Scientology website shielded against DDoS attack The Church of Scientology has restored it website to normal after a campaign of denial of service attacks prompted it to use DDoS mitigation service Prolexic. Web sites associated with the Church of Scientology were intermittently unavailable last week after an internet group calling itself Anonymous declared war on the …
"Some of the attacks start and stop from a bank of machines at exactly the same time so there have definitely been bots employed," McPherson told El Reg."
A .jmx (config file used with the DDos Software used for the attacks) that Anonymous made available to it's members coordinated the url/ip targets and attack times. So attacks from a bank of machines at exactly the same time so there have definitely been bots employed is in my humble opinon - complete crap.
Danny McPherson, chief research officer pah!
Most of that information is incredibly outdated. Anonymous has since begun transitioning into Real Life protesting outside Scientology HQs around the world. Prank calls and faxes have largely been toned back and efforts are being directed at information distribution and raising public awareness.
Before deciding to comment I have just done a little googling on scientology. what a hoot. All my life I have been a science fiction fan and never realised that I could go to church and get free sci-fi sermons just by joining the scientologists.
Looking through the odds and sod on google for the religion? makes it quite clear that Hubbard was barking mad if he believed what he was writing and if he didn't believe it he must be rolling around in his grave cracked up with laughter at the nutters that do believe his writings. I would post anonymously but with nutters and terrorists it would only encourage them to think they have some kind of power.
I actually read "Dianetics", the Good Book of Scientology, with the same open mind that I've managed to keep when perusing other religious works and I'm struggling to find a phrase other than "simple-minded hogwash" to describe what I read.
It doesn't even have the excuse of having had thousands of years' worth of translation, interpretation, re-evaluation, cross-examination to explain the bits that make you either go "huh?" or "well, duh!".
It is said [correction: it is documented] that L. Ron Hubbard (having not been inaugurated, I'm not sure that it's appropriate for me to refer to him as LRH) remarked that "writing for a penny a word is madness... to make millions, one needs to start one's own religion"*.
If you are ever at a loss for a few minutes and happen upon a bookshop with a well-stocked sci-fi section, you might care to pick up one of Mr. Hubbard's works, for then it will become plain why even "a penny a word" displayed a gross sense of making the impossible becoming possible.
Simply my opinion: crap religion; crap books; wiley, cynical old [millionaire] geezer.
PS. Burning books should never, ever be tolerated, let alone encouraged.
PPS. If you have a copy of Dianetics, burn it.
PPPS. I am aware that I have taken this thread further from the IT angle but can find no way to introduce Paris Hilton in its place. Should I get my coat?
*paraphrased.
Um, no, that's not how it works. The CoS is a very dedicated and hard working money-making organisation, and joining it is liable to cost you any amount up to and including $(all you have + your life).
They did *not* get where they are by giving stuff away for free...
In Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" sci-fi stories, a society is partially protected from anarchy and disintegration by making power stations and the power distribution network "holy" things. Power stations are like churches and the people who work within them are considered priests serving the great spirit of the universe. Fear of the wrath of god keeps the power infrastructure safe. A clever idea.
If you can turn something into a religion and get people to believe, you can wield serious power and gain serious wealth.
Getting enough followers should not be a problem - there's one born every minute!
So thats where Max Headroom disappeared to!! Feck, for a moment I was worried.
Anyroadup, the next time I witness a road crash I won't bother helping - because there is bound to be a Scientologist along at any moment who can do something more helpful than I can. I've never got the hang of pointing at people in their hour of need.
$¢i€nto£og¥ is nothing more than a money making scam dressed up in the garb of a religion that was created by a failed "science fiction" writer.
In fact his books are so bad that a number of second hand book shops I know will not take any of L Ron Hubbards books any more as they do not go out again.
Once, many years ago, I took one of their "IQ" tests. One of the questions I remembers was "do you hear a ticking sound in the night, even though there is no clock next to you". Naturally, having a large collection of real science fiction books I do, because, as we all know, the common book louse male holds onto the edge of a page of a book tightly and thumps his legs into it, advertising the fact is is ready to provide nookie to any female book louse in the area.
I also read a lot of information detailing some of the "church's" doctrines on medicine and science. Such doozies as the fact that broken limbs are psychsomatic, that radiation sickness is caused by particles that can be flushed from the body's fat with massive overdoses of Niacin. Other "ailments" can be treated with massive overdoses of other minerals and vitamins. After starting to read Dianetics I realised what a joke it was.
However, having said that, I do not agree with the DDoS campaign against $¢i€nto£og¥ as now they can claim it as "religious persecution" and, given $¢i€nto£og¥'s long campaign against the Internet, I can see them goign hell for leather trying to find out who was involved in the attack.
Good Lord. And here I was thinking that this was all a big joke, but these nutters actually seem to believe in this crap they're talking!
I mean, I disagree with Scientology, what are my crimes? Does p2p downloading count? perhaps a fine for not having a train ticket? That last one I actually paid, mind you.
Oddballs, and sadly my city has one of those blasted churches in it, I think.
Posting as Anonymous because that's the entire point. :D
"However, having said that, I do not agree with the DDoS campaign against $¢i€nto£og¥ as now they can claim it as "religious persecution""
Actually, I'm wondering if that's the end-game here.
Are they (Anonymous) actually hoping that enough people will get outraged if the Cult/Church (delete as appropriate) starts claiming religious protection by law?
How many crazies does it take to start a legally protected tax-haven? Can all the people that claimed Jedi on the census band together, buy a building and declare it a Jedi Temple?
