[按] 美國匹茲堡大學(xué)校報2006年5月24日刊登了一篇揭批“法輪功”的文章，文章稱“法輪功”為“瘋狂異教”，李洪志的歪理邪說為“荒謬?yán)碚摗薄?/p>
2006年5月24日
正文：
你會不會支持一個宣傳外星生物入侵地球，拒絕所有現(xiàn)代科學(xué)和醫(yī)療，并自夸能夠救贖所有人類的異教？我猜大多數(shù)人都會選擇否定的回答。但是在很多西方世界（特別是美國），這些年來大家都一直在支持這么一個異教。我不是在指科學(xué)論派。
我所指的異教是法輪功，近年來由于中國恐怖的人權(quán)記錄一再被提起，法輪功受到了公眾廣泛的關(guān)注。近來，法輪功新聞部門的工作成果很令人驚訝，他們向國際社會宣揚(yáng)他們自己，甚至取代流亡藏人成為中國受迫害最嚴(yán)重的人。
在大多數(shù)時間里，西方媒體都響應(yīng)法輪功的做法，并樂于向他們提供他們所需的關(guān)注，我必須得說，現(xiàn)在媒體的關(guān)注點(diǎn)已經(jīng)遠(yuǎn)離了以前關(guān)注的中國問題：中國社會巨大的貧富差距問題或臺海爭端。
就我個人而言，我既不支持中國對法輪功采取的迫害政策，也不是說法輪功沒有權(quán)利發(fā)出自己的聲音。但是我認(rèn)為西方媒體對于法輪功的關(guān)注程度大大的超過了對中國其他問題的關(guān)注。也許有一天中國的運(yùn)動會導(dǎo)致中國政權(quán)交替，但是我不希望這是一個瘋狂異教，比如法輪功的功勞。
現(xiàn)在法輪功站在了西方媒體的面前，這是自天安門事件后，中國最有組織性的一次反抗中國政府統(tǒng)治的事件。根據(jù)“我對手的敵人就是我的朋友”的邏輯，很多西方人都認(rèn)為法輪功一定有什么優(yōu)秀的、很棒的地方值得挖掘。此外，法輪功之所以吸引西方人的原因，還可能是對于很多人來說，法輪功為他們提供了關(guān)于中國宗教的新視野。
從實(shí)質(zhì)上來看，法輪功就是中國版的科學(xué)論派，當(dāng)你查閱法輪功創(chuàng)始人李洪志的學(xué)說和著作的時候，你就會發(fā)現(xiàn)。
李洪志作為法輪功的創(chuàng)始人，他的理論是地球受到外星生物的入侵，外星人對人類進(jìn)行克隆，并逐步取代人類。根據(jù)李洪志的學(xué)說，我們的所有現(xiàn)代文化和技術(shù)都受到外星人的思想控制，外星人支配我們只是時間的問題，因?yàn)樗麄兗刀嗜祟悡碛杏钪嬷凶钔昝赖纳眢w。
你甚至都不需要注意中國政府的反法輪功宣傳，李洪志的這些荒謬的理論在他的著作中和他接受國際媒體的采訪時就可以發(fā)現(xiàn)。李洪志關(guān)于外星人侵略的理論來自于1999年他接受《時代周刊·亞洲版》的采訪。這篇文章還可以在《時代周刊·亞洲版》的網(wǎng)站上看到，如果你感興趣的話，我建議你去看一看，這只是李洪志荒謬?yán)碚撝械囊恍〔糠帧?/p>
李洪志還在法輪功異教中扮演著類似于上帝的角色，他主張預(yù)知，和轉(zhuǎn)移不可見的災(zāi)難，這些災(zāi)難在世界末日戰(zhàn)爭中威脅著人類世界的安全。這可以從法輪大法（法輪大法是李洪志核心信仰體系的名字）的經(jīng)文《轉(zhuǎn)法輪》看出，《轉(zhuǎn)法輪》是法輪功的主要經(jīng)文，這本經(jīng)文讀起來就像是一本宣揚(yáng)世界末日的小冊子，你可以在福布斯大街（Forbes Avenue）上一名聲音嘶啞的街頭預(yù)言者那里了解到：“師父（李洪志）弘揚(yáng)大法10年，改變了人類社會的災(zāi)難預(yù)言。歷史上預(yù)言的彗星災(zāi)難不會再發(fā)生，第三次世界大戰(zhàn)得到了避免，1999年9星連成十字導(dǎo)致世界末日的危機(jī)不會再出現(xiàn)……這是多么奇妙，真的很神奇！”
在李洪志漫無邊際的理論中，法輪功發(fā)展成為一個荒唐的異教信仰，而不是簡單的太極吐納練習(xí)體系。在四周到處都環(huán)繞著法輪功宣傳的環(huán)境中，如果不脫離其在主流媒體上的宣傳，以批判的觀點(diǎn)審視法輪功自己的教條的話，就很難得到一個真實(shí)的印象。
Falun Gong not so innocent
By: Konrad Klinkner
Would you support a cult that preached imminent extraterrestrial alien invasions, rejection of all modern science and medicine, heavens separated by race and boasted a leader who claimed to have exclusive knowledge of how to save us all? I would guess that most people would probably not, but that's what much of the Western world --- and America in particular --- has been doing for some years now. And no, I'm not talking about Scientology.
