Scientology has been called a cult, a religion, a pseudo-science and many other names. Scientology has fallen prey to more speculation when news of many celebrities in Hollywood, have been identified with associations to the said organization that many view with skepticism. Research reveals that Scientology is a body of practices and beliefs that are based on the works of American Speculative Fiction author L.Ron Hubbard who is the recognized father of the organization. The main regulatory organization for the previously unknown group is the Church of Scientology, a hierarchical organization founded by the author himself. Many other groups who work outside the main body use Hubbard’s works as basis for their own interpretation of the initial knowledgebase. During a time when people were deeply engrossed in a way of finding believable ideals that other religion can offer, scientology filled the gap. Their declarations as a church comes when Hubbard notices that there are many supporters who use his work in a myriad of ways, unifying them in the Church of Scientology which allowed him to standardize the interpretation of all his works. The ideals Hubbard interpreted are rooted in the works of many a famous philosophers like Bacon, Spencer, Freud and many others. His accumulated body of knowledge encompassed the whole philosophical theater from then till his time, incorporating some of the ideals of Hinduism and many other religions.
The combination of all those bodies of thought has resulted in a group that revolves around eight fundamental ideals that have to maintained and kept in balance. In Scientology, there is no absolute right or wrong but rather a body of ideals or events that lead to such. The scientology cross has eight corners, each representing eight ideals or dynamics on which they base their teachings. Self, Creativity (procreation family and Sex), Society (group and community), species Survival, life forms in general, matter, spirit and Infinity (Supreme Being) are the eight basic fundamentals areas they focus on. All decisions a practitioner of Scientology makes is said to need to impact all equally weighing them against these basic ideals.
Summing up all the information, they can be seen as an organization that has been derived from the many bodies of thought that is based on the acquired knowledge of many philosophers all combined into one body of knowledge. May you see it as a pseudo-science a religion or anything else, as long as it does not endanger the lives of their following then they should be left to do their own business.

Schools have been getting a bad rap, the recent shootings of students who fail to realize that there is more to life than success. Schools should be the place where futures are made, not destroyed and lives cut short. Students plotting to kill other students, drugs and all the other news we get to hear is not good at all for us and the so-called future of the human race. Our children should be allowed to use the bible as away of looking back at history and seeing the modern adaptations for themselves. The virtues and examples written may have been set in the time of the Romans and sometimes even older but the ideals stay the same, even in today’s computer driven world. “The Bible was Made for Man, Not Man for the Bible”, one of my high school professors once said, and I took that to heart. Truly man was around way before the bible was compiled and read as one solid literary piece. Man was given by the Supreme Being a brain with which to think and see everything around him as a situational scenario. How one acts, is purely based on his beliefs and ideals that he manifests from memories he has compiled through the life that has passed through and the teachings of those around him. If the Bible was supposed to be the supreme Manual for everyday life, why would we need big brains for? So, I do agree that the bible should be brought into our schools, they might make an impact or they might not, but being able to entice some to partake in the virtues and stories of old would be a wonderful endeavor that they might just accept it as the truth.

Some say it’s a romanticized version of life in the time of the Romans some say its the depiction of a man’s life as he was made man by the Father to walk against men to show them the ills of their ways. Many refute the validity of the documents and events that are contained within the pages of the document whom many consider to be the best guides to life as we know it.
All religions have their own god’s and supreme beings and with those beings come teachings that are written on paper by scholars and writers who were there to document their lives, to pass on their works down to the next generation. Many say that the events documented on the bible are highly fictional; some say they are historic accounts. Well, they are both, part romanticized views of daily life back then and part historical documentation of how the Romans interacted with everyone else. Scholars have even accepted the fact that the Bible was the blueprint of the Declaration of Independence, the basis for everything that makes America, All-American. From the 1760’s to 1805, all documents had direct relation to the scriptures within the bible along with the famous American Constitution. The Bible is relevant in today’s world as it was during the days when the Christians were being persecuted by the Romans. The term Christian has been twisted turned and stepped on but one thing’s sure, we’re all brothers in Christ and nobody can take that away from us.

