In a religious country such as America, atheists tend to be disliked and are shat upon by politicians looking to appeal to popular prejudices.

Three of the religious groups included in the survey are mostly viewed negatively, including Scientologists, atheists, and Muslims, with Scientologists having the lowest overall rating.

That’s right, according to a motherfucking GALLUP poll, Scientologists are viewed unfavourably by 52% of the population, with only 7% even having anything positive to say.  With a total net positive of -45, they’re lower than “Total Failure” on their own tone scale.

Google Books has excerpts from the book Misunderstanding Cults online, including a section covering Scientology as written by Prof. Stephen A. Kent, University of Alberta.

James Randi, who “met L. Ron Hubbard twice, and both times he was drunk” and told Mark Bunker of XenuTV that Hubbard was a “willfully evil man” wrote a nice little analysis of Hubbard’s claims this past February.  From Swift:

L. Ron Hubbard did in fact take a class in nuclear physics, but at George Washington University, not at Princeton, and he failed. He joined the Navy, but his most notable accomplishment was being involved in a prolonged “submarine attack” off the coast of Oregon which turned out to be a false alarm, though his ship took shots at the imaginary submarine for gunnery practice.

The Amazing Randi doesn’t mince words.

Dianetics is the main support in the house of cards that is Scientology. Remove Dianetics and everything else falls apart. The Skeptic’s Dictionary completely annihilates Dianetics.

Another indication that dianetics is not a science, and that its founder hasn’t a clue as to how science functions, is given in claims such as the following: “Several theories could be postulated as to why the human mind evolved as it did, but these are theories, and dianetics is not concerned with structure” (Hubbard, 69). This is his way of saying that it doesn’t concern him that engrams can’t be observed, that even though they are defined as permanent changes in cells, they can’t be detected as physical structures. It also doesn’t bother him that the cure of all illnesses requires that these “permanent” engrams be “erased” from the reactive bank. He claims that they aren’t really erased but simply transferred to the standard bank. How this physically or structurally occurs is apparently irrelevant. He simply asserts that it happens this way, without argument and without proof. He simply repeats that this is a scientific fact, as if saying it makes it so.

Once the truck that hauls the bullshit breaks down, the bullshit cannot be delivered.