What do Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Kirstie Alley have in common? Beyond Hollywood fame, they’ve all been high-profile Scientologists. But what exactly do scientologists believe, and what sets it apart from the Christian faith?

In the broad landscape of world religions, there are many which are very old and well understood. Then, there are others which are newer, shrouded in mystery, and very hard to pinpoint in terms of belief systems and practices.

Such is the case with Scientology, a formal religion founded in the 1950s by fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

Scientology is both very wide and very deep. That is, there are various… (Register to read the rest of the article)