Jon Atack and Marty Rathbun - The Critical Difference

I just finished the Jeffrey Augustine interview of Jon Atack.

Jon Atack has an incredible memory and the ability to coordinate vast amounts of information in a way in which he can pick out connections of which details are relevant and to be precise and thorough.

I want to emphasize something I realized regarding Jon Atack's work and contrast it against his opposite in many respects - Marty Rathbun.

I criticized Marty Rathbun's writing as lacking logical cohesiveness and frankly truthful accuracy a couple years ago and his followers for not being able to be unbiased in their gleeful acceptance of his ideas. Several were more independent and rational in regards to statements on Scientology from others, but threw away objectivity and standards of judgment for Marty Rathbun for some reason.

In sharp contrast we have Jon Atack. I think he is the top expert on the subject I have encountered from both a historical perspective and an understanding of how the technology functions perspective also.

Jon Atack has been incredibly accurate regarding details and to my knowledge not embellished at all.

I realized in looking at the video of Jon Atack's interview in contrast to the unending series by Marty Rathbun that the difference is that Jon Atack uses and encourages critical thinking. I don't mean a vague idea of being cautious.

Sometimes I discuss critical thinking with Scientologists and a few ex Scientologists that defensively proclaim themselves critical thinkers and display no understanding what it is or in their behavior that they practice it.

I am going to put up a small quote to show how it applies and the difference between Marty Rathbun and Jon Atack's work is obvious.

Universal Intellectual Standards
The intellectual standards that are to these elements are used to determine the quality of reasoning. Good critical thinking requires having a command of these standards. According to Paul and Elder (1997 ,2006), the ultimate goal is for the standards of reasoning to become infused in all thinking so as to become the guide to better and better reasoning. The intellectual standards include:

Clarity
Could you elaborate?
Could you illustrate what you mean?
Could you give me an example?
Accuracy
How could we check on that?
How could we find out if that is true?
How could we verify or test that?
Precision
Could you be more specific?
Could you give me more details?
Could you be more exact?
Relevance
How does that relate to the problem?
How does that bear on the question?
How does that help us with the issue?
Depth
What factors make this difficult?
What are some of the complexities of this question?
What are some of the difficulties we need to deal with?
Breadth
Do we need to look at this from another perspective?
Do we need to consider another point of view?
Do we need to look at this in other ways?
Logic
Does all of this make sense together?
Does your first paragraph fit in with your last one?
Does what you say follow from the evidence?
Significance
Is this the most important problem to consider?
Is this the central idea to focus on?
Which of these facts are most important?
Fairness
Is my thinking justifiable in context?
Am I taking into account the thinking of others?
Is my purpose fair given the situation?
Am I using my concepts in keeping with educated usage, or am I distorting them to get what I want? From http://louisville.edu/ideas...

You can see Jon Atack's work has all these standards. Marty Rathbun's work , like Hubbard's before him, is sadly lacking in every one.

I feel many ex Scientologists develop or recover excellent critical thinking skills as part of recovery from Scientology.

I certainly believe Chris Shelton is a superb example of this. Jefferson Hawkins, the Headleys and many others have done this as well.

No one is infallible or perfect but within human limitations is a vast spectrum of competence with Jon Atack at one end and Marty Rathbun way down at the other.

The criticism of Marty Rathbun's latest videos is often that he lacks the intellectual standards of a good critical thinker. And in contrast Jon Atack epitomizes them.

For people trying to understand or especially recover from Scientology the difference is between being helped by Jon or being buried under more bullshit by Marty. And to me it's all the difference in the world.

Mockingbird's Greatest Hits
I have reached nearly two hundred posts online and thousands of comments as well. In looking back at all that I realized a very small number of posts have been consistently the most viewed and likely most helpful for people seeking to understand Scientology.

I certainly hope they are helping people. Here I will try to present the short list of the posts that best explain my ideas and can introduce you to information that I hope will help begin beneficial examination of Scientology.

1)Insidious Enslavement: Study Technology
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/01/i...ology.html?m=0

2)Basic Introduction To Hypnosis in Scientology

http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/01/b...is-in.html?m=0

3)Pissed It's Not Your Fault !!!

http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/01/p...fault.html?m=0


4)The Secret Of Scientology Part 1 Control Via Contradiction

http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/01/t...art-1.html?m=0

5)Burning Down Hell - How Commands Are Hidden, Varied And Repeated To Control You As Hypnotic Implants

http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/02/m...-hell.html?m=0

6)Why Hubbard Never Claimed OT Feats And The Rock Bottom Basis Of Scientology

http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/02/m...never.html?m=0

7)A Million Years In Hell

http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/02/a...-hell.html?m=0

8-10)OT III And Beyond: Sources Plagiarized From Part 1, 2 and 3
Part 1
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/03/o...rized.html?m=0

Part 2
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/03/o...ed_14.html?m=0

Part 3
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/03/o...ed_17.html?m=0

11)Propaganda By Reversal Of Meaning In Scientology

http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/03/p...ng-in.html?m=0

12)Scientology's Parallel In Nature - Malignant Narcissism

http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/05/s...ure_3.html?m=0

13)OT VIII Delusion Fulfilled

http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/05/o...ed_30.html?m=0.

14)There Is No Irony In Scientology

http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/08/t...ology.html?m=0

15 - 16)Why Lying And Murder Are Justified In Scientology part 1 and 2

Part 1
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/10/w...ed-in.html?m=0

Part 2

http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/10/w...in_26.html?m=0.

Why Lying And Murder Are Justified In Scientology part 3
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/...


17)Unraveling Scientology - A Missing Vital Ingredient


http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/11/u...vital.html?m=0.

18)Loving A Lie


http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/12/loving-lie.html?m=0.

19)Two Roads


http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/12/two-roads.html?m=0.

20)Orders Of Magnitude Part 1


http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/11/o...art-1.html?m=0.

These twenty posts have been both popular and give a very good grounding in many of my ideas on Scientology