Help:School of thought

From Scienowiki

There are two main schools of thought in Scientology, even if these terms have not been commonly used.

• The conservative school of thought: The tech has been completed and no changes are needed or desirable, in line with HCO PL Keeping Scientology Working.
• The progressive school of thought: The tech should be continually developed with the help of others, just as advances are being made continually in the physical sciences and did not stop when Galileo died, despite the Inquisition.

The vast majority of Scientologists publicly endorse the conservative school of thought, even if they do not use that label or even admit of its existence. To admit of its existence would allow the existence of its counterpart, the progressive one. Possibly this stems from the idea that if anyone can change anything in a workable body of work, pretty soon it would all be lost. Possibly it stems from the idea that it would be harmful to one's reputation to be associated with crackpots embracing ludicrous theories or ignoring workable technology.

The progressive view is that if people want to hold on to their conservative views they are welcome to, but it is better to present all the main points of view with their supporting arguments and allow people to make their own choices.

As analogy would be the CofS saying the CofS is wonderful and if a doubter dares to look on the Internet and read points of view other than those on the official CofS site he could get sick or be heavily penalized with visits to Ethics and paying thousands of dollars for out-tech sec checks. Whereas critics of the CofS often suggest merely reading whatever the doubter wants to from both sides and making up his own mind about it.

In line with the policy of telling it like it is, Scienowiki is mainly conservative in its approach, but allows the inclusion of progressive views when common sense would not forbid them. For example, see the entry for tick.