Oh dear, you're going to make me defend Scientology, aren't you? Rats.

The truth is that, YES, Scientology is a religion, based on the following definition from religioustolerance.org:

--quote--
"Religion is any specific system of belief about deity, often involving rituals, a code of ethics, a philosophy of life, and a worldview."
--end quote--

Scientology does promote the belief in a Supreme Being, and focuses rituals on improving the soul and its awareness. The code of ethics and the philosophies shared by Scientologists is extremely long.

Furthermore, according to the United States, Scientology is a recognized tax-exempt religion, and has been so since 1993 (which I think is hooey since I still have to pay taxes on my personal religious items since I am a solo spiritual practitioner, but that's another debate...).

Scientologists also do have clergy, including ministers, and hold services every Friday as a celebration of cleansing the soul throughout the week. Weddings, funerals, baptisms, and other ceremonies are performed through the Church of Scientology.

So as much as many of us many not understand or agree with the principles of Scientology, it is still a religion. And don't forget that all religions certainly were bizarre to understand when they first began, and all of them ostracized to start. Think of the early days of Christianity! "So there's this religion that says we all started from a man's rib, and the reason we all suffer is because a woman ate an apple? Then a virgin gave birth to the son of god and we should drink his blood and eat his body every Sunday?"

Every religion can seem quite odd at the outset. That's just how religions work, they require people to have faith in things that usually don't make sense. We believe in religions because of something other than logic and reason.

As long as it's a belief, and people get together to share these beliefs in some way, that's a religion. Small religions will sometimes be called "cults" by the more dominate religions, but cults are still religions. In its early days, Christianity was deemed a cult by followers of Judaism, but of course now with its large worldwide popularity, it is no longer called a cult.

I believe Scientology is a religion. It has a mythology of how the world was created and how it will end, and involves beings with powers higher than our own that have influenced our world. But because of its relatively small size and seemingly bizarre beliefs and practices (compared to the "standard" religions of today), Scientology would be placed under the category of "cult" by a majority of people today. Who knows, perhaps Scientology will go the way of Christianity and 2,000 years from now, it will be the mainstream religion of the globe.

It's a cult.

They believe many things, including the notion that we are all eternally existing souls called "Thetans", that we can each control matter, energy, space and time by will alone once we reach our true potential, that the concept of a messiah is a mental implant, that our bodies are infested with the murdered souls of aliens from 75 million years ago, that psychiatry is orchestrating a worldwide conspiracy, and that mental illness does not exist. This doesn't sound like a religion to me, more like a cult.

Scientology has many aspects of religon. Like many of the monothesitic religons it requires that its followers devote time money and a belief that what they teach is the truth. weather or not they believe in a hear after or spiritial enlightment does not change their mission statement. So the people who follow scientology do so to help cope with what they cannot do by themselves. So in the end yes it is a religon.

I don't think it's a religion. To me religion is the belief in "God" or something spiritual. Scientology seems to be just science and facts. So I would say, however, according to the definition of Religion, scientology IS considered a religion. Here's the definition, from Dictionary.com.

1. A set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

2. A specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.