Economics has forced the Bible out of schools for they are just another cost for the state to shoulder and they need to trim their budgets. Little do they know that they may be taking away something that has been in place since time immemorial that has managed to keep people thinking of the ways and life of the true Christians. Many sad incidents involving kids and youth have been constantly on the news; Recent school/University shootings, the involvement of kids in drugs and crime; all these because society has managed to produce a whole generation that knows no virtue of brotherhood to all mankind, replacing it with race and color (or drug preference) as the ultimate survival tool. The Bible is the ultimate survival guide for it embodies the knowledge of generations of people from the time the earliest civilizations were budding till they fell. The Bible should remain in the shelves and classrooms of schools for it may encourage people to read it and see the true vision and knowledge that is locked within.
It has long been accepted that the world has in a way or another evolved around some form of blueprint that has persisted through millennia of human existence. The Bible, the book is recognized by many a religions as the ultimate guidebook to life which might explain why the American Declaration of Independence was rooted deeply in the virtues and verses of the bible. The bible is a document that has been passed down from generation to generation and has suffered all types of attacks from all sides, left and right.

We all fail to recognize the need to live in harmony with each other for this earth we live on is just one earth. No second chances, for if we end up destroying it, we don’t have anywhere else to go to. Time will come when all of us will be gone from this earth and all of us would return to what we were made of, the earth itself, dust. All of us would turn to dust after we die and that only has one color, grey or brown. We might have similar DNA yet we hate each other so much which still baffles most people. Look at each and every child who does not know how to speak, take one from each country on this earth and place them in a room and you will not see any prejudice or violence. Inside that very room they are just kids, kids who don’t care about religion or skin color or where they were born. 

I’m still amazed at my daughter’s friendliness towards everybody, the mailman, the kid who lives off the street, the stranger who passes by, all she says is “HI!” and her face lights up with a smile even though she doesn’t know that person. The innocence of youth is what we loose first as we get an education on this earth, as we learn right from wrong which should be one of the things we shouldn’t change with ourselves. “Give a smile from time to time, it’s free, it makes people happy and it doesn’t cost a cent.”

Who was the individual that coined the said term? Well, after much searching and research, as it turns out, no one? Yes they are strewn all over on t-shirts, bumper stickers and posters plus hundreds of other stuff yet in the most basic definition, the term “Law of Nature” has no scientific basis and is mainly a creation of man. The term “Law of Nature” has been found to be a generalized terminology used to describe the whole body of laws that man has formulated through the ages into a singular definitive description hence the term, laws of nature.

Natural law was seemingly conceptualized by the Greeks when the decided that there was something that controlled the things that happened around them. The coming and going of the stars, the moon and stars plus the changing seasons, they looked at is as if it were following a set pattern. This pattern was the defined lay of nature. In a time when man was starting to ask the question why am I here and what purpose do I have for being here it was a plausible explanation. This is also the time when the many sciences were developed and formulated, separated from the theoretical or philosophical world by trying to define using set measures, such as the concept of time, seasons and many more which allowed these natural factors to be predicted hence making them into a foreseeable event. The factors which also say make the flowers bloom during the said months and bear fruit best when a set of conditions were set allowed cultivation of domesticated crops ending the nomadic lifestyle.

Gone are the days of transparency and self-righteousness and in with secrecy and executive privileges. True to this many governments have fallen victim to the so-called values they so hold dear. Even the biggest and largest democracy on this earth, the United States has suffered a lot of scandals and political wrongdoing.

The war in Iraq which many have seen as a mistake came out to be a very costly and big mistake indeed. Being victim to the shortcoming’s of failed intelligence. Or maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea, for you see, Iraq was an ally of the US way back when the old regime before Saddam was in power and the US along with it’s many allies supplied weapons such as guns and even the famed Stinger Missiles many of which were found scattered in and around the country after the invasion were supplied by the US through the many clandestine operations that were conducted to throw out the old government. As Saddam took control of the government, he turned against his supporters (the US and other western states) and turned dictator himself becoming an enemy of the democracies that had supported and placed him in power.

The story of the ill-fated Gerald Bull, the famed American ballistics Scientist and visionary who was out to develop the most powerful cannon capable of launching a projectile out of the earth’s atmosphere (which was supposedly being developed to launch ballistic missiles capable of reaching half-way around the world). He was an American dreamer who envisioned cannons as a viable way of sending satellites into orbit and even joked about hitting the moon with his most powerful gun. He was murdered allegedly by Israeli Intelligence for he posed a threat to the world order (and Israel’s of course), but many rumors regarding the matter hover with the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies in the mix when his death was talked about.

