http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/anonymous-attac.html

Quote :

"A loose confederation of online troublemakers who call themselves Anonymous have declared war on the Church of Scientology by flooding its servers with fake data requests, describing the attacks as punishment for the Church's alleged abuse of copyright laws and alleged brainwashing of its members. Anonymous congregates on the net at various hangouts such as 711chan.org (NSFW) and partyvan.info and sundry IRC channels. The group usually amuses itself by stealing passwords to downloading sites and finding ways to harass online communities that its members disdain. They were last seen on THREAT LEVEL when a Los Angeles Fox News affiliate ran a story that hilariously implied the group's arsenal included exploding vans. The attack on Scientology, which Anonymous has dubbed Project Chanology, started in recent days, set off by the Church's most recent attempt to censor the internet by forcing sites to remove a creepy Tom Cruise Scientology video. A wiki set up for the project directs Anonymous members to download and use denial of service software, make prank calls, host Scientology documents the Church considers proprietary, and fax endless loops of black pages to the Church's fax machines to waste ink. The Church of Scientology was founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard in 1952, and has a large presence in Los Angeles. Scientology's core beliefs center on overcoming traumas from earlier lives, something overcome through sessions with a Scientologist "auditor" who uses an "e-meter" to measure electrical changes in the petitioner's body. The highly secretive Church of Scientology is liberal in its use of lawsuits to attack its critics and to have Church documents removed from the internet. The Church of Scientology did not immediately respond to a call for comment."

1/25/2008 2:58:40 PM

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/01/25/i-is-anonimus-cat/

1/25/2008 3:02:52 PM

I'd like to see how this pans out.

1/25/2008 3:37:33 PM

this is stupid, unamerican and bigoted

Quote :

"an international Internet and IRL effort to "destroy" the Church of Scientology."

I mean wtf?

religious tolerance anyone?

hello?




HEY LET'S DESTROY THE MORMONS!!!!



isp's should cooperate with authorities to reveal the identities of "Anonymous"

charging them with various cyber-crimes for the attacks

and charging them with hate crimes for targeting a religious group



throw these lame fucks in jail

it'd be a good lesson to all those who support them







[Edited on January 25, 2008 at 3:56 PM. Reason : oh, and whoever calls me a scientologist: congratulation on being stupid!]

1/25/2008 3:50:47 PM

Dude, I'm all for religious tolerance and such, but to even call "Scientology" a religion boggles the mind. They have all the characteristics of a highly vindictive cult who has repeatedly used the law to bludgeon the away the First Amendment rights of anyone who would dare to criticize them, and stand under serious allegations of robbing many, many gullible individuals of most of their income.

Not exactly like dissing on Mormonism, here.

1/25/2008 3:58:53 PM

Can we not have two threads on this?

1/25/2008 4:01:21 PM

In fairness, this one is timestamped first. Also, who the hell looks in Chit Chat for serious discussions?

1/25/2008 4:04:43 PM

scientology is no more a cult than christianity


for every criticism of scientology, there are a dozen of other religions

Quote :

"I'm totally okay with war on religion"

Quote :

"me too but only if it's war against ALL religion (in general) targeting one religion is inescapably wrong the fewer religions there are, the more powerful they are iow, to take down religion, we need MORE different [new and old] religions to grow and compete with the abrahamic ones these people are stupid I do not respect them or what they are doing one bit"

1/25/2008 4:11:01 PM

Quote :

"scientology is no more a cult than christianity"

Making a statement such as this shows you have very little understanding of either scientology or Christianity.

1/25/2008 4:14:36 PM

^^ Just how familiar are you with Scientology? Serious question, here.

[Edited on January 25, 2008 at 4:14 PM. Reason : ^^]

1/25/2008 4:14:37 PM

I would argue that Scientology is more of a cult than any other religion out there right now. It demands money (different from whatever spare change you have in your pocket on sunday), it tries to sue every one that makes fun of it (how many catholic jokes have you heard on broadcast television, how many scientology ones?), etc

1/25/2008 4:15:28 PM

religion = cult = religion


^^
enough to know that it is A RELIGION



anyone who doesn't consider scientology to be a religion is wrong, and is probably bigoted



singling out a religion and harming it IS A FUCKING HATE CRIME

if you support this

you are unamerican!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!googolplex

1/25/2008 4:21:11 PM

Okay, speciousness. Good to know your MO, here.

1/25/2008 4:22:47 PM

Quote :

"The highly secretive Church of Scientology is liberal in its use of lawsuits to attack its critics and to have Church documents removed from the internet."

that's an understatement. they are far and away the most litigious organization in the United States, bar none.



