Out of pure curiosity, what's your probability distribution of Scientology (or some other such group) being useful? Not the Xenu part, but is it possible that they've discovered some techniques to make people happier, more successful, etc.?
We already have some limited evidence that conventionally religious people are happier, and conventional religions are quite weak.
We already have some limited evidence that conventionally religious people are happier
But see Will Wilkinson on this too (arguing that this only really holds in the US, and speculating that it's really about "a good individual fit with prevailing cultural values" rather than religion per se).
I declare this Open Thread open for discussion of Less Wrong topics that have not appeared in recent posts.