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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."
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.
Now, now. Scientology isn't a pyramid scheme. Even though they share a few traits like the ones on the top getting rich while the ones at the bottom pay for it.
Their marketing scheme has more in common with what in German speaking countries is known as a "Kaffeefahrt". The business scheme works like this: You get some snail spam where you're told you won some nice prize (a new TV or something) and a bus trip to some godforsaken place. If you're gullible (and usually, old) enough to fall for it, you're loaded on a bus and shipped off to some inn there, where you will endure a sales presentation lasting no less than 4-5 hours, with the unspoken (or often spoken) threat that we're not going home 'til enough people bought the junk offered. Your big prize is usually some piece of junk as well, there are some (more or less serious) lists circulating the internet what those grand prizes really are. Example: A "candlelight dinner"? Right. 2 candles, 2 noodle cups.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Hrmm, what needs to happen, is Anonymous needs to declare itself a religion, then this horrid battle by the Co$ to suppress and vilify them could be stopped!
...
And then immediately pass a law that says Scientology is not a religion.
Whatever. More often than not people throughout history converted because the church was the biggest employer, controlled whatever education was available, and had a really nasty enforcement arm. Religions are merely cults that managed to last a long time. I've also read the Koran and the Bible and felt no overpowering rush to convert - quite the opposite actually. I heartily agree with Richard Dawkins' analysis of religions and share his contempt for them. He summed up the "god" of the Old Testament succinctly: "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." I recommend his book "The God Delusion", Ibn Waraq's "Why I am not a Muslim", and Christopher Hitchen's "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" if you're interested in clear and reasoned analysis of just why religion/cults are dangerous hypocritical bullshit organizations.
It's banned in some European countries, too. In the rest, it's not a religion.
I can't help but feel that it's a matter of time. But really I don't see the difference between diluted Christians/Jews/Muslims/Buddhists/Hinduists and Scientologists. It is truly egocentric to think that Aliens planting life on earth is more absurd than an invisible man in the sky. And by egocentric I mean that the invisble man theory is so permeated into the western culture that people tend to ignore how crazy it actually sounds.
I am the lawn!
Ehhh, I strongly take issue with your "stop being a hater" comment.
Have you ever considered that people may have very ethical reasons for strongly disliking religion? I for one strongly reject the concept that religions teach you that it doesn't matter how good or how ethical of a person you are: if you don't follow that religion, you will be punished in one way or another for eternity.
How can any thinking person accept that possibilities exist for violent criminals to go to Heaven, while the door is shut to completely harmless people who happened to either not be religious or follow the wrong religion.
And how can any one not be troubled by "gods" who go out of their way to be completely undetectable by any other means than our imagination?
I also reject the way religion is being taught in churches: it's one-way communication with endless repetition of a very small set of events that supposedly took place and that would NOT pass scrutiny in this day and age. Immaculate conception, uh-huh. How about a DNA test first? :-)
While I respect the right of people to follow nonsense, there is really no other word than "nonsense" to accurately describe death-denialism tripe.
That being said, Scientology is not like a regular religion at all. Simply put, it's the most expensive sci-fi book in the world, and not even a very good one at that.
see a Text Widget
I noticed that the document against anonymity was written anonymously. (Names, people. I need names!)
The shellfish and animals with cloven hooves laws are actually among the most sensible ones. If you look at the animals that are considered unclean in the Bible, Torah, or Qur'an, they are all animals which are likely to carry diseases that can pass to humans. Most religions have similar injunctions, modified for the local wildlife. If you follow the religious laws, then you are less likely to die, especially in a society with little or no medical knowledge. There is a clear evolutionary reason for these rules; people who followed religions that encouraged them to eat things that killed them died out.
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