I’m moving in exactly a week and these look like the thing I’ve needed all my life!

They look highly useful. Mrs. Ghost has likely ordered six of them already.

Not lying: I want that. 

There are actually established signs psychologists use to distinguish cults from other religious or spiritual organizations (like 12 Step Programs are sometimes called a cult. They do not meet the definition though). The three primary characteristics are:

Scientology literally murders people.

Uh. No. No, they’re a lot worse. Do yourself a favor: read up.

Also, no Christian church — or a temple or a mosque — would operate on the model of “We’ll tell you as much as we can about our religion right now, but for more information, you need to pay us more.” A church can pressure you to tithe, or make you pay a fee to be an official member, but they won’t be like, "For the…

The real difference between this hot garbage and most other religions, at least those not considered cults, is they don’t try to aggressively prevent you from leaving. However your point is well taken

So you’re saying that because other religions are awful that Scientology is not? That’s novel.... 

It isn’t beliefs which make an organization a cult, it’s practices. Believe whatever unsubstantiated nonsense you want, but the minute you start taking everything a person owns, alienating them from loved ones, kidnapping people, threatening people, you’re a fucking cult.  Scientology is a cult.  Look up the things…

No, scientology is easy to label as a cult because it has cult-like tendencies, forces people to sign billion year contracts, holds them against their will in secret compounds and at their core believes we are filled with alien souls ala “The Host” that can only be removed with interrogation/torture techniques, day…

well, its newness and a healthy dose of aliens. Very few religions have a rapture ushered in/out by aliens.

I think because David Miscavige likes to think of himself as the Brigham Young of this operation.

What bugs me about any religion, not just Scientology, is that these people give the credit of having a good relationship (or a good job, or some other fortunate occurrence) to their religion. Damn, kids, TAKE CREDIT FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE RIGHT. Hard work really does pay off.

Because people who identify as very religious are extremely stupid. You’ll never meet anyone who is a religious zealot who is rational, pragmatic, and street smart, among others.  

A friend of mine posted one of those “how can you be a Christian and support Trump, serious question” posts and people responded. Overwhelmingly, they said that his behavior and morals were somehow irrelevant, and were not their concern, but they had wanted someone who was good at running a business, or who was…

For a party that tries so desperately to come off as a tough guy, it acts like the biggest pansy the world has ever seen. The GOP is the party of fear.  Fear of the other, fear of irrelevancy, fear of change, fear of being seen as weak, fear of everything that goes bump in the night...  No amount of tough talk is…

You forgot:

This feels like he's setting up a path to justify violently cracking down on us (everyone not demonstrably on his side) in the event of dems gaining power in the election. This is really scary. 

“There will be violence.”