Slashdot Mirror
Church of Scientology Proposes Net Censorship In Australia
An anonymous reader writes "Submitted by the Australian branch of Scientology to the local Human Rights Commission is a proposal to eliminate anonymity on the net and the removal of critical websites (MS Word document).
The submission is listed as #1931 at this page at the Australian Human Rights Commission." (Read on below for some of the details of what the Scientologists propose.)
"SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS: Recommendation 1: The implementation of Criminal and Civil Restrictions on Religious Vilification. Recommendation 2: Restriction on Anonymity on acts of Religious Vilification: 2.1 Websites created with primary purpose of inciting religious vilification shall be removed or their access to the Australian public restricted. 2.2 Creators of websites whose primary purpose is the incitement of religious vilification shall be prevented from concealing their identity. Recommendation 3: Restriction on Religious Misinformation and
Misrepresentation known or reasonably known to be untruthful in the Media
Recommendation 4: Include a form of Bill or Charter of Rights into the Australian Constitution, which prevents the Commonwealth from making any law, which 'directly, indirectly or incidentally' prohibits the free exercise of religion to the extent of such prohibition."
Are there any Scientologists in the Australian govt? And does this just happen to coincide with Tom's recent visit down-under?
The head of the Galactic Federation (76 planets around larger
stars visible from here) (founded 95,000,000 years ago, very
space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet,
178 billion on average) by mass implanting. He caused people to
be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H-Bomb on the
principal volcanos (Incident II) and then the Pacific area ones
were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic area ones to
Las Palmas and there "packaged".
His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading
data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants.
When through with his crime loyal officers (to the people)
captured him after six years of battle and put him in an
electronic mountain trap where he still is. "They" are gone.
The place (Confederation) has since been a desert. The length
and brutality of it all was such that this Confederation never
recovered. The implant is calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc)
anyone who attempts to solve it. This liability has been
dispensed with by my tech development.
One can freewheel through the implant and die unless it is
approached as precisely outlined. The "freewheel" (auto-running
on and on) lasts too long, becomes a nigger then dies. So be
careful to do only Incidents I and II as given and not plow
around and fail to complete one thetan at a time.
In December 1967 I knew someone had to take the plunge. I did
and emerged very knocked out, but alive. Probably the only one
ever to do so in 75,000,000 years. I have all the data now, but
only that given here is needful.
One's body is a mass of individual thetans stuck to oneself or
to the body.
One has to clean them off by running incident II and Incident I.
It is a long job, requiring care, patience and good auditing.
You are running beings. They respond like any preclear. Some
large, some small.
Thetans believed they were one. This is the primary error.
Good luck.
Scientology is a dangerous cult
Scientologists have never been too fond of freedom of speech. Hurts their profit margins.
Why, yes! I AM new here.
I don't see why Scientology is interested in the matter. It's not as if they're a religion. They haven't even suggested the protection of pyramid schemes.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Do they define 'critical' as every website that speaks negatively about Scientology? By the way: There goes Slashdots anonymous features!
Well, I'm not accusing the Co$ of anything, but if I was a group that uses heavy peer pressure and the fact that as a group I have vastly more resources than any individual, monetary and time-wise, I'd certainly want anonymity stripped away so I know which individuals I'd have to silence to send out a message to other individuals.
I just wish they'd do something like this in Europe. It would do a huge service towards net anonymity, considering how many governments react to pretty much anything the Cult spews.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Australia is probably the absolute worst place for them to push this. 30% to 40% of the population is non-religious, and our mindset is one of "suck it up" with respect to shit like this. This reeks of bully boy tactics and that doesn't sit well with Aussies.
Anyway I doubt it'd pass the Senate for other reasons. Between the Greens, Family First, Liberal, and Labour, 3 of those are strong Christian parties, and the other is strongly secular and radically opposed to censorship.
Tighter the fist more leaks out.
There is no free cake.
It's time they channelled Xenu and got him to finish the job!
If only Scientology had been on hand for the Great Recession! Just consider the following questions from the Personality Test, applied to financial executives:
2. When others are getting rattled, do you remain fairly composed?
8. Are your actions considered unpredictable by other people?
23. Do you resent the efforts of others to tell you what to do?
24. Is it normally hard for you to "own up and take the blame"?
30. Do you enjoy telling people the latest scandal about your associates?
59. Do you consider the modern prisons without bars system "doomed to failure"?
76. Do you sometimes give away articles which strictly speaking do not belong to you?
124. Do you often make tactless blunders?
125. Are you suspicious of people who ask to borrow money from you?
And everyone knows the current Federal Reserve system was set up as the result of a bet between Alan Greenspan and L. Ron Hubbard.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Anyone reading Scientology material becomes pretty much immune against their brainwash. Its more like a very badly written sci-fi novel than anything else. Letting people read it in a safe enviroment makes recruting more cultists so much harder.
