Lemme put it to you this way: Traditional Religions = No cost apart from voluntary donations, enter and leave at any time (although they may consider you damned if you do), Church dogma based on what followers wrote about prophets or other historical figures. In other words, traditional religions, while historically corrupt are generally good and noble (whether you believe what they believe or not, chances are your local christian, jewish, islamic, etc religious organizations are helping the community) and aren't in it for the money. Scientology and other cults = Costs money to gain access to more scripture/teachings, tough to seperate from group (they absolutely consider you damned if you consider it), Church dogma based on the belief system of a certain individual who is basically self published. In other words, Scientology and other cults are designed specifically from the ground up to manipulate and brainwash its members to systematically draw things from them, be it money (Scientology) or the feeling of power one gets from a group of mindless followers (Hale Bop Comet people). On that note I must say I was raised Catholic (like Katie Holmes, I believe) and lost my faith around 10 years ago and am a self described positive athiest who still thinks religion and religious people are good things when taken in moderation. Extremes are dangerous, and stuff like the KKK, Al Queda, and Scientology (yes, I'd group them together) definitely qualify. Here is a good site to look at regarding the CoS: http://www.xenu.net/