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23 Jul 1997
I just read your Skeptic's Dictionary entry on Dianetics with interest. I think I can add a bit to the history of this "science" and "religion."

Dianetics came out before the book you cite; Hubbard introduced it in the May, 1950, issue of Astounding Science Fiction, the earlier version of the magazine now called Analog. He was a popular contributor to Astounding, and I was a fan of his writing.

At the time, I was friendly with the late Theodore Sturgeon, a distinguished science-fiction writer whose work I admired. Ted knew Hubbard fairly well, and told me that at a sci-fi convention the previous year Hubbard had told him and several other writers something like this: "You guys just wait. I've thought up a racket that's going to make me very rich. You'll hear about it in a few months."

Nevertheless, we were intrigued, and Ted and I tried "auditing" each other a few times. We dropped it partly because we didn't think it made much sense and, I have to admit, because Ted was much better at it than I was; he'd have made a good psychotherapist.

As to the Church of Scientology, I remember how that came about, though I'm a bit hazy on the details. The organization was then known as the Hubbard Dianetic Institute, and he had moved the headquarters several times, as it ran into tax and legal troubles of one kind or another. At some point in the 1950s, I believe it was, the Institute was headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, and having a lot of trouble with the state and Federal tax authorities. Then Hubbard had the bright idea of turning the institute into a church, which would be tax exempt! And he got away with it. So far as I know, only Germany refuses to recognize Scientology as a religion, and the "church" is fighting the German government with everything it has.

By the way, Hubbard didn't start by using the term "engram," which of course he borrowed from biochemistry. In the Astounding article that introduced Dianetics, he called them "Norns," after the witches of Norse mythology. When the book was published, his Norns had been transmogrified into engrams.

Thanks for the Skeptic's Dictionary. I love it. It's my belief that the current popularity of every kind of nonsense from acupuncture and astrology to reflexology, homeopathy, naturopathy, therapeutic touch and all the other "holistic" therapies is the result of a breakdown in our educational system some time after World War II. People who have been taught to think aren't susceptible to this kind of stuff.

Keep up the good work.
Al Berger

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to piltdown

amen brother!

a fair number of my students are being raised as biblical literalists. i know because they chastize me whenever i comment on the mass extinction 65MM years ago or the big bang. some of these kids are quite bright, so it saddens me that their parents raise them to not think. on the bright side, my honors geometry class will introduce the kids to logic and formal proofs and how arguments are falsified.

comrade billyboy

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To:
comrade billyboy.
Wow! I didn't know you were a teacher. I love geometry. One of the few subjects I could get good grades in. I think in shapes(symbols), not words.
You must be a cool person.

VHEMT

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To:
comrade billyboy.
Wow! I didn't know you were a teacher. I love geometry. One of the few subjects I could get good grades in. I think in shapes(symbols), not words.
You must be a cool person.

VHEMT

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Did I read a while back of the majority of dog breeds didn't even exist 150 years ago?

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what creationist hate

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Wow! I didn't know you were a teacher. I love geometry. One of the few subjects I could get good grades in. I think in shapes(symbols), not words

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Snake:

I always loved mathematics classes because I could not argue with the instructor.


Slater:

You must be a wonderful teacher!

ljbrs

*Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.* Goethe

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I've been seeing a few previews on a PBS series called "Evolution" to be broadcast this fall. Looks like a good'en. All except maybe the last one.
Here's a head's up on the episodes....
-Randy


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/about.html

About the Television Series
Evolution will premiere on PBS September 24-27, 2001 (check local listings).
Here are brief descriptions of each of the episodes.

Program 1: Darwin's Dangerous Idea (2 hour Premiere)
For 21 years, Charles Darwin kept his theory of evolution secret from all
but a few friends. He confided to one: "It is like confessing to a murder."
His torment resonates in society today - in the challenge his incredibly
powerful idea poses to our understanding of our world and ourselves. We
interweave the drama in key moments of Darwin's life with documentary
sequences of current research, linking past to present and introducing major
concepts of evolutionary theory. We also explore why Darwin's "dangerous
idea" matters perhaps even more today than it did in his own time, and how
it conveys the power of science to explain the past and predict the future
of life on earth.

Program 2: Great Transformations (1 hour)
What caused the incredible diversity of life on earth, and how have complex
life forms, including humans, evolved? Is there direction to evolution? And
is human intelligence inevitable? We focus on evolution's "great
transformations" - among them the development of a standard four-limbed body
plan, the journey from water to land, the return of marine mammals to the
sea, and the emergence of humans. Driven by a combination of opportunism and
a genetic "toolkit," these astounding leaps forward define the arc of
evolution. And they suggest that every living creature on earth today, and
every species that has ever existed, is a variation on a grand genetic
theme - a member of one, and only one, tree of life.

Program 3: Extinction! (1 hour)
Some 99.9 percent of all the species that have ever lived are now extinct.
While cataclysmic events on earth have pruned the tree of life, extinction
also opens the door to diversity, carving out room for new species to emerge
and thrive. This film explores the causes of the five mass extinctions that
have occurred over the life of the planet - and takes us to the sources of
extinctions happening today. In doing so, it confronts a frightening notion:
Are we humans causing the next mass extinction - the sixth in the history of
life on earth? If so, what does evolutionary theory predict for the world we
will leave to our descendants?

Program 4: The Evolutionary Arms Race (1 hour)
"Survival of the fittest." - Raw competition? Or, a level of cooperation
indispensable to life? Evolution tells us that both are important. We
explore our own spiraling arms race with microorganisms, the only entities
that can pose a threat to our existence. We follow the struggles of medical
detectives uncovering the roots of epidemics and trace the alarming spread
of resistance among pathogens that cause disease, like the new virulent
tuberculosis - nicknamed "Ebola with wings." Interactions between species
are among the most powerful evolutionary forces on earth, and understanding
them may be key to our own survival.

Program 5: Why Sex? (1 hour)
In evolutionary terms, sex is more important than life itself - without
progeny, we are evolutionary losers. Sex fuels evolutionary change, by
adding variation to the gene pool and eliminating unsatisfactory traits. We
look at the endless variety of sexual expression and the powerful hold sex
exerts over all living things. And we explore how the need to pass on our
genes has shaped our own bodies, minds, and lives. Some scientists believe
that art, literature, music - in fact all of human culture - may be the
ultimate result of our sexual drives.

Program 6: The Mind's Big Bang (1 hour)
Anatomically modern humans existed more than 100,000 years ago, but with no
art, crude technology, and primitive social interaction. Then 50,000 years
ago, something happened - a creative, technological, and social explosion,
and humans came to dominate the planet. This was a pivot point in our
development, the time when the human mind truly emerged. What made this
moment so different? We examine forces that may have contributed to the
breakthrough, enabling us to prevail over our relatives, the Neanderthals,
who co-existed with us for tens of thousands of years. And we explore where
this power of mind may lead us, as the culture we create overtakes our own
biological development.

Program 7: What About God? (1 hour)
Of all the species on earth, we alone attempt to explain who we are and how
we came to be, through the prisms of both science and religion. How has the
tension between the two played out? Today, the theory of evolution still is
dogged by controversy. This program explores the creationist movement and
its arguments by drawing on real human stories of people struggling to find
a balance between faith and reason. Through the perceptions of theistic
scientists and credible religionists, we underscore the point that science
and religion are compatible, although they play very different roles in
assigning order to the universe and a purpose to life.


"Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither." - Unknown





Edited by - randy on 07/17/2001 11:36:37

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