The only way to get rid of stupid cults like Scientology, Christianity and the like is to expose them freely and put them against real knowledge and science. Religion has no place in a modern society.
HTTP/1.1 400
Church of Satan, an organization for those who lead their life according to the The Satanic Bible
Church of Scientology, an organization devoted to the practise and the promotion of the Scientology belief system
If you publish proposals like this as a MS Word document, you should be censored from the internet.
Why do they need to be so litigious? Why can't they just zap critical web sites out of existence with their super high level thetan powers?
I'm hoping it would get Midnight Oil back together, go to the Scientology HQ, and sing in front of the building like they did for Exxon. Of course, there would have to be some sort of connection with the environment for them to take notice or maybe not. Anything to get them recording again.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
I don't like Mother Hubbard and I think almost all religions are cages for minds, but would this have been so bad had it been from a mainstream religion, Christianity, Islam, etc? Asking that anyone having a go at a religion cannot do it anonymously? I dunno the answer, just posing the question.
fuck off.
Yours Sincerely,
AC
"If you want to make a little money, write a book. If you want to make a lot of money, create a religion." ~ L. Ron Hubbard
~ Ron Fitzgerald
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
http://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/dm-yscohb/
Mods, you've just blown a point on some GNAA flamebait.
For the real version of "Understanding Scientology" by Margery Wakefield, see http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/wakefield/us-07.html
...starting with pseudo-religions. We need to protect the children from cults, no?
If this were to go through, it seems to me like recomendation number three could come back to bite them. Either by being prosecuted for knowingly lying about their religion, or by being reguire to proove that some-ones claim is untruthful
net censoring might be a good thing if that means getting rid of those annoying scientology ads.
I find them offensive
Two things that people hate in one set?
I'm going to file that under "Must've been drunk." and "Doomed to fail!" subcategory "HARD", ok?
NEXT PLEASE! ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Scientologists need protection from misinformation and misrepresentation?
Surely they can't be serious?
U1NCaVpYUWdlVzkxSUhkcGMyZ2dlVzkx SUdoaFpHNG5kQ0JpYjNSb1pYSmxaQT09
It will be interesting to see what the French courts will come up with against this so called "Church". I am sorry but I can not take anything from them seriously. I am how ever impressed that they can get away with all this all over the world.
http://www.xkcd.com/541/
This copyright infringement - and also a blatant attempt to short circuit the brains of people who are not ready to read it - might lead to your comment being deleted.
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
If the document mentioned in the article is truthful, Scientology practitioners have been subjected to criminal activities such as harassment and physical attacks. If so, perpetrators of those acts should be prosecuted under existing laws. But this organization is proposing silencing dissent to "protect" itself from violent nuts. The U.S. Government could follow the same logic to stifle free speech. Who do these people think they are?....Dick Cheney?
And then immediately pass a law that says Scientology is not a religion.
It is not a church, is just a dangerous cult.
Remember all those people from /b/ who went on massive protest raids early last year? A few of them are still at it. Head over to www.whyweprotest.net and see about joining in if this upsets you. If a bunch of teenage channers can pull off 10K people protesting worldwide, surely we slashdotters can give them a hand a few times a year and swell their numbers again to the point where Scientology will crumble. They have done massive damage to Scientology, but some greater numbers never hurt. Time to show Scientology you don't fuck around with the web. So grab a plastic mask and find your local protests and try to make the next one. Let's show these scum that enough is enough.
Thanks, CoS, for being the Jack Thompson of the Australian internet censorship debate.
People who support the censoring of the net in Australia are now aligning themselves with the CoS. In every debate which occurs from this date forward, we can link the pro-censorship camp to the CoS and all their inanity. All the repressive future possibilities of the implementation of internet censorship have graduated from mere conjecture by "paranoids" to an actively pursued agenda by a religious organisation.
It is there in writing. The future we fear under a regime of censorhip, being actively pursued for all to see. We may have been called tin-foil hatters or paranoid delusionists, but we were right. More importantly, we've been proven right while it's still not too late to stop it.
