system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is Scientology considered a bad thing/a cult?
gpt
the religion was created by L Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer who was known to be a scam artist

scientologists believe an ancient race of aliens slaughtered another race of aliens and the slaughtered race of aliens' souls have inhabited some humans, and scientologists take a test to find out how strongly those aliens souls have inhabited your body. yes i am serious.

the 'church' has different levels of membership that are increasingly secretive and require paying shitloads of money to the organization itself, which is a distinctly cult-like thing to do

the organization has done very very questionable things in the way of murder, blackmail, and infiltration of the US government to take suspicion off of the organization itself. people who have left scientology have been harassed by the organization and some have even had attempts on their life, or even been killed. a very cult-like thing to do.

it is not a fusion of religion and science. it is pretty much a cult.