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."

Comments

Scientology and the Credit Crunch

[David Gerard]

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.

and...

[MRe_nl]

"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."

Censorship AND Scientology?

[Hurricane78]

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! ^^

Restriction on Religious Misinformation

[mad_robot]

Scientologists need protection from misinformation and misrepresentation?

Surely they can't be serious?

All You Scientology Critics..Shut Up!

[CyberPhart]

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?

Re:Scientology is a dangerous cult

[daveime]

It brainwashes it's members into handing over some proportion of their wealth to "the cause", and proclaims that they have the one true God (or lizard, or whatever), and that all the others are false. Believers shall get a reward when they die, while non-believers shall go to hell (or the centre of a black hole, or whatever).

Everything must be taken on faith, because no God worth his salt will ever manifest himself, or actually DO anything for his followers until they die, except torture / punish / bring acts of God upon them, in some bizarre kind of test to see if he made them right in the first place.

Sound just like any other religion to me ...

Re:Dangerous reading.

[MrKaos]

I dare to lump all the major religions in with scientology.

Then you are a fool.

Christianity beat Scientology any day if you look at it historically. A more brutal conversion than the one from hedonism to christianity is hard to find.

Without a doubt, but things weren't fluffy clouds and little white rabbits back then. Back then there was no such thing as police and there were barely courts or laws. The Church *was* the law and since there was no police force brutality was the tool used to instill fear into people so they would not do wrong. I'm not saying it's right - just how it was.

You carry on closing your eyes and dont whatever you do read any history.

And if you do read it don't under any circumstances try to understand it, just twist it so that you can manipulate people.

Your narrow-minded comments marginalise the charity work that many Churches do tirelessly *today* picking up drunk, sick, vomiting, depressed, suicidal, drug addicted or other people off the street. Then without judgement give them a meal and put a roof over their head. When I see the Scientologists doing this *then* they can call themselves a religion, until the they remain a cult that is deceptive and evil.

I personally have given up my time to attend forums for the very Human Rights Commission that the scientologists are trying to manipulate and frankly find this to be a twisting of the Human rights charter that many Australians are dedicated to setting up - whatever they believe. This action by scientologists is going to cost me personally in time and method to conceal myself from their deceit and character attacks whilst defending principles of the fledgling Human rights charter Australia is attempting to construct. Something like this has the potential to discredit it and undermine *every* Australians access to a Human Right Charter in Australia. Something I have, for many years, lobbied for.

So, my dear apathetic atheist, what have you done to confront systemic evil?

What the fuck have you done to stand up for my human rights when I personally, as a matter of faith, consider it my duty as a human being to stand up for human rights. Are you going to have the balls to stand in the line of fire from these crackpot lunatics as they attack one of the few freedoms Australians have. Have you even been to a Human Rights Charter forum, lobbied government on legislation? Because if you haven't I'd suggest you keep your mean spirited ignorance to yourself.