This is a great day for anti-censorship campaigners.
CoS, we can hardly thank you enough.
...Because these all involve "Religious vilification".
Unless we all lost our minds and considered Scientology as some sort of religion, rather than a group of Heinlein fanboys who took it waaaaaay too far, none of these would benefit them.
So, nothing to see here, just another Modest Proposal to keep the Kids(tm) safe.
I think all religions should be taxed. Why not? If they take in more than they spend isn't that profit?
Recommendation 1: Make it illegal to make fun of us so that we have legal grounds to sue.
Recommendation 2: Eliminate Anonymity on the internet so that we know who we can sue.
Recommendation 3: Stop letting the media make fun of us or we will sue.
Recommendation 4: Make a law so that you can not tax us when we sue.
Everybody should be posting on this article Anonymously by the way
"If the document mentioned in the article is truthful, Scientology practitioners have been subjected to criminal activities such as harassment and physical attacks. If so, perpetrators of those acts should be prosecuted under existing law"
What do you mean "IF", they are obviously making it up. Oh the fucking irony of the "church" of CODology complaining about harassment.
davecb5620@gmail.com
Referenda don't do so well here in Aus. We tend to get irritated by the idea that we have to all file into the polls, and unless there's a really good reason (or unless it's done in conjunction with a federal election), anything put up to the people will have a slight negative hit.
On top of that, there's a massive cost in organising the entire nation's adults to turn out. Who pays for that?
And yes, they can suck it up just like the religions have to. Even the radical nutjobs haven't asked that the constitution be changed to suit their goals.
It's only just in there and the rest of the posting is so very hatstand that it won't be taken as anything other than lunacy.
Except by Scientologists.
Which could be a problem if they also happen to be black...
...hands of blue.
The world is hollow and I have touched the sky.
No good deed goes unpunished. - Avon, Blake's 7
I noticed that the document against anonymity was written anonymously. (Names, people. I need names!)
(see parent post)
CoS might want to rethink this proposal of theirs.
Time to come back for one more round. Cult is dying due to constant pressure of Anonymous and this is a last act of pure desperation to try to get Anonymous off their backs. If you care at all about this and want to do something about this, get yourself a plastic mask and spend a few hours of your time protesting with us. We are at http://www.whyweprotest.net/ Find your local Anonymous cell and when they are protesting and do it. It only takes an afternoon once in a while to make a huge difference. We need your support! If you want to support net freedom, you have to get out of your chair once in a while. I did and I've not regretted it at all.
I would defend my use of the term "Pyramid scheme". Pyramid schemes are not illegal. It's Ponzi schemes which are illegal, i.e. those which promise impossible returns by using the assets of low-level entrants to pay a return to high-level members. Most businesses nowadays are in fact pyramid schemes of one sort or another, e.g. Ford manufacture cars but appoint distributors who appoint authorised dealerships, and successful individuals may move up the chain. As I understand it, the DF is a classic pyramid scheme in which recruits may progress to higher levels, at which they in turn recruit to levels below them. The main and obvious difference between, say, the DF and the Catholic Church is that in the Church you can become Pope while never having contributed money to the cause, while I do not believe that is true of the DF
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Well, there is an open democracy party there, called Senator Online, which would let everyone participate in Senate decisions. But I think Scientologists would have to have an overwhelming majority of the population for that to count. Certainly true if SOL is an open governance organization, since those appear to be consensus-based.
So pretty much, the Scientologists are pissed because their own tactics are being used against them...
I never like the idea of giving religions protections that aren't given to others as well, so let's drop the words "religious" and "religion":
This would give Scientology the protection they're asking for, and would protect anyone else against such things as well. Why wouldn't they want that? Oh, wait...
What a bunch of dingbats.
Actually, it would be interesting to see what would happen if these loons got what they wanted, and then they were brought up on charges for criticizing other religions, as they often do, and we get all the anonymous scientology sock puppets exposed. Maybe we can get all the religious bigots on all sides in jail, including the scientology ones.
Naw, not worth it. Religion should be criticizable. If these people don't like it, too bad. Move to a country without free speech.
They say that everything in the media and promoted by anonymous is slander but truth is a defense; have they put forward any evidence to contradict what has been said that's not propaganda or are we just meant to take their world for it; we wouldn't have half the current affairs shows we have if organizations had to give their ok beforehand (not necessarily a bad thing tho more time for proper news), If it is only those that are against the organization that are willing to speak you cannot discredit them without speaking out yourself just buy saying no there wrong. You get reputations for a reason and attempting to silence opposition through law will not have the effect of changing opinion; indeed it could only solidify it, only truth can do that through transparency and credibility; and sanity helps.
