Scientology & Personality - Good or Bad

[SFVB]

Ok, I am NOT a scientologist and know little more than what I've read here and there, but as of late, you can't help but be bombarded with it on every single news channel every single hour. This much I do know...they use SOME form of personality testing (or something they CALL personality testing, at times it sounds a little more invasive than I believe a psychometric tool to measure personality need be). So, because of this, I'd like to express my views on scientology, and hear those of others, because I belive scientology to potentially be a very serious threat to the progress of scientific studies of personality (it has been assualted in the past because of silly methods and theories).

People, unfortunately, love to label things with a broad stroke, and personality (as it can come across at times as an assault on a person's individuality) is one of those things that is very vulnerable to serious public backlash. It's not that I have a serious problem with people who want to believe in space aliens and I even agree with them on the overuse of psychiatric drugs in this country, but the scary part here is that people, if scientology continues to be something people focus attention on, will lump in valid theories on personality, such as those of A. Augusta, Jung, etc..., with L. Ron Hubbard's "Dianetics" or the EXCEPTIONALly bad movie "Battlefield Earth." I seriously urge those people out there who may find scientology interesting or believe in it wholeheartedly to consider how everyday normal people who know nothing of psychiatry's history or personality theories are able to take VALID points of view such as those on psychiatry seriously, when the same person believes that a science fiction book is a prediction of the future and deserves to be called a religion. I'm sorry if I've offended anyone who happens to be a scientologist reading this, as my intention is not to criticize you for choosing scientology, so much as to ask..."consider what is more important....the science and it's ability to help mankind through understanding and new SCIENTIFIC methods yet to be developed....or the religion." Unfortunately, if history has taught us anything, it's taught us that the two are never compatible bedfellows.

All additional thoughts on the issue are appreciated, and I'm always open to being educated on why I'm totally off target on this one.

[fairgeek]

"Scientology is an applied religious philosophy." - Church of Scientology

"The central beliefs of Scientology are that:
a person is an immortal spiritual being (termed a thetan) who possesses a mind and a body, accompanied by a lesser "genetic entity"; that the thetan has lived through many past lives, stored memories of which can cause problems in the present day; and that a person is basically good, but is "aberrated" by the memories of past traumas. " Wikipedia.

Science is based upon fact. Although one can be religious and a scientist, religion is not science, it is based upon ideas. There is no factual evidence for this idea of "thetans". Personality typing is part of psychology, which is considered a science, allbeit a controversial one. Any meddling of an organization based on ideas (a religious group) into the world of that which can/will be proven (science) often results in the religious group morphing what had been laid down scientifically to fit their own ideals. That would not be a good thing for personality typing.

I am curious as to what form of personality typing these scientologists use, and whether it is reliable or not.

EDIT- I just found their personality test

I took it under a fake name and address.

Apaprently it tests for these factors:
stable - unstable, happy- depressed, composed- nervous, certainty - uncertainty,active - inactive, aggressive - inhibited, responsible - irresponsible, correct estimation - critical, appreciative - lack of accord, comm level - withdrawn. The second in the pair is cosnidered a "negative" aspect of the personality "requiring attention".

Thus I conclude that this test is a bunch of crap. Just because I am withdrawn does not mean that I need help.

[stefana]

//

[omrat]

their personality test is a very dubious onetest

[SFVB]

It seems to me (thanks for the poingant analysis of their test fairgeek) that scientology's "personality" test is a very invasive approach. Of course, this is most likely due to the fact that, like any cult, scientologists need to know your weakest point in order to pull you into their religion. It bothers me enormously that its getting so much attention in the states (damn you TOM CRUISE!!), and the fact that they use "personality test" to describe what is really a "how are you fucked up" test bugs me even more. Maybe someone should petition the scientologists to leave the word "personality" out of their vocabulary and stick to more revealing vocabulary such as space aliens and John Travolta.