[Edited on January 25, 2008 at 5:53 PM. Reason : ]

1/25/2008 5:29:08 PM

392 is a scientologist...it all makes sense now...no wonder he's so batshit

1/25/2008 5:33:10 PM

joe_schmoe wishes Anonymous success in their endeavors and asks only that while hacking the $cientoLOLogy servers, to please find and publish the nude pics of Katie Holmes.








[Edited on January 25, 2008 at 5:55 PM. Reason : add to MY TOPICS]

1/25/2008 5:37:11 PM

Would what 392 is currently doing be lumped as an ad hominem attack, or just speaking in generalizabilities? Either way, cut the "un-american" stuff out, as it significantly weakens any argument you're trying to make.
In general, though, where and how do you draw the line between cult and religion? The most objective line is legally protected status, but last I checked, Scientology was just lumped in as a non-profit organization? Help me out here, guys, I'm not too familiar with arguing this.

1/25/2008 6:20:22 PM

Quote :

"Help me out here, guys"

youre on your fucking own here.

this is The Soap Box.

1/25/2008 6:46:41 PM

I'm with 392. If they say they're a religion, then they are. Attacking their website is both illegal and counter to the founding principles of America, no matter how batshit crazy they may be. Discussing how batshit crazy they are, however, is A-OK.

1/25/2008 7:26:29 PM

The problem is that they have a history of suing anybody discussing how batshit crazy they are.

1/25/2008 7:48:05 PM

Quote :

"enough to know that it is A RELIGION anyone who doesn't consider scientology to be a religion is wrong, and is probably bigoted"

Two reasons why I'm fine with them attacking scientology:

1) ALL other religions in the US are open and transparent in their operations, donations and revenue.

2) The church of scientology uses commercial intellectual property laws to guard its "non-profit" organization. It makes massive abuse of our legal system through copyright protection laws. It lost it's tax exempt status in the 70's, then had members jailed after STEALING documents from the US government, and has been exposed for attempting to black-male members of the IRS into regaining it's tax exempt status.

The "church" of scientology is NOT a religion, it's a multi-level marketing scam that uses the guise of religious tolerance so it can operate under the radar of federal and state tax and operational laws.

1/25/2008 7:48:29 PM

^ signed

1/25/2008 7:51:08 PM

Hey guys, any of you want to join my new Religion: Fridayianity? Basically we believe that each day of hte week has it's own God, but we only worship the God of Friday and he demands that we only work 4 days a week and get Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. He is the God of beer and binge drinking.

If we stand together we can force our employers to let us work 4 day work weeks and get tax breaks to build breweries of worship.

1/25/2008 7:57:29 PM

Too late. the Norse already did that. Friday is named after the goddess Freyja.

from wikipedia:

Freyja (sometimes anglicized as Freya) is a major goddess in Germanic paganism, particularly in its late form, Norse paganism, where numerous surviving tales either involve or feature her. Because the best documented source of this religious tradition, the Norse Mythology, was transmitted and altered by Christian medieval historians,[1] the actual role, heathen practices and worship of the goddess are uncertain.

While there are some sources[2] suggesting that Freyja was called on to bring fruitfulness to fields or wombs, in the Eddas, she was portrayed as a goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. Freyja is described as the fairest of all goddesses,[3] and people prayed to her for happiness in love.[4]

1/25/2008 8:27:28 PM

Their internal transparency and tax-exempt status are matters for the government to deal with. If you disagree with the status they've been granted, you protest and petition your government to change it. You don't hack their website or block their front door.

If they've already lost their tax-exempt status(as you suggest, I don't really know), then that's all you can do. They're a private club that can do as they wish, including call themselves a religion.
Tax-exemption is really the only luxury this country affords standardized religions.

[Edited on January 25, 2008 at 8:39 PM. Reason : .]

1/25/2008 8:36:31 PM

While true, if you disagree with someone's characterization of your cult "religion," you speak out in rebuttal - you don't sue to shut them down.

Scientology isn't exactly the most sympathetic victim, here.

1/25/2008 8:38:58 PM

Those lawsuits should be frivilous. If they are not thrown out of court, the fault lies entirely with the judicial system.

1/25/2008 8:41:35 PM

Raiden wishes Anonymous success in their endeavors against CoS.


not really approving of some of their other attacks, but against CoS, have fun.

1/25/2008 8:53:12 PM

^^ Here's the thing - lawsuits, particularly directed against those with limited means, are expensive and damaging things - even when they're frivolous. Sometimes, all it takes is the threat of a lawsuit to get your ISP to shut your website down - despite the legal merits.

Meanwhile, Scientology is one of the most litigious organizations out there. Hence the "not a sympathetic victim" deal.

1/25/2008 9:22:33 PM

true, but to what lengths will Anonymous go to in the "war".

1/25/2008 9:33:52 PM

lol at anon....

/b tards of the world unite!

