L. Ron Hubbard like Buddha? New Teachings of Scientology's 'Church Father' Unveiled

L. Ron Hubbard, inventor of Dianetics and founder of Scientology, left behind a huge inventory of writings now being unveiled.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - A 25 year project to compile all the recordings and writings of L. Ron Hubbard, who passed away in 1986, has now been finished. According to Scientology leaders, over 1000 unreleased recordings of his lectures, hundreds of lectures and course materials have now been brought assembled and organized for further study.

The announcement came during the Scientology's New Year's Celebration at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The event was broadcast to their churches around the world.It has caused excitement within the ranks of the scientology believers and skepticism in many other circles as the former Science Fiction writer whose writings form the basis for Scientology was compared to Buddha.

According to the Associated Press, church spokesperson Tommy Davis stated, "It would be like discovering that Buddha, unbeknownst to anybody, had sat down and wrote down the entirety of his discoveries and it could be verified that he wrote it."

Hubbard himself began the project before his death, seeking to find anything he had written or spoken regarding dianetics and Scientology. David Miscavige, the current leader continued the work after Hubbard's death.

The Los Angeles Daily News described the news as the Church of Scientology's "Dead Sea Scrolls." Pamela Lancaster, Public Affairs Director of the Celebrity Centre, told the Daily News that her late husband had been involved in tracking down Hubbard's lost works and that there were no doubts the materials are genuine.

"They are hand-written notes and day diaries in Mr. Hubbard's own handwriting and lectures in his own voice. This means so much to us. We can finally train people as if Mr. Hubbard were here himself."

The comparison of L. Ron Hubbard to Buddha is already drawing some raised eyebrows from religious scholars and will certainly cause some comments from critics of the movement.

David Bromley, a professor of religion and sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University who has written a great deal on Scientology, told the Associated Press (AP), "Scientologists are literalists, fundamentalists in the sense that they take Hubbard's writings as literally true."

The Church of Scientology was founded in the 1950s by Hubbard, a successful science fiction writer. While they claim millions of adherents around the world, some estimates significantly lower. According to a story from AP, the American Religion Identification Survey reported that the estimated number of Americans who identify as Scientologists plummeted from 55,000 in 2001 to 25,000 in 2008.

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online. He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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