C. The Church of Scientology

        The Church of Scientology created its own baptismal, wedding, and burial prayers and ceremonies, and has its own ministers who conduct worship generally every Sunday and during the major holidays.

       During the gatherings, the members usually become familiar with the teachings of their founder, L. Ron Hubbard, who was convinced that Scientology can solve all human problems because Scientology enables human beings to better understand their own being as well as God.

        Originally, Scientology was based on the teaching and the science of knowledge and better understanding of all their aspects.

       Its origins were contained in two philosophical areas, scientism and anthropologism, which were competing with each other.

       Scientism is based on an objective scientific and technical knowledge and it is considered to be so objective that it can exist independently of man and his subjective capabilities and features.

        On the other hand, anthropologism is based on teachings of philosophical anthropology and considers man as its greatest value and deduced knowledge from a main subject, i.e., the mind, human nature, and cultural experience.

        One of the branches of Scientism developed after 1945 as a clearly pragmatic and materialistic movement. On the other hand, another one founded the Scientological and philosophical-religious community in 1954.

       Its founder, a well-known American writer and science- fiction author of that time, L. Ron Hubbard, developed this movement not only as a new science but also as a religious teaching that included the study of human psychology in relation to the human being itself, to other forms of life, and to the universe.

       His goal was spiritual freedom. The same way as other movements of the New Age, he borrowed from old eastern religions and modern philosophical and psychological teaching to form the new teaching of a new philosophical-religious concept of Scientology and Dianetic technology.

        During the considerably short time of forty years, i.e., until the end of 1995, the Church of Scientology founded more than eight thousand missions and branches in more than 100 countries.

       Currently, it has approximately ten million interested sympathizers. In most states, it is registered as a religious organization just as any other church, e.g., in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and elsewhere.

       ¹ In the Czech Republic, it has been trying to register since 1994 as a religious organization with elected representatives.
 

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¹. It is also active in the United States of America, Canada, Australia and Russia.