Aygor wrote:Jordan wrote:How can it be known whether an organization is set up for profiting off of others or not?
With the same methods used to discriminate fraudulent activities.
Sounds good in theory, but the problem is human beings screw up. There would always be the risk that a legitimate religion gets unjustly shut down.
The idea of shutting a religion down or outlawing or banning it, or whatever, is problematic too in that just because its member's (or leader's) practices are corrupt, does not always mean the religion itself is inherently corrupt. With scientology it's a bit more clear, but not everything is going to be so black and white.
Furthermore, you then have the issue of giving people the power to interfere with belief systems they do not share, which opens the door to potential bias, bribery, opinion and animosity-based decisions, and corruption. Get the wrong people in the right positions, and it is possible they could start causing damage to, or even eliminating the legal right to exist of, belief systems they simply don't like. The consequences of this go beyond people losing their right to practice their religion, too. There are many,
many people who wouldn't stand for having their religion outlawed, and it is the way of human beings to react violently.
Really, it is a very tough situation. A line has to be drawn somewhere, but knowing where to draw it is extremely difficult.
“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation." -- C.S. Lewis