Naturally, Scientology’s rapid emergence within the world’s changing religious community has led many to ask what kind of religion it is, how it “compares” with other faiths and in what ways it is different. What is its understanding of a Supreme Being and the spiritual aspects of life which transcend the temporal world, and what social and community work do Scientologists do?

To provide a definitive, objective view on these issues, the Church brought together leading authorities on comparative religion, and other scholars, sociologists and experts to assemble and compose the text of the pages which follow. Thus, what the Church now presents in this web site is the results of the most comprehensive study and analysis ever conducted of one of the world’s most important religions.

Additionally, the authors of this site have also addressed the more basic question concerning religion itself: What is it? As one authority has noted, “If one investigates the texts of the fathers of the Christian Church and the texts of the great figures of theology in search of the original definition of religion, he will be disappointed.” He added that until questioned from without, people consider their own religion self-evident and thus beyond need of definition.