Scientology is a new religion, founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1950. His study of this direction is contained in a book known as Dianetics, which explains the modern science of mental health (Lewis 2). It concentrates on an irrational mind, insanity crime and war. Hubbard wrote this book to help everyone improve him/herself. He tried to figure out the human being's nature and explain the concept of being. Ron combined religion and philosophy on his theory of mind and came up with Scientology. The latter shares some of its beliefs with various philosophies. Its principles include the dual human nature, spiritual awareness attainment and freedom through its application in church. The objective of the Church of Scientology is to change the universe and run it in accordance with Scientology principles. There is a slight difference between the latter and the ones upheld by Christians and Muslims. This paper will look into the benefits for a man practicing Scientology and what effects the one experiences.

Justification for Research

There has been a debate about the existence of Scientology, and it is said to contradict religious activities existing from ancient times. This religion is new, and it is growing very fast. Thus, it requires profound research to find out why it is so compatible with a modern man making the one feel more comfortable and not restrained by rules and regulations in comparison to Christianity and Islam.

Goals of the Report

The main research goals are as follows:

• Finding out what benefits a man has accrued from believing in this new religion and how the one has utilized scientific knowledge to gain wealth;
• Analyzing how Scientology appreciates a human being as compared to other convictions;
• Determining some of the weaknesses portrayed by believing in such a religion and whether it explains the origin of life in comparison to other religions;
• Concluding whether Scientology is evil or noble.

Discussion

According to Peckham Scientology holds that a man is good, and his spiritual salvation is dependent on himself, his friends and universal brotherhood attainment (321). It is aimed at making sure the universe is a better place to live in since peace will prevail. The Scientology religion is not like other religious directions, where one has to accept anything in the name of belief. On the contrary, one has to discover oneself using the principles of Scientology, making sure they are applied, and observing the results.

The goal of Scientology is sparking true spiritual enlightenment, while all people are freed. Peckham explains that people have been enslaved by Christianity and Islam (322). They cannot practice some activities because they fear they are doing wrong. Practicing Scientology, people believe that what they are doing is the right thing and is worth practicing because of affecting human lives positively. A good example is killing to defend. For Christians, it is bad to kill, no matter a circumstance is, but for Scientologists, it is allowed because one can kill to let an innocent person live.

According to Hubbard, due to the practice of Scientology, owing gratitude to technical and scientific advances in the past, people have become wealthy than their predecessors (45). Unfortunately, the human testimony of how their lives have changed cannot be compared with their material gain. This situation is a result of the fact that people have accumulated more wealth but they are not happy at all. At one point in someone’s life, one was happy feeling more fulfilled. With material affluence creeping in, anxiety arises, triggering the fear that in case someone does not save what he/she has worked for, time will catch up with such a person and will distort his or her life in the future. Others prefer dying before the stage when they have nothing to come. They are ashamed of what other people will think about them.

In the twenty-first century, most people have no idea of the forces that guide their existence. If they have an understanding of their lives, they will strive to make them better. Thus, the purpose of Scientology is to enable people to improve their lot through understanding. Twentieth-century scientific advances were unmatched with developments in the humanities. Human knowledge of the physical universe had outdistanced itself. Resultantly, pressure from unbalanced accounts for what has been unsettled in society and threatens people’s future.

Scientology is similar to many religions since it is based on other beliefs and philosophies, whereby man is considered to be a spiritual being, but not just flesh and blood. Therefore, Scientology is very different from available scientific thoughts, which see man as a material object that is a combination of chemical components and response-stimulus mechanisms. The belief of Scientology states that people are good, but not evil. K`hler explains that man’s activities make him committing evil, and such are not driven by nature (76). Often, he mistakenly solves some of his problems by consideration of one’s own interests not worrying about others. Man advances himself to a degree, when he believes in his spiritual knowledge and values, and remains honest. However, the problem appears when a person deteriorates to levels, at which he has not been before. Since man can improve himself spiritually, he can try to sort out issues, which will aid in resolving all glitches he is going through in his life.

Scientology also helps people to solve their problems. It believes an individual is placed in a position, which can enable the one to upsurge one’s capabilities, confront life problems better, and identify factors that make life simpler and a point that empowers the person to unravel difficulties well. Life tends to force people to have values. Stresses of existence are inclined to fix ones’ attention at a point where the awareness of oneself and the environment has greatly diminished. With minimal spiritual alertness, problems and difficulties arise resulting in illnesses. Thus, the aim of Scientology is mainly to undo diminishing awareness and wake the individual up (Perry 7). As one advance in being alert, his or her capabilities increase, and the individual understands how to handle life better. Therefore, Scientology has solutions to problems encountered in life. It results in an increase in awareness and spiritual freedom of individuals and the rehabilitation of their power and ability.

Miller points out the weaknesses of Scientology, emphasizing the fact that in spite of many successful discoveries in science, it has not given adequate answers to questions that man has been enquiring himself for a long time (55). What do people consist of and where did they come from? Where are human beings going? What are they doing?. Scientology has not come up with answers to such questions; however, nuclear physics has provided some explanations drawing from knowledge advancements. Since man has been striving to answer his origin through physics experiments, he can fairly explain where he comes from and understands other people.

Conclusion

Scientology has been a success. It has encouraged people to scale to greater heights. Moreover, religion has inspired people to do better. It has stimulated its believers to believe in themselves, incorporate scientific knowledge to better individuals. As far as its advantages are concerned, it has portrayed itself to be the best practice since it worries about other persons ==, but not to an extent that it will undermine an individual who wants to take care of others. It is prudent to encourage societies to join this religious movement instead of not holding any convictions. Furthermore, since religion has its rules, people are regulated in what they do.