Is the belief in A Supreme Being required for a group to be considered a religion?

M. Darrol Bryant, Ph.D., in his essay on Is Scientology a Religion? says: “The modern academic study of religion that emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries must be distinguished from the classical disciplines of theology. While the task of theology was the exposition of the faith of a particular community (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc.) -- this most commonly meant the Christian faith in the west -- the academic study of religion was concerned to offer a scientific description and analysis of all religious phenomena. Thus one of the first tasks of the modern discipline of the study of religion was to free the definition of religion from its typical identification with Christianity. Standard dictionary definitions of religion still reflect this tendency to identify religion in general with the characteristics of especially Christianity and other monotheistic faiths. Those definitions often indicate that the sole or central characteristic of religion is "belief in a Supreme Being." But scholars of religion knew of great and ancient religions that had no such "belief in a Supreme Being." The principal examples were Buddhism, especially in its Theravadin forms where such a belief was explicitly rejected, and Jainism, which also explicitly rejected this belief. Yet these religions were more than 2,000 years old.”

Samuel S. Hill, Ph.D., in Scientology - A New Religion, concludes that Scientology “…is a bona fide religion, with its own beliefs and practices. Basically, Scientology is a theory of knowledge or a way of understanding by which parishioners know what the Supreme Being is and how to participate in it for the improvement of personal and social health. Through this kind of knowing or understanding or worship, the person realizes himself or herself, achieves self-awareness, and is in healing relationship with God. In this process of arriving at true spiritual freedom, one’s life is cleared of barriers and obstacles to that freedom, and made whole and happy as intended. In this respect it is quite like Hinduism and Buddhism.”

He adds, however, that in Scientology “ ‘God’ is less a personal ‘Supreme Being’ here than an ‘Ultimate Reality’, the way things ultimately and most purely are, hence the route to the fullness of life intended for and available to all people. Through the employment of revelation, which often takes the form of techniques, people may achieve relatedness to and participation in the Supreme Being. In these respects, Scientology is more Eastern than Western, and more Buddhism than Hinduism. It aims for enlightenment through relatedness to the ways things really, ultimately are.”

Although the above discussion seems rather dry, it does seem to me (IMHO) an adequate description of the Eighth Dynamic (God Dynamic) as apprehended in Scientology. Of course, apprehension of this is an individual thing, each one coming to his own appreciation.

Pam Blehert