The Church of Scientology

Today is March 13, L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday, a day that Church of Scientology members on every continent observe. Born in 1911, Hubbard’s biography is an incredible story of erratic behavior, pathological lying, adultery, and estrangement from previous wives and children. You can read about Hubbard’s trail of deceit in a new book by Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief.

Hubbard was a prolific writer who wrote hundreds of books, mainly pulp fiction, adventure tales, and science fiction, but then in 1950 he wrote Dianetics: The Modern Science of...