1.6 Why is Scientology a church?
Description
This article is from the Scientology Catechism, by scninfo@pcnet.com (Scientology Information Server) with numerous contributions by others.
1.6 Why is Scientology a church?
The word 'church' comes from the Greek word 'kurios'
meaning 'lord' and the Indo-European base 'kewe', "to be
strong." Current meanings of the word include "a
congregation," "ecclesiastical power as distinguished
from the secular" and "the clerical profession; clergy."
The word 'church' is not only used by Christian
organizations. There were churches ten thousand years
before there were Christians, and Christianity itself was
a revolt against the established church. In modern usage,
people speak of the Buddhist or Moslem church, referring
in general to the whole body of believers in a particular
religious teaching.
A church is simply a congregation of people who
participate in common religious activities; 'church' is
also used to refer to the building where members of a
religious group gather to practice their religion and
attain greater spiritual awareness and well-being.
Scientology helps man become more aware of God, more
aware of his own spiritual nature and that of those
around him. Scientology scriptures recognize 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 typical
characteristic of religions. Thus, Scientology is a
religion and the use of the word 'church' when referring
to Scientology is correct.
In the 1950s, Scientologists recognized that L. Ron
Hubbard's technology and its results dealt directly with
the freeing of the human spirit, and that greater
spiritual awareness was routinely being achieved. There
was no question in their minds that what they were
dealing with was a religious practice; thus, in the early
1950s, they voted that a church be formed to better serve
the needs of Scientologists. The first church of
Scientology was incorporated in 1954. Since that time,
dozens of court rulings in many different countries have
upheld the fact that Scientology is a religion.
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