Scientology's Biology; ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

Byline: Compiled by Charles Legge

QUESTION What does Scientology make of Darwin's theories?

SCIENTOLOGY is the 'religion' created by the sci-fi author L ron hubbard (1911-1986), which started in 1952. It has gained worldwide notoriety because of several A-list celebrities that adhere to its practices -- including John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley.

Hubbard's religion grew out of an early self-help system he developed called Dianetics.

In his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental health (1950), hubbard clearly states a belief in a Darwinian system: 'It is fairly well accepted in these times that life in all forms evolved from the basic building blocks: the virus and the cell. Its only relevance to Dianetics is that such a proposition works -- and actually that is all we ask of Dianetics. There is no point to writing here a vast tome on biology and evolution. we can add some chapters to those things, but Charles Darwin did his job well and the fundamental principles of evolution can be found in his and other works. The proposition on which Dianetics was originally entered was evolution.'

However, when one looks at the evolutionary pathway that hubbard charts out for humans, a rather twisted view emerges. In A history of Man (1952), hubbard tells us that …

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Publication information: Article title: Scientology's Biology; ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: Daily Mail (London). Publication date: August 10, 2010. Page number: 42. © 2007 Daily Mail. COPYRIGHT 2010 Gale Group.

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