Throughout four decades of seminal discoveries into the spiritual nature of man, L. Ron Hubbard continually sought to address the issues of cultural decline as well.
To specifically that end, he developed the benchmark of all drug rehabilitation programmes — now broadly recognised for unparalleled results by governments world over. Addressing the crisis of ethics and justice, he further developed a criminal rehabilitation programme presently at work in 23 countries, where it has returned self-esteem to more than 45,000 inmates worldwide.
Noting the correlation between illiteracy and criminality, Mr. Hubbard also developed a technology of study. By 1971, that work had sparked an international movement to dramatically improve the quality of education. Through nearly 500 groups in 56 nations, more than 66,000 teachers and 3 million students have been helped by Mr. Hubbard’s groundbreaking learning technology.
Then, in 1972, Mr. Hubbard embarked upon a series of sociological studies in New York City, an area in which he had once lived but had not visited for over 12 years. What he found was most disturbing — societal ruins had degenerated uncontrollably, resulting in a widely uncaring, depowered population bereft of moral values. Violent crime — most of it drug related — had increased more than five hundred percent. Divorce rates had quadrupled and teenage suicide had risen an additional two hundred percent.
Investigating the possible causes of these distressing trends, Mr. Hubbard discovered that amorality had risen in direct proportion to the decline of the influence of religion in society.
As he stated it:
"The great religious civilizing forces of the past, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and others, have all emphasized differentiation of good from evil and higher ethical values.
"The lowering of church attendance...coincided with a rise in pornography and general immorality, and an increase in crime which then caused a rise in numbers of police without a subsequent decline in actual moral aberration.
"When religion is not influential in a society or has ceased to be, the state inherits the entire burden of public morality, crime and intolerance. It then must use punishment and police. Yet this is unsuccessful as morality, integrity and self-respect not already inherent in the individual, cannot be enforced with any great success. Only by a spiritual awareness and inculcation of the spiritual value of these attributes can they come about. There must be more reason and more emotional motivation to be moral, etc., than threat of human discipline.
"When a culture has fallen totally away from spiritual pursuits into materialism, one must begin by demonstrating they are each a soul, not a material animal. From this realization of their own religious nature individuals can again come to an awareness of God and become more themselves."
From this humanitarian perspective, Mr. Hubbard formulated The Volunteer Minister’s Handbook (now titled The Scientology Handbook), a comprehensive work providing all the various solutions he had developed in answer to the wide range of human travail. While the tools it contains are derived from his deeper research into the spiritual nature of man — the fundamentals that comprise the Scientology religion — anyone of any faith may utilise these practical answers to resolve any crisis, whether personal or national in scope. (See "Volunteer Ministers — Compassion for others")
