What the heck is Scientology anyway?

For those of you who don't know, I enjoy learning about religions and different bodies of thought. It has just occured to me that, in the wake of all of this TomKat nonsense, I actually don't know a thing about Scientology. Everyone says it's weird, it's cultish, and so on, but what is it?. So I've decided to look into it a little myself.

At first glance, their official website kind of creeps me out. All those Christian symbols and "heavenly" images have no place in a religion that really has nothing to do with Christ. Furthermore, the website makes little or no mention of the fact that the founder, L. Ron Hubbard, was a science fiction writer. That's right, a science fiction writer decides to start a religion just to see if anyone would follow it. And of course, the first people to do it are Hollywood actors. Figures. Those guys live in a fantasy world as it is.

Okay, so what else? I still don't know what they really believe in. Their website talks a lot about curing mental illness and things of that nature, but what exactly are their founding principles? That search led me here (actually, it's only the second website that comes up on Google... not much of a search really).

We of the Church believe:

That all men of whatever race, color, or creed were created with equal rights;

That all men have inalienable rights to their own religious practices and their performance;

That all men have inalienable rights to their own lives;

That all men have inalienable rights to their sanity;

That all men have inalienable rights to their own defense;

That all men have inalienable rights to conceive, choose, assist or support their own organizations, churches and governments;

That all men have inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write upon the opinions of others;

That all men have inalienable rights to the creation of their own kind;

That the souls of men have the rights of men;

That the study of the mind and the healing of mentally caused ills should not be alienated from religion or condoned in non-religious fields;

And that no agency less than God has the power to suspend or set aside these rights, overtly or covertly.

And we of the Church believe:

That man is basically good;

That he is seeking to survive;

That his survival depends upon himself and upon his fellows and his attainment of brotherhood with the universe.

And we of the Church believe that the laws of God forbid man:

To destroy his own kind;

To destroy the sanity of another;

To destroy or enslave another's soul;

To destroy or reduce the survival of one's companions or one's group.

And we of the Church believe that the spirit can be saved and that the spirit alone may save or heal the body.

Yeah, like I said, they seem to focus a lot on mental health. Well, what about all of us sane people? What can Scientology do for us? I still have no idea.

See you on the comments board...