Probably not the most helpful or coherent post but aw.
In Google we trust.
L. Ron hubbart said one day "If you want to make a little money, write a book. If you want to make a lot of money, create a religion". Then he proceded a few year later to make up the CoS. I guess he really wanted to become rich, whether it was through mroal or immortal ways.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Yeah. Jim Jones would have loved this. Never would have had to leave New Orleans with something like this in his back pocket.
You are free to be morons. Just like I am free to say you are morons.
Thank you.
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
I refuse to follow blind links on slashdot - to many bad experiences
Goatse
2 girls 1 cup
etc
"4: The allocation of subsidies for programs fostering the Vilification of Psychiatry, Psychology, and whoever opposes Scientology."
"Somebody's sarcasm meter is broken."
And yet he was modded +5 Insightful. There's a lot of whooshing going on in here today.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Entertaining example of Scientology fascism. This problem can be boiled down to a simple postulate :
Axiom: Belief is stronger than reason.
Quotation: In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. -Galileo Galilei
Discussion: Our ability to reason is the product of millions of years of evolution and it has been recognized several hundreds years ago that reason is the fundamental basis for the advancement of civilization. If humans are to colonize the galaxy, outdated beliefs and religions must be put aside and replaced with a strong emphasis on reason. This is critical in the educational system : Reason must be re-established.
"I normally don't respond to flamebait, but someone modded you insightful."
What a coincidence. It's the same reason I'm responding to you.
"Maybe you were reading straight through and didn't finish until you got to the game-changing peace and love hippie stuff?"
If you think Christianity is all hippy peace and love stuff, then I'd suggest you finish reading the Bible, or take a second look. Even in the New Testament, God (and Christ) often got angry and displayed wrath. Jesus wasn't some Ghandi-ish peace and understanding guy. He said that if you didn't believe he was the Messiah, you were in for an eternity of sufferning. He often told people that it was better for them to suffer some horrible Earthly fate than to violate his teachings, because the punishment for that would be worse.
Turn the other cheek? He also said not so nice things.
"He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." - Luke 22:36
In the book of Matthew, one morning Jesus wakes up and wants some breakfast. He comes to a fig tree, expecting fruit. When he sees the tree has produced none, he becomes angry, and curses the tree, causing it to wither and die, never to produce fruit again.
"And as they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance said unto him, âRabbi, behold, the fig tree which you cursed is withered away." - Mark 11:20
Anyone that thinks Jesus was some hippy "I'm OK, You're OK" kind of guy really has never read the Bible.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Remember ARSbomb?
Scientology flooded USENET to keep their documents from being distributed.
However, as someone who believes in freedom, I think we're going to have to extend it to nutty cults. After all, we extend freedom to secular cults who believe 9-11 was an inside job, or that natural selection doesn't exist among humans.
We need to respect that Scientology is a choice, these people aren't morons, and while we (I, at least) disagree with their choice, it's their right.
People have the right to do things we/I think are insane, in other words.
Futurist Traditionalism
You reap what you sow...and the COS has sown quite a lot of evil over the years...
> Recommendation 3: Restriction on Religious Misinformation and Misrepresentation known or reasonably known to be untruthful in the Media
Wouldn't this rule also act against the Church of Scammytology itself?
While I take this document seriously, I have a hard time thinking it will do what the scientologists want, even if it is adopted. Points 1, 2, and 3 would collectively prohibit "religious vilification" and the like. Point 4 would prohibit interference with freedom of religion. What if my religion requires me to vilify other religions? This is not a trivial point, as many religions require their adherents to work against other religions. Examples include the missionary years expected of a mormon, the anti-semitism in the koran, the anti-atheism of evangelical christian faiths in the US, etc.
Nobody can be free to practice religion without the freedom to vilify other religions.
----- Why sig when you can sign? PGP key id 7675D05E
The document, that is. Is that interesting?
Yeah, good luck with pushing your theory buddy.
There are multibillion industries, lobbies and countries that are built on these premises you talk about.
I agree with you but billions of muslims think you should die because of your opinions and millions of jewish lawyers who would sue your ass if you said that their existence and mythology is a fraud.
By the way bacon rules, so you know the muslim/jews are full of it.
3-day 2-night vacations in Vegas with a show on the strip, provided you spend the bulk of those 3 days listening to boiler-room sales pitches.
