The cult of Falun Gong is hardly different from so many of the numerous science-bashing movements, but this one is of note because it has taken in so many citizens of the world's most populous country, China. Other countries, too, have been infected by the nonsense behind it, and as with the Sai Baba cult of India, this one threatens to spread worldwide.
The Chinese government's concern with the popularity of Falun Gong is much more than political, I believe. Being very realistic, it's a fact that any pseudoscience, any superstition, any cult action, is a negative element in any society. And, when an individual assumes the position of a deity, there will always be enough persons to support him or her simply because of the charisma generated. Sai Baba - previously discussed in detail here - appeals to the masses because he performs a few crude sleight-of-hand tricks. Elizabeth Clare Prophet, of the Church Universal and Triumphant in the USA, bases her support on hyperbolized claims of imminent invasion from aliens of various kinds, and even though her promised events of this sort have failed to take place, she still holds her followers in a state of armed fear. Jim Jones and the People's Temple flourished due to the followers' terror of an outside world they did not understand. Falun Gong simply denies science, appeals to venerated Chinese traditions, and uses the fictional facade created by founder Li Hongzhi, as well as his also-failed predictions, as a romantic base for acceptance.
Li started out by changing his own birthdate to something more suitable for a deity. July 7th, 1952, was not an auspicious date, so he maneuvered local officials into giving him an I.D. card that says May 13th, 1951. Since Chinese tradition has the birthday of Buddha as the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, which is May 13th, this provided Li with a basis for divinity. His preposterous comic-book claims range from bringing all his disciples to fly in the sky, to the fact that all things are composed of water. He commands his followers to denounce all science, and to ignore doctors and medicine of all kinds. He says that he himself made his own grandparents. It goes on and on.
Li, now living comfortably in New York, supported by the wealth he has sucked from his disciples, is another nobody who seized an opportunity to become powerful and rich on the naivety of a populace. I differ with the government of China on political matters, but not on this humanitarian catastrophe.
The national constitution of China, while rejecting religion, states that all citizens have freedom of religious belief. They are constitutionally protected from forceful interference with their religious practice. The government encourages "democratic discussion" and "persuasive education," and Mao Tse-tung himself wrote that religions could not be abolished by decree or by force. That's what the official rules say. As with all such official stances, we must wonder if in practice it is the same.
Presently, we find an active movement - largely sponsored and promoted by Li Hongzhi's movement - that criticizes the official Chinese stance on Falun Gong, stating that it is an evil influence. My last visit to Australia produced an effective demonstration by my good friend and colleague Sima Nan, a man who has been very active in fighting superstition and pseudoscience in China. That appearance was preceded by an official representative of the Chinese government, a man who rather chilled the entire event with his repetitious reference to "the evil cult of Falun Gong." It was not at all welcome to that audience to hear such formulated recitations as, "The government of the People's Republic of China look upon the evil cult of Falun Gong as an evil force that denies the validity of science as embraced by the government of the People's Republic of China and the evil cult of Falun Gong has been teaching citizens of the People's Republic of China that the philosophy of the evil cult of Falun Gong is the means by which...." well, you get the idea. By simply demonstrating some of the side-show tricks that Falun Gong teachers use, Sima Nan was a hundred times as effective as any formula speech, believe me.
Go to www.falundafa.org and see what's offered. You'll find "How to Get Started," "Exercises." and "Common Questions," but not a word about the basic claims of the religion. You come away with the idea that this is a series of stately exercises performed in the park, not a science-bashing, fanatic, irrational, cult. The pages of L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology sites give the same kind of an impression, with no mention of the blue octopi in the volcanoes that eventually show up in their creed if you can pay long and bountifully enough.
About the Author:
James Randi has an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, but today he is best known as the world's most tireless investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.
(James Randi Educational Foundation, August 3, 2001)
Original text from: http://www.randi.org/jr/08-03-01.html
