I ran accross this article (via this post) on Scientology and Bush's faith-based initiative. (Read the article, Scientologists are scary and evil and we shouldn't be helping them do anything...) But something in the article struck me as a little odd:

Reportedly Scientology was founded in the 1950s by Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, a George Washington University student from 1930 to 1932 who died in 1986.

According to several published accounts, L. Ron Hubbard believed a galactic ruler named Xenu banished alien evil spirits called body thetans to Earth more than 75 million years ago, and that said thetans were implanted in volcanoes.

Hubbard, it has been reported, wrote that the volcanoes exploded and the thetans invaded mankind, accounting for our present ills. Although the human mind and body are infected with beaucoup body thetans, there are, the stories go, specific instructions advanced by Hubbard for undoing the damage done by the galactic cataclysm -- a process called auditing. If faithfully followed, and carefully monitored by an E-meter (two wired metal cans capable of detecting truth), a person can overcome negative experiences, undergo a regeneration of native abilities, and find a natural spiritual awareness of self, reaching the highest level in Scientology teachings called Operating Thetan or OT.

Or something like that.

Now, aside from the complete lunacy of all that, the claim that "L. Ron Hubbard believed..." is probably very inaccurate. From all that I've heard Scientology is mostly a scam which makes a lot of money for the people on top. Aside from any rumors about Scientology being started as a bet, I think the author should stick with saying what L. Ron Hubbard wrote and not claim that he actually believed any of it.