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There are various claims that L. Ron Hubbard (the creator of Scientology) had degrees and doctorates.

What formal education and qualifications did he have?

Larian LeQuella
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Richard Stelling
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1 Answers1

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The recent New Yorker article about Paul Haggis and Scientology spends some time talking about how the Church has exaggerated Hubbard's achievements over the years. They made efforts to obtain original source documents that they found conflicted with what the Church has said:

The church document indicates, falsely, that Hubbard completed four years of college, obtaining a degree in civil engineering. The official document correctly notes two years of college and no degree.

They even posted all the documentation online so anyone can view them.

On a related note, there's a very interesting piece on NPR's site about the fact checking that New Yorker did for that article. Because of the Church's well-known litigiousness, it was extensive. The most interesting quote out of that article is about some discrepancies in Hubbard's war record, which also seems to have been embellished by the church.

"In one very interesting moment, Davis said, 'Of course, if it's true that Mr. Hubbard was never injured during the war, then he never did heal himself using Dianetics principles, then Dianetics is based on a lie, and then Scientology is based on a lie. The truth is that Mr. Hubbard was a war hero.' And the way he phrased that, that everything depended on whether Hubbard had sustained these injuries and healed himself was like a wager on the table."

Tim Farley
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    "If his war record isn't true then everything about scientology is based on a lie, therefore it has to be true" Yeah, that's Scientology-level circular reasoning right there... – Shadur Feb 06 '16 at 16:29
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    @Shadur sometimes I think that LRH fancied himself an Obi-Wan kind of leader, telling "the truth" from "a certain point of view". Maybe he had read enough books and pondered enough problems of his age that he concluded that he had undergone a level of education *equivalent* to at least four years of college, and decided that "four years of college" *actually* meant "the level of skills, abilities, and knowledge that one typically obtains during a four-year college program". – Robert Columbia Apr 03 '18 at 15:18
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    @RobertColumbia One of the salient points of an actual college education is that that is not an assessment one can reliably make about one's self, and that college degree is proof that you demonstrated said skills, abilities and knowledge to the satisfaction of people whose literal job it is to make that assessment. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect – Shadur Aug 09 '18 at 07:46
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    @Shadur yes, that's why he arguably might have believed it himself. – Robert Columbia Aug 09 '18 at 22:01