Reason 2 of 10
We are not basically good: we need a Saviour
Scientology's Creed says Man is basically good, and that his problems come from painful experiences stored in the reactive mind. Jesus says the trouble comes from inside the human heart, and only God can make it new.
What Scientology teaches
Hubbard's Creed declares that Man is basically good and is seeking to survive. In Dianetics (1950) he taught that a person's irrational behaviour, fears and many illnesses come from engrams: moments of pain and unconsciousness recorded in what he called the reactive mind. Auditing is meant to find and erase them, until a person reaches the state Scientology calls Clear.
In this picture, the basic problem is something that happened to you. Remove it, and the good person underneath is free.
Scientology's own words
“Man is basically good”
The Creed of the Church of Scientology (L. Ron Hubbard, 1954)
What Jesus says
Jesus did not say evil comes into us from outside. He said it comes out of us: from within, out of the heart. The prophets said the same, and the apostles agreed that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
This is not a counsel of despair. It is a diagnosis, and it comes from the One who also has the cure. We are made in God's image and deeply valued by him, and also truly guilty before him. Both are true at once.
20He said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man. 21For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, 22covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. 23All these evil things come from within and defile the man.”
Mark 7:20-23 (WEB) · context
9The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9 (WEB) · context
10As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one. 11There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. 12They have all turned away. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.”
Romans 3:10-12 (WEB) · context
23for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:23 (WEB) · context
27God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 (WEB) · context
The cure is not a process: it is a person
If the problem were only painful memories, a better technique might be enough. Because the problem is sin against a holy God, what we need is forgiveness and a new heart. God promises both, and gives them freely through Jesus, who died for us while we were still sinners.
26I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26 (WEB) · context
8But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 (WEB) · context
8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:8-9 (WEB) · context
17Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (WEB) · context
What Scientologists often say
Scientologists say believing Man is basically good is more hopeful and more respectful than calling people sinners, and that auditing has made them calmer and kinder.
A Christian answer
Calling something sin is not disrespect: it is taking a person seriously enough to say they are responsible before God. And the Bible's hope is bigger, not smaller: it does not depend on how much of your own goodness you can uncover, but on the goodness of God who forgives completely and makes people new.
Sources
- Scientology source The Creed of the Church of Scientology (L. Ron Hubbard, 1954), as published by the Church.
- Scientology source L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (1950): engrams, the reactive mind, Clear.
- The Bible, World English Bible (public domain).