Things I don’t understand ||

This just in:

16 June 2008

We received a petition asking:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Refuse any application submitted by the ‘Church’ of Scientology for recognition as a Religious Organisation.”

Details of Petition:

“Without compromise to freedom of thought or expression, the teachings and beliefs of Scientology, Dianetics and science-fiction writer L Ron Hubbard must never be legally be accepted as a religion - regardless of any recent EU decision to the contrary. We consider the ‘Church’ of Scientology is an exclusive business venture that by prohibiting access to scientifically-proven psychiatric therapy and medicine is effectively enslaving its believers.”

Well the petition is flawed, since Scientology is self-help business enterprise which hides behind a facade of religious symbolism. Or, if you like, a religious belief that has an extremely strong commercial function.

Gordon Brown replies thus:

In our approach to religious groups, the Government must seek to balance its responsibility to protect vulnerable individuals with the UK’s long held commitment to freedom of worship and belief.

The Government does not consider that it would be feasible or appropriate to introduce specific legislation or regulation of religious groups, their activities or their beliefs. There would be considerable difficulty in drawing up legislation in a way that did not interfere with the individual’s right to choose their beliefs and lifestyles so long as they do no harm to others. There is also no obvious way in which legislation could deal with cases where adults participate in activities of religious organisations entirely voluntarily.

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I’ve no idea where the UK’s “long held commitment to freedom of worship and belief” comes from. Any serious study of British history would show the polar opposite. Many hundreds of thousands or millions of people have been killed or persecuted by the UK state down the centuries for their religious beliefs.

But the Prime Minister is right to refuse the petition because to accept it would be an imposition on other religious beliefs in the UK - for example, Christian Scientists abjure nearly all forms of modern medicine as part of their belief system - as do some fundamentalist Christian sects.

The reference to refusing “scientifically-proven psychiatric therapy and medicine is effectively enslaving its believers” is a similar poor argument. Are people who follow Scientology or similar belief systems being forced against their will to refuse modern medicine?

Nevertheless the problem of Scientology is really the problem of the extraordinary privileges given to religious beliefs in modern, secularized societies. Just imagine if religions were treated just like any other money-making enterprise, forced to actually prove that their beliefs were actually true or be sued for false advertising….