Tom Cruise

And I would have thought that every thing or in this case religion will praise its positive aims on their very own site. But that's just me.

He was a science fiction writer!! That is why it is called Scientology!! He wrote Battlefield Earth (as Ice stated). Just look him up on Amazon! He was a nut job and Scientology is a freaky cult. It has nothing to do with religion it is a cult. The scary part is the people it is sucking in and funnily enough they are mainly all rich.. as that is part of it.. give them all your money.

What is the difference?

Big difference! I know you are anti religion, but there is a difference. I just need to think of what it is!! Too late and I have a headache! A cult can be of religious base but there is more of a controlling figure at the head of it.. excessively. Davidianism would have been classed as a cult rather than a religion... I know what I mean!

Ice help me out!!

The Pope?

I'd guess it would be classed a cult if it were smaller, but since religion is so big it isn't referred to as a cult because the leader/s can't maintain direct control of each group member

Stop being pedantic!! You know what I mean!!!

And yes, cults smaller... nice one!

In religion, no one individual benefits from the donations/proceeds, whereas in a cult all the money goes to one or more individuals. Plus the power thing that I can't explain better than Tash. At least that is how religion is defined in Germany and that is the reason why the church of scientology was not formally recognized, leading to their profits being taxable. Unlike in the US, where a court decided in favor of the scientology church and is now tax exempt.

It's to deter people from founding all sorts of religions only to avoid income tax.

So if Scientology manages to get loads more followers then it could be classed a religion?

Every religion is only a form of control, brainwashing, so that the many can be led by the few, the ones who deem themselves to be better than the rest. Thats how the bible was written, men of power wanting to gain more power for themselves.

how exactly did you draw this conclusion????

Most religions began with men of power writing a bible to control the masses, over time they just evolved and grew to such a point that the control was lost to a certain extent

Scientology, through time, could grow to such a point that it changes to suit the times, just as religion has until now because of how science has proved certain things (evolution being a big one) so they had to adapt. A good phrase from the Da Vinci Code (I think it was that) claimed of how Catholicism was a buffet-table religion. It is now so out-dated that it no longer makes sense in the modern world so the leaders had to adapt, accept that certain rules wouldn't work now.

Scientology, if it survives long enough at all, will probably have to change to such a point that it is widely considered a religion as opposed to a cult