Once people start to think critically about this situation, maybe they'll stop the lawmakers from giving *any* organised religion Carte Blanche to do whatever the hell they like.
Black helicopter, as I'm in conspiracy theory mode at the moment...
So Scientology is 'religion' that seeks to control your actions and gobble all your money, and in return offers you intangible, un-obtainable promises.
How, I might ask, is that different from any other religion?
Religion 101:
1) create a boogy man - it's OK if your target subjects don't know about him/her before hand. The boogy man must be sufficiently vague so as to be applicable to all ills and evils your minions may suffer (or even better, imagine they suffer)
2) present your religion as the solution to the boogy man - its best if the solution is only attainable after death in a previously unknown about afterlife. That makes it unprovable and keeps the element of faith going strong.
3) Ensure you keep your minions under control thru every aspect of their lives (who they can sleep with, what they can eat, when they can have babies). This ensures your new religion stays foremost in their minds. Also, it gives credibility to the omni-presence of influence.
4) demand fiscal means to further the religion. Threaten to withdraw their access to (2) if they fail to give everything.
Simple really. We should all do it.
...the Holy Tax Deduction is alive and well, I see. Sad. But evolution in action, as far as I'm concerned. They soak up capital from those too dumb to think for themselves which puts just a little bit more pressure on them, ensuring their genes have a harder time reproducing. If not CHTD, then someone else would do it. At least CHTD's obvious and easy to avoid for the rest of us.
As far as I know the UK refuse to recognise Scientology as a Religion. This also means they don't get the tax breaks of a charity which UK churches get.
If this is true perhaps The Register should stop calling them the Church of Scientology as it's a British publication and the British Government say they aren't a Church.
Am I totally confused or just deluded for basing most of this on Wikipedia?????
:(
In the absence of anything useful to say I'd like to reinforce what was said about LRH's writing. His books are crap. I read several of the Mission Earth series, as while simplistic dross, they were readable for a while - though probably just because they were simplistic.
The last one I read had, near the end, a disgusting and pointlessly over-described torture scene in which the anti-anti-hero has his skin slashed with a cheese grater and then has peppers and various other stuff rubbed into the wounds. More happens which thankfully I don't remember. It was exactly like the bit in South Park's "The Passion of the Jew" when Mel Gibson reverse-begs everyone to torture him, only it wasn't satire. I don't read books to gain insight into the masochistic fantasies of fat, middle-aged white Americans.
See, there IS a difference between the mainstream religions and Scientology, despite some people's claims - including mine occasionally - that all religions are equally wacky. Although there might be little to choose between the doctrine, there's a massive gap between the supposed founders. Jesus was probably a good man, even a great one. Same goes for Moses. Same goes for Muhammed (leaving the disputed age of his wife Aisha aside), Buddha, the Sikh Gurus, etc. Centuries of time may have polished their image, but we can be reasonably confident that they were suitable leaders of an entire faith. Howard, on the other hand, was indisputably a very disagreeable person and a terrible writer, and anyone who considers him a prophet needs their head examined or, better, replaced with a ZX Spectrum that would do a better job and be capable of playing Horace Goes Skiing.
A "Scientologist" posted a video very much like the original Anon video, threatening "bigots" with prosecution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOXx2p12x4o
Know this: I am a Scientologist.
Also know: every scrap of information you leave behind at our web sites, our call centers and our houses of worship is being relayed to a response team at our Clearwater headquarters.
If you attack us, you are taking your freedom into your own hands. You will be identified, you will be named, you will be caught, you will be prosecuted and then you will be sued in civil court even as you sit in your jail cell.
A country makes its own law, but the United Nations agreed in 1948 that anyone, anywhere, may worship freely, stating freedom of religion as a human right. Actions against free worship are often against the law, as well as being against human rights. A Scientologist posted this reaction video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOXx2p12x4o
Nobody is challenging the scientologists' freedom to worship whatever they like. The part that many people have a problem with is the forced abortions, the disconnects, the suicides, the kidnappings.. in short, with the organisation or the management of the church edifice, not with any of the 'religious teachings'.
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Library/registration/pdfs/cosdecsum.pdf
The decision by the Charity Commission in the UK.
A few qoutes:
"The Commissioners having considered the full legal and factual case put to them by CoS,and having reviewed the relevant law, taking into account the principles embodied in ECHR where appropriate, decided that CoS was not established for charitable purposes or for the public benefit and was therefore not registrable as a charity under section 3(2) of the Charities Act 1993."
"The Commissioners having
considered the activities of auditing and training, which Scientology regards as its
worship, concluded that auditing is more akin to therapy or counselling and training
more akin to study and that both auditing and training are not in their essence
exhibitions of reverence paid to a supreme being and such Scientology practices are
not worship for the purposes of charity law."
"The Commissioners decided that in the case of CoS, the relative newness of
Scientology and the judicial and public concerns which had been expressed about its
beliefs and practices, led them to conclude that it should not be entitled to the
presumption of public benefit. Accordingly, it was for CoS to demonstrate that it was
established for the public benefit."
"After reviewing the practices of auditing and training, considered by CoS to be the
central features of the practice of Scientology, the Commissioners considered that
these are in fact conducted in private and not in public and that in their very nature are
private rather than public activities such that no legally recognised benefit could be
said to be conferred on the public. It could not be concluded that the benefits of the
practice of Scientology extended beyond the participants. Accordingly public benefit
was not established."
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