 Perth Supernova.
Countries I have been to - 14.
Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, USA.
Always on the lookout for more nice places to visit.
) so they are off the list again. Luckely the commision goes back in appeal. Hopefully it turns out back as it should be (and if not, we'll get them for fraud anyway)original article (in case you can read dutch)
-- Asuka
)
(maar meestal leen ik het Nieuwsblad van een collega)
,
, N(
