CHAPTER 1
THE SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
Thanks to scientific and technical advances over the last hundred years, most people are today materially wealthier than their forefathers. Yet, by their own accounts, the improvement in the quality of their lives has not matched their material gains. In fact, it may be argued that people once were happier and more fulfilled. For some, material affluence breeds anxiety, a gnawing fear that if someone doesn’t take away their hard-earned acquisitions, the end of their days will prematurely arrive to finish the job. Others find death easier to face than a lifetime of assembly-line slavery, while most, in a less dramatic fashion, simply buckle down to lives of quiet desperation.
As the twenty-first century dawns, most individuals have no real grasp of the factors governing their existence. And yet, simply stated, if they had a greater understanding of themselves and their fellows they would be able to improve conditions and thus live happier lives. This, then, is the purpose of Scientology: to enable man to improve his lot through understanding.
Before Scientology, the tremendous scientific advances of this era were not matched by similar advances in the humanities. Man’s knowledge of the physical universe had far outdistanced his knowledge of himself. The resulting pressures from such an imbalance account for much that has unsettled society and threatens our future. What Scientology represented to many when it appeared in the early 1950s was a restoration of the balance.
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