Reply #12: And he created it as part of a WAGER with John W. Campbell Jr.

[eppur_se_muova]

Campbell believed a lot of 'paranormal' or 'psi' claims (ESP, telepathy, teleportation, etc.). This led to arguments among the inner circle of SF writers about just what it was and wasn't reasonable to believe. Hubbard insisted that he could INVENT a religion and have thousands of followers within 10 years (IIRC, I may not have the details right). So basically he was saying that people are so gullible you can get them to believe anything, as long as you make an enticing story out of it. This was a rebut to Campbell and others who argued that "so many people" wouldn't believe in psi if there wasn't something to it. So Hubbard invented Dianetics/Scientology, and proved his point that people will swallow anything -- which proves that this is a bad line of argument to take (but which doesn't DISPROVE psi, in the strictest logical sense -- just shows this line of argument is not proof). Hairsplitters will know the difference.

Now, does someone want to clue the believers in on this?