They believe that Hubbard was a profoundly noble and benevolent man (*cough*) whose works hold the key to the freedom and happiness of the human race, but that his organisation and teachings have been perverted by the current Church hierarchy to serve their own selfish ends.

I never investigated this man's religion, but I went right off his fiction after dipping my first toe in one of his works, which, until I threw it at the wall in disgust, depicted its hero as a man who only had to show his male "credentials" to a lesbian to turn her into a raving hetero... absolute rubbish! Have no idea how anything credible could have come from such a filthy and warped mind!

How it was that the wise and noble Hubbard hand-picked such villains to succeed him is not something I've ever seen satisfactorily explained.

From what I gather, he manipulated and brainwashed his initial members, and from there I infer it was merely a matter of artificial selection in keeping the authoritarian leaders at the top.

Of note, the Church of Scientology already has its own form of Protestantism: an offshoot group whose members call themselves Freezone, who believe all the space opera wackiness but without the authoritarian pallor of the official CoS.

They even take a stance on the official Church of Scientology that parallels hard-line Protestant attitudes toward the Catholic Church.

They believe that Hubbard was a profoundly noble and benevolent man (*cough*) whose works hold the key to the freedom and happiness of the human race, but that his organisation and teachings have been perverted by the current Church hierarchy to serve their own selfish ends. This, then, is what that accounts for the cruel and autocratic environment that they experienced as members of the CoS. Their purported goal is the restoration of the benevolent "true Scientology" established by Hubbard before it was corrupted into its present vindictive and authoritarian form. (How it was that the wise and noble Hubbard hand-picked such villains to succeed him is not something I've ever seen satisfactorily explained.)

An interesting sidenote is that when a CoS copyright suit shut down a Freezone sect led by Enid Vien, a Church spokesman hailed it as a victory for freedom of religion, since the Freezoner's had been infringing on the "real" Scientologist's freedom of religion by practicing "their" faith in a manner they did not approve!

Disagree. In the hands of the right writer or director, you could probably make decent science fiction out of this material. :)

Daft Punk's 2003 music video-movie-thingy Interstella 5555 certainly appears to incorporate many elements of the Xenu story, and given DP's evident affinity for obscure pop-cultural weirdness and kitsch I wouldn't put it past them.

Oddly enough, having watched it I think I can almost see the appeal that such a mythos might have for wealthy, popular, yet miserable entertainers.

Entirely possible. If we're lucky and it follows the Christian model all the way, though, it'll probably end up mostly as benign*, moderate denominations, the equivalent of the modern Church of England tea & cake crowd, with the obsessive lunatic fundamentalists consigned to the sidelines, ignored and impotent through lack of numbers. I'm not sure how likely that is, however - schisms seem less easy within mystery religions, for the simple reason that most of the members don't actually know any of the important tenets and so can't fall out after debating them, though of course the cult could probably schism over the very issue of whether or not to be so reticent towards the neophytes.

*relatively, that is.

Somber books help, but nothing helps like thousands of years seperating the often kooky originators of a faith. I bet the reason Xtianity took so long to be popular was because the first ones were so obviously nuts. Hubbard only seems more out there then Jesus because he was our contemporary.....

So in the year 4000, our descendants will have to put up with Scientology being a major world religion? Bleak outlook, staceyjw... very bleak.