Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/20/1


Give me a break..When they said they were changing the laws on name calling in regards to religion this wasn't quite what I thought was what meant.When did cult become an abusive word? :confused:

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

This is not surprising Scientology has a long history of using legal attacks against its critics.

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

This is a little worrying...

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

This is not entirely true. It is my understanding that Thetans are the souls of murdered aliens that cling to human bodies causing mental unrest.

The Scientology progression aims to rid the body of these thetans creating a "clear" who is supposedly an ideal human.

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

I know who they are and how they came about(Hubbard was a rubbish writer) but my beef is that how far is this going to go.

I understand the need for religious tolerance and that name calling is not on BUT again I want to know when cult became an abusive word.

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

Well scientology is probably the best argument in existence against religious tolerance laws.

How far will it go? Historically, I expect it will go as far as they can push it. They are having difficulty with young freedom of speech protesters on the internet. They are not doubt trying to "make an example".

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

This is ridiculous. What happened to freedom of speech?

I like how the teenager in question actually quoted to the police 'a 1984 high court ruling from Mr Justice Latey, in which he described the Church of Scientology as a "cult" which was "corrupt, sinister and dangerous". '


TheNorm's quote from the story regarding the City of London police is definitely rather worrying... and I see the article also says...

If the Met doesn't have a problem with it, why does the City of London force?

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

I like the bit about him having to pay for his lawyer out of his pocket money! :D

I hope he sticks it out, as giving his opinion should not be deemed illegal.

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

It went out of the windows shortly after people started clamouring for the police to be given the powers to deal with all these troublemakers.

Incidentally, it wasn't religious hatred that the rozzers (actually, they're blaming the CPS on this one, which suggests someone is going 'uh oh' down at the station) scooped the lad on, but public order offences, in that they asked him to take the banner down and he refused. To my mind, the idiotic decision was made by whoever asked him to take it down.

City of London plod are bizarre at the best of times.

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

It's interesting. If I said that there's a large group that practice ritual cannibalism, and unsafe sex, often with young boys, you'd think "cult". It's actually "catholic". Amazing what a few hundred years of history can do for your credibility.

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

I'm not sure the unsafe sex is officially part of the rituals, however.

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

you bet it is norm.:(

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

As much as I view Catholicism with distain, my respect for you has dropped quite sharply with that potentially libelous post :td:

Anyway, what's wrong with calling Scientology a cult?

edit: after reading BBking's post, I now see what the hassle was about. Scientology is still a cult to these eyes anyway. Guess that makes me 'fair game' now.

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

The thing is the first one at least has a minor credibility although his very unrealistic*. The 2nd is just 100% mad man baloney that's got out of hand.

*There is an outside chance that life on this planet did not actually originate here but that bit was brought on an asteroid or a comet that hit us billions of years ago so we could all be descended from 'aliens'.

Re: Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'
 

Thankfully it was only Scientology and not Islam eh?

As a side note I see The Grauniad is still trying to masquerade as a serious news source, whilst stealing bandwidth from other hosts. Their hotlinked picture has now been replaced with a goatse pic. :) Also interesting is that Shami Chakrabarti is still completely separate from reality.