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Scientology vs. Islam

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Submitted By coffeeman90
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Scientology vs. Islam For my term paper, I chose to compare two religions that most Americans are not familiar with the principles of: Islam and scientology. I will look into the differences that these religions present and examine different parts of their them. Over the course of this paper I’ll look at seven aspects of these religions, which include their origins and histories, size, their view on the purpose of life and the roles that humans play, their beliefs of on the afterlife, specific practices they take part in, and the texts from which their religion can be applied from. First of all, the origins and histories of these two religions differ greatly. Islam is considered to be the youngest of the seven great world religions, dating back to its creation in seventh-century Saudi Arabia. The prophet Muhammad introduced Islam in 610 AD after experiencing an “angelic visitation.” Muslims believe that Qu’ran, which is the holy book of Islam, were the preexistent and perfect words from Allah. Muhammad dictated the Qu’ran. Muhammad is loosely credited with the origin of Islam, although many Muslims believe that Islam existed way before Muhammad was even alive. And although Muhammad dictated the Qu’ran, the Qu’ran states that Muhammad was not the originator. The Qu’ran instead states that God wrote the Qu’ran, who in turn had the angel Gabriel dictate it to the prophet Muhammad (“Origin”). In contrast, the church of Scientology was formed just 55 years ago, in 1954. The American author L. Ron Hubbard created the basis and teachings of the religion throughout his life. The beginning of Hubbard’s research into the purposes of life started in 1938, with the publishing of Excalibur, in which he hypothesized that the common denominator of existence was survival. In 1950, he published a book called Dianetics. At first, only 6,000 copies of the book were published,

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