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THE BONA FIDES OF THE SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
Describing the basic tenets of the religion, Dr. Wilson noted that Scientology “offers adherents a graduated path of spiritual enlightenment. It claims to disencumber adherents of the untoward effects of past traumas, whether experienced in the present or in past lives. It is free from dogmas, and whilst, in abstract terms, as the ‘eighth dynamic,’ Scientology acknowledges a Supreme Being, it draws short of attempting to describe his attributes.” In simple summation, he wrote, “Scientology is a genuine system of religious belief and practice which evokes from its votaries deep and earnest commitment.”
Similar sentiments have been expressed by Regis Dericquebourg, Professor of Sociology of Religion of the University of Lille III in Lille, France. After an exhaustive study of Scientology, which included interviews with 285 French Scientologists, Professor Dericquebourg concluded it was a bona fide religion.
“It enables the follower to give sense to cosmic, historical and personal events,” he wrote, further pointing out that, “it offers the believer the conviction that he holds the solution to personal and group salvation; it enables the individual to be at cause in his life and not the effect of external causes.”
He further concluded that Scientology rested on a personal experience which enables each parishioner to contact his or her own spiritual nature.
Another who has reached like conclusions is Professor Lonnie D. Kliever. A distinguished American expert on religion who has published several books and taught and lectured extensively on the subject over the past thirty-three years, he stated that “Scientology clearly meets the scholarly definition of any religious tradition, clearly pursues the goals of any religious quest and clearly exhibits the dimensions of any religious community.”
 
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