Those who buy wind up with a timeshare they paid too much for.
All the "guests" wind up with a 2nd-rate show that's on the strip, 2 nights free lodging, and a weekend wasted.
The sellers and promoters make out like bandits.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The comment was rated funny because:
1) We assume that everyone here is intelligent
And
2) There isn't a "Dumber than horse shit" rating
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
The implementation of Criminal and Civil Restrictions on Religious Vilification.
Don't think you can do that in a rational world unless you prohibit religions from claiming that they are the one true religion, or that some other religion has gone astray, or that a specific form of behavior contradicts specific religious tents and so is vile, and so on and so forth.
Religions survive by vilifying other religions, belief systems, and/or any human behavior that they disagree with.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
South Park pretty much exposed all the "secret teachings" already and I've seen that episode rerun a couple of times now, so there's obviously not a restraining order associated with a lawsuit for it (Unlike the Barbara Streisand one which they couldn't talk about until the lawsuit was settled.) Is there any point in any of their other activities as long as Comedy Central's rerunning that episode?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
With legal chicanery I mean e.g. leveling a barrage of nuisance lawsuits at an opponent with the objective of bankrupting the victim by forcing him to expend ruinous sums on legal counsel, or alternatively by securing unfounded convictions against the victim where he has been unable to mount an adequate legal defense (See e.g. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/Declaration/exhibg.html).
An additional form of chicanery is to drop charges against a victim who does mount an adequate defense in order to avoid unfavorable precedents from being set against the sect (see http://www.rechtspraak.nl/Gerechten/HogeRaad/Actualiteiten/Hoge+Raad+verwerpt+het+cassatieberoep+in+de+zaak+Scientology+providers+en+Spaink.htm (in Dutch)).
Of course the wave of counter-harassment and even threats (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Chanology) goes too far. But what the Cult now pleads for is to introduce a totally ambiguous definition of "Websites created with primary purpose of inciting religious vilification" (read: "anybody who says something to the effect that the Scientology sect is a nasty, dangerous, for-profit outfit") and strip those of anonymity or even the right to exist at all. In plain text: anyone who writes anything against the Scientology cult will now be exposed to harassment lawsuits, career wrecking, and intimidation (see the Fishman affidavit in one of the links above).
The full text of the "recommendations" I reproduce below:
What part of this looks as if it provides any safeguards against the most appalling abuse? Where are the checks and balances? Who determines what is "misinformation", or "incitement of religious vilification"? Would quoting court documents that state the Scientology sect pr
Scientology does differ from the major religions in one obvious way, it's target audience. Religions target the poor, weak, downtrodden people who's lives are daily hell for a number of reasons, and promise them that things are reversed in Heaven, that they will be kings or queens in the afterlife if they just obey. The meek shall inherit the Earth? What a brilliant defense against an uprising. You really have to credit the leaders with covering every base to ensure their continued reign.
This is why religious leaders hold more influence among the people in poor countries. It's why some of the gullible can be convinced to die for the cause, to get the reward of a better afterlife quicker doing God's will.
Scientology targets the people with money to fund them.
Does anyone think this has anything to do with Scientology? Isn't this just "think of the children" with different clothes on? Another excuse to oppress and Big Brother us.
When these freedom suppression attempts come from different sources, the sheeple fail to see and defend themselves against the common enemy. In fact in this case they laugh at "how stupid those S people are" and feel safe!
We need to focus more on who exactly that common enemy is. Hint: it ain't any one group and it sure as heck ain't "the government".
I come here for the love
So they are trying to silence those who might "vilify" them on the internet? More likely they are trying to silence those who CRITICIZE them! Of course it has been known for many years that the "Church" of Scientology considers itself above any criticism...that they consider any criticism to be an "attack" on their so called "religion".
Scientology has a lot to hide, and by pretending to be a religion they convince stupid government bureaucrats to go along with their sham. If the truth behind Scientology were fully exposed they'd be gone in a day.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Islamists, christians, buddhists, hinduists do not propose such things. What right do scientologists have to propose such things, and they are not even a leading religion(hell, they are not even a religion). They want freedoms, but want to take them away from others. It's stuff like this that makes me realize a lot of people lack common sense(if it only were common). I mean, come on, Scientology, a religion, wtf? How stupid do you need to be? Christians and islamists and others seem like loons from time to time, but these guys look like fat clowns on acid selling penis enlargement pills.