1/25/2008 9:39:11 PM

Even though I think any and all religions are dangerous, there is no doubt in my mind that Scientologists are currently the most dangerous. EVERY Scientologist is instructed and pressured into using very aggressive tactics to promote their beliefs and recruit new members. They use blatant brain-washing tactics, and they also do things such as forbid you from speaking to any friends and family that don't accept Scientology. They also have zero tolerance for anybody who criticizes them, and will use every dirty trick in the book to silence critics, including taking them to court (even if they can't build a legitimate case, they can at least drag the law suit out long enough to financially ruin a person).

Scientology accepts nothing less than converting its followers into zombies, and rabidly attacks anybody who dares to call them out on their shit. And this is ALL Scientologists. Not all Christians can claim to be this demented, and it's only a tiny percentage of the total population of Muslims that has ever strapped explosives to their chest. The major religions of the world can at least make the valid claim that any unspeakable acts committed by their followers are typically the work of extremists. You can't really say this with a straight face for Scientology, because every last one of them behaves like an extremist.

1/26/2008 12:45:33 AM

yeah, they pretty much have no redeeming qualities. Fuck hacking their computers...we need to hook them up with a compound in Waco.

1/26/2008 1:19:24 AM

here's something on the CoS.

warning, NSFW potentially, as there are photos in there of how the CoS killed some people.

1/26/2008 2:08:21 AM

Quote :

"Okay, speciousness. Good to know your MO, here."

none of my reasoning is specious -- nice try

Quote :

"392 is a scientologist...it all makes sense now...no wonder he's so batshit"

I knew someone would eventually be stupid enough to suggest that, and yep, treesista is that stupid

Quote :

"oh, and whoever calls me a scientologist: congratulation on being stupid!"

Quote :

"find and publish the nude pics of Katie Holmes"

may be the only good to come out of this

Quote :

"where and how do you draw the line between cult and religion?"

religion = cult = religion = cult

a cult is a usually small religion that older more established religions don't like, and label 'cult' to make it seem inferior

period

Quote :

"I'm with 392. If they say they're a religion, then they are. Attacking their website is both illegal and counter to the founding principles of America, no matter how batshit crazy they may be. Discussing how batshit crazy they are, however, is A-OK."

thank you!!! (be careful though, the stupider among us might allege that you're a scientologist)

it's soooo fun to bash on those that seem weird, but at least smc has some fucking common sense

that's more than I can say for most of you bandwagoning bigots

Quote :

"The problem is that they have a history of suing anybody discussing how batshit crazy they are."

Quote :

"They also have zero tolerance for anybody who criticizes them"

suing is better than beheading, something that both christians and musims have done A LOT

Quote :

"1) ALL other religions in the US are open and transparent in their operations, donations and revenue 2) The church of scientology uses commercial intellectual property laws to guard its "non-profit" organization. It makes massive abuse of our legal system through copyright protection laws. It lost it's tax exempt status in the 70's, then had members jailed after STEALING documents from the US government, and has been exposed for attempting to black-male members of the IRS into regaining it's tax exempt status."

smc

Quote :

"Their internal transparency and tax-exempt status are matters for the government to deal with. If you disagree with the status they've been granted, you protest and petition your government to change it. You don't hack their website or block their front door"

Quote :

"The "church" of scientology is NOT a religion"

wrong

no matter how many times you say that, EVEN IN CAPS LOCK, doesn't make it true (you moron)

Quote :

"it's a multi-level marketing scam that uses the guise of religious tolerance so it can operate under the radar of federal and state tax and operational laws."

iow, it's simply a religion, like christianity or islam, just more adapted to modern times

Quote :

"Hey guys, any of you want to join my new Religion: Fridayianity? Basically we believe that each day of hte week has it's own God, but we only worship the God of Friday and he demands that we only work 4 days a week and get Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. He is the God of beer and binge drinking. If we stand together we can force our employers to let us work 4 day work weeks and get tax breaks to build breweries of worship."

just because some religions were started thousands of years ago doesn't mean THEY WEREN'T STARTED AT SOME POINT

iow, all religions were new at some point, and guess what? the more established powers at the time didn't like it

just like today, where abrahamic religions don't like scientology

it turns out, it only takes three people to form a legally recognized religion

so joke all you want, but you really don't understand the big picture

1/26/2008 8:35:43 AM

Regardless of what YOU might think of Christianity, it is obvious that the CoS is out to get as much money from their followers as possible. When you go into church, they pass a collection bucket. You dont have to drop a dime if you dont want. And I believe 10% was the maximum ever described for contribution to the church (cant tell you where in the bible, but I believe that was correct). From countless accounts, the CoS is looking to extract as much money from you as possible, leaving you broke and completely under their influence. It is a cult like no other.

The U.S., as with many countries around the world, has not designated it as an official religion, and it does not have that tax free status.