Aristotle, one of the founding fathers of modern philosophy has written many works regarding politics and his interpretation of such. In the book, Nicomachaean Ethics, Aristotle’s foundations for his political projects were based on the presumption that ethics and politics were closely related. In a sense of reverse thinking, he says that the main purpose of politics is to empower or entice citizens to become honest and empower them to do or perform noble actions. This has been greatly contested by many Western civilizations of today who see politics as a sort of undertaking based on greed and self-interest which might be true no only for these areas but anywhere else in the world.

He also defines the aim of politics in the creation of a society with high regards for moral standing. Modern politics is defined as a governance which protects us from each end every body else outside the system with the use of military and policing forces. This has normal people on one side who abide by the rules set by the political leaders and all who are against the said order to be outcasts to be protected from. Much of Aristotle’s ideals are lost in the modern world of politics with very little so-called honorable constituents going into the system to truly represent society as a whole. Some even do it for mainly personal reasons making politics a bridge to personal gain. Today’s modern society sees the kind of molding as counter productive seeing it as a form of making people think out of their own accord. Much is to be learned from the fathers of modern philosophy whose ideals and studies has given rise to all current political systems though not much is left of the ethical part of the ideals.

These are totally unrelated areas of study in philosophy yet they are somewhat similar due to their aim, the study of force. Politics is the study of how political force in relation to the general public and Legal Law is the study of how to best laws can be used to achieve social and political aims. The two are often mixed and used in conjunction with each other because of this simple truth. Legal Philosophy determines or studies, which laws are better, and whether this one or that is better for all or that if this law should even be followed at all due to underlying circumstances that might substantiate invalidity. It tries to explain the relationship of social factors and human nature in a balanced outcome deciding that the outcome would be best for all. Political philosophy on the other hand is defined by the development of a government as it evolves into its current state. Meaning the development of the political structure of a country is highly dependent on which political system it has been based upon and how it’s people have reacted to those systems deciding which is best to apply. True to this, many governments and political figures muddle and try to erase the fine line in order to justify their acts. Those acts then elicit response from the public and the legalities of such actions are questioned further muddling the distinctions. Politics should always follow a certain limit and so does the legal system so instead of focusing on these personal political agenda that they try to substantiate by using the law. Politics and religion for example should always be separated due to a never-ending battle that would ensue. Governments are formed and maintained by the legal system and they should share a common goal which is to represent the society for which they represent in their best interests and not their own.

I came upon another blog that referred to a group of segments of the BBC News Agency in one of it’s programs/special reports about democracy and it’s implications on world society as a whole. The discussion on Philosophy News was a true and timely battle of the minds that asked, “Can democracy work for the whole world?” This is a very challenging question which was showed in the programs many discussions on what it means to people from all walks of life from all corners of the globe.

For those who have been enjoying democracy, they should be thankful to their forefathers for the great job that they have done in establishing and propagating the idea of democracy. For those who are now only getting a taste of what it is and what it can do, well that’s not a very simple matter to contend with. Most of the former communist countries, who have started to embrace Western culture and some form of democracy it is a very scary story indeed. A society that has evolved to be a workforce that does all the leaders of their countries tell them to can be intimidated by the prospect of having to choose whatever and whoever they wish to become. Like the children in China who are now being taught in school of the concept of democracy who were dumbfounded by the ideals and differences that it had to their own society.

For now, the world is evolving as well as human society. The financial crisis of times past and the many natural disasters that have plagued us ever more frequently have opened many doors for people who have usually been left in the dark about the rest of the world. True to this, to ask the question of “Why Democracy?” is not only a very difficult one but quite sensitive for many a wealthy nations are still run under rule of a monarchial government. Some still follow time honored traditions that were reminiscent of the medieval ages when we had kings and queens and that succession was a right rather than a voted upon right.

Democracy might not be for everyone but it may be time that all of us embrace it for it allows us the freedom not only of society but of the global scene and the part that we can play in it if we were all allowed to participate. No society is ever self-sufficient for all those that have tried have miserably failed. We humans have a built-in drive to do what we want, when we want it and where ever we want it to be. Many say that there is no such thing as a democracy but we must always remember that democracy is a form of government that can be defined on paper and is subject to personal interpretation. So for now, democracy has still offered the best tools for the growth of countries around the world. The famous philosopher Kant predicted 200 years ago that democracies don’t go to war with each other but with those who do not embrace it and promote it. In a way this might sound true but a discussion on that must be left to another day. So till then enjoy life and embrace it for all the good and bad. It’s not about the trip, but about the journey that has passed and we currently are on….

[tags]Democracy, Philosophy, World Events, News[/tags]