Scientology already wields far too much influence.
Don't believe me? Try reselling a legally owned E-Meter on eBay. They get your auction listing taken down immediately - and with absolutely no lawful basis behind it.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
On a more serious note - a word document linked in the summary ? Jesus fucking H Christ.
Counter proposal:
1) Opening of all documents, testimonies, investigations, training manuals, covert operations and assignations, receipts and fundings of all Religious groups. Since they seek and demand special treatment under the law, they must be open and candid to the eyes of the public, to insure that such treatment is not abused, and truly deserved.
Any actions found not in compliance with reasonable laws shall be grounds for reclassification to a business, and require full business licensing and taxation.
If Slashdot isn't available here in Oz tomorrow, I'll know who to blame. Scientology pisses me off on paper, but I doubt they'll ever affect my existence beyond producing crappy movies. Xenu help us if they ever do, though.
Scientology is not a religon. It's a cult invented by a science fiction writer. For these morons to even claim it as a religion is laughable in the extreme. I certainly would never advocate violence against anyone, and if this so called Anonymous group is actively pursuing that, then they need dealing with by the law.
Why though, should "religions" feel that they are so special? Scientology should be laughed at, because it's a massive joke. If people are so small minded and feeble that they swallow the drivel of scientology, they deserve all the ridcule they can handle. The overwhelming majority of people in Australia don't give a rat's arse about religion. Any government pandering to cults like this is a dangerous step in the wrong direction.
Slashdot has been added to the ACMA blacklist at the request of CoS for religious vilification.
-- Sex is the antonym of pringles. Once you pop it's time to stop.
And Xenu spelled backwards is...
Dammit, I smell a conspiracy!
Really, a word document? FFS, Scientology, let me introduce you to a file type called pdf.
You can download a PDF version of the book here for free. It is out of print.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/
This is actually a good thing. The reputation of Scientology is sufficiently and deservedly bad that their advocacy of internet censorship will serve as a warning against it. With the Scientologists and Muslims the most prominent advocates of censorship, things are looking good for freedom.
They can go and get fucked as far as I'm concerned. I'm not letting some rabid brain washing, minority religious cult make political decisions. No sir. They're a cult. A cult. Nothing more and nothing less. They just don't want the truth getting out about their friggen illegal activities.
Dave
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. --Martin Luther King Jr.
That the Australians keep on with their "You don't like it? Go live in another country!" attitude. Why can't the scientologist respect that. Huh?
I respect you, but you not respect me?
Argh.
Funny that the leadership of Scientology is looking more and more like the big bad dictator Xenu. Shouldn't they be more about freedom? And how can a government restrict sites stating things about Scientology as false if Scientology will not tel people what all their religious beliefs are?
Open Source: Eroding the Digital Divide
It seems to me that free speech is the ability to practice what you believe. Of course, if you believe you have the one true belief and all others are wrong, then you are free to say so.
.
However, when you shut others down from saying that their belief is right, then speech is no longer free.
.
And if my belief is that Scientology not only is wrong, but is a scam and a degradation of actual science and of true religion (every other faith will give me their doctrine instead of charge me for it), then how am I to express MY belief? Every belief that isn't identical to someone else's belief is antithetical to it in some way, shape, or form.
.
Removing anonymity from comments would probably improve the level of discussion but the Church of Scientology is not interested in discussion--witness their desire for lawsuits and laws. In addition, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. How about _none_ of the Scientologists get to post anonymously either? Or publish books and pamphlets without the author's name, address and phone number on it? Fair's fair and free speech must be free.
Yes there is... http://www.e621.net/
Doesn't mean the Bible is right. The bible is a series of stories told in many diff. languages & forms. One can believe those stories or not believe them. People have their own beliefs. If a belief or cult etc. interferes with society as a whole, then it should be stopped. If it doesn't then let them speak & rant on all the want. If a few or a few million listen good for them. If they don't, they dont.
It's just a matter of scale...
I was at a friends funeral last week. He'd wanted an atheist service, which was done really well. However during the open mic portion, an aunt 9who, it turns out, is a minister in some happy-clappy cult) couldn't resist getting up and leading people in the lords prayer. It freaked me out when all these (mostly older) people around me started muttering this imprecation to some deity. After the beautiful celebration of my friend's life, this cult-like behaviour was quite scary.
It gripped her hand gently. 'Regret is for humans,' it said.
http://swissanons.ning.com
Enjoy.
What right does the government have to prevent people from slandering other people anonymously?