[Edited on January 26, 2008 at 11:28 AM. Reason : .]

1/26/2008 11:28:01 AM

What song is that that play in raiden's youtube video, its bugging me

1/26/2008 5:57:16 PM

from the [u]Requeim for a Dream[/i] soundtrack.

1/26/2008 6:38:49 PM

Anonymous' fight against CoS isn't about religious persecution, it is about exposing the CoS for it's predatory practices, destruction of people's lives, abuse of the legal system, and murder. The purpose is to educate the public about the policies of the CoS and how it ruins lives.

392, are you aware that the CoS conducted the largest infiltration into the US government to date?

[Edited on January 27, 2008 at 12:18 AM. Reason : ]

1/27/2008 12:17:00 AM

Quote :

"none of my reasoning is specious -- nice try"

The fact that you refuse to make a distinction between a socially destructive cult and at least less malignant religious movement makes any further commentary on your part irrelevant.

There's a difference between a religion and a cult. And it's not just in how many members they can claim.

1/27/2008 12:18:47 AM

Quote :

"religion = cult = religion = cult a cult is a usually small religion that older more established religions don't like, and label 'cult' to make it seem inferior period"

Saying "period" does not add any credibility to your statements.

A definition that could be used more accurately and in legal terms is more along the lines of:
religion = A system of beliefs.
cult = A "religious" organization whose goal or purpose is to lead to the extortion and/or destruction of its members.

1/27/2008 12:28:31 AM

I mean its not like people just single out and try to persecute a non-JudeoChristian based religion.

The US recognizes Buddhism, Eckankar, bahai, konko kyo, sufism, tenrikyo, wiccan, skiah, etc

1/27/2008 12:32:11 AM

In regards to the actual Anonymous thing and the news article, I think this idea is excellent in theory, but it will be fucked up by the fact that it is largely #chan idiots starting this movement. Using the anonymity of the internet to break down and undermine the Church of Scientology is an excellent idea, but it seems that most of the people currently involved are just going to degenerate it into petty harassment (because getting prank called or having to restart their servers will surely devastate the CoS ).

The primary focus should be spreading clips like "The Unfunny Truth About Scientology" (youtube clip seen earlier in the thread) to mainstream areas in a way that cannot be censored by the church's legal army, and getting the message out that the CoS is more than just nuts, they're harmful to their members and those that dare to question them.

[Edited on January 27, 2008 at 12:54 AM. Reason : .]

1/27/2008 12:52:38 AM

SP's are FG

1/27/2008 3:59:55 AM

Quote :

"wrong no matter how many times you say that, EVEN IN CAPS LOCK, doesn't make it true (you moron) "

The caps lock was for emphasis, not truth. Scientology is not a religion. There are two founding principles to EVERY religion in the history of human-kind

1) (An) onmipotent being or being(s) that watch over us and take some sort of involvement in the affairs of our planet.

2) A systemic drive for conversion, prophecy and debate, openly, to bring people into the belief structure.

Scientoloy does neither of these things. Unlike every other religion that has ever been prevalent, scientology does not seek to enlightent ley people, nor does it seek the membership or salvation of the poor and unpriveleged. Scientology preys on the weak and wealthy. It's been shown to do far more damage to society than any other religious INSTITUTION in modern times.

Perhaps you forget Jim Jones, but his "religion" was also founded in america, and because of our relucance to react to or deal with the multitude of reports against his church, hundreds of people died as a result

1/27/2008 5:04:48 AM

Reverend Sun Myung Moon FTMFW

Washington Times: All the newsprint that's fit to smear off on your white shirt.

1/27/2008 5:39:40 AM

^^ Noen, a religion doesn't need a god in order to be a religion...

1/27/2008 1:59:05 PM

Quote :

"Religion is often described as a communal system for the coherence of belief focusing on a system of thought, unseen being, person, or object, that is considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine, or of the highest truth."

True, it can be just a collective system of thought. Which would encompass scientology, but my latter point still holds. Good call out aaron!

1/27/2008 4:06:00 PM

Just a note, I read up on this more, and members of Anonymous have publicly stated that they have no issue with the actual beliefs of Scientologists, and respect the right to freedom of religion... so, all this talk about religious intolerance is really completely irrelevant, since the belief system is not in question here. They specifically are taking issue with the suppression of free speech by the Church of Scientology's legal team, as well as the extortions, killings, and cover-up operations.

They also seem unusually well-organized for a group of random pissed off internet people, so we'll have to see how this pans out.

[Edited on January 27, 2008 at 4:13 PM. Reason : .]

1/27/2008 4:11:53 PM

^16 I've seen that video before, but I watched that youtube version you posted last night, and with that soundtrack it was absolutely chilling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCGP-0545EU

1/27/2008 7:54:34 PM