Donald Westbrook: Scientology as "Spiritual Technology" - 2014-12-07
Donald Westbrook: Scientology as "Spiritual Technology" December 7, 2014,
This use of mass media should alone raise questions regarding the role of technology as a tool in disseminating Scientology—and indeed religion at large—in the twenty-first century. But if we examine the most recent Super Bowl ad closely, it becomes clear that it represents more than Scientology's use of savvy modern marketing. Rather, it suggests that, for Scientologists, the categories of science and technology themselves occupy vastly different spaces than they do in more "mainstream" faiths. As this video illustrates, Scientology is a modern religion whose central theological claim is that it combines technology and spirituality, and as such challenges the notion that the categories of science and religion are incompatible or mutually exclusive.