The cult in question is the Falun Gong, which over the past several years has become a focus of public attention whenever the subject of China's grisly human rights record is brought up. The Falun Gong's PR department has done an amazing job over the past several years toward publicizing themselves internationally, even giving the Tibetans a run for the title of China's Most Oppressed People.
The Western press, for the most part, laps this all up and is happy to give the Falun Gong the attention it wants, and in doing so they are taking attention away from --- I'd argue --- greater concerns regarding China, such as its huge rich-poor gap or the whole wretched Taiwan controversy.
Having said that, I should also make clear that I'm not supporting China's draconian treatment of the Falun Gong, nor am I saying the Falun Gong doesn't have a right to voice itself. But I do think the media attention given in the West to the Falun Gong is overblown in comparison to other issues concerning China covered (or not covered) by the Western press, and that the popular perception of the group is candied and misinformed. Of all the movements in China that could someday hypothetically supplant the current regime, I hope it won't be a loopy cult like the Falun Gong.
What has made the Falun Gong stand out in the first place to the Western press is, of course, that it's been among the most visible organized movements in China to oppose the Chinese government since Tiananmen Square. Owing to some subconscious "my-rival's rival is my friend" logic, many Westerners assume that there must be something cool about the Falun Gong since it had the balls to stand up to China's bigwigs. With its quasi-Daoist, traditionalist aesthetics and philosophies, the Falun Gong perhaps also draws foreign appeal because it represents to the general Western public some neo-Orientalist vision of a benign, religious China.
Beneath that surface, the Falun Gong is really more like the Chinese counterpart to Scientology, and it has all the classic makings of a cult. The Scientology parallel comes out most strikingly when you look up the quotes and writings of the Falun Gong's leader, Li Hongzhi.
For starters, Master Li persistently claims that the Earth is under attack from extraterrestrial aliens who are getting ready to clone and supplant the human race even as we speak. All of modern culture and technology, according to Li, is the product of alien mind control, and it's only a matter of time before the aliens possess us all because they envy humans for having the most perfect bodies in the universe.
You don't even need to look to the Chinese government's anti-Falun Gong propaganda to find these snippets of Li's cockamamie insights. It's all there in his writings and in his interviews with the international press. The information above on Li's alien-invasion theories comes right from an interview he had with a correspondent from Time-Asia in 1999. The article is still on Time-Asia's Web site, and --- if this interests you at all --- I encourage you to look it up; I'm really only giving small glimpses here of the wacky stuff that comes out of Li Hongzhi's mouth.
Master Li also assumes the archetypal cult leader role of the great omniscient messiah, claiming the sole power to foresee and avert the many unseen disasters that threaten to have the world teetering on the brink of Armageddon. A sampling from the Falun Dafa's (Falun Dafa is the name of Li Hongzhi's core belief system) online copy of the Zhuan Falun --- arguably the Falun Gong's key scripture --- reads like a doomsday pamphlet you might get from a cracked street prophet on Forbes Avenue: "Master [Li] has spread Dafa for ten years. Even in the human world, predestinations have changed. The comet catastrophe predestined in history is no more, the third world war has been averted, and the peril in 1999 from the cycle of formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction of Heaven and Earth will never recur ... How wonderful. Wonderful. Truly Wonderful!"
After such glances at its leadership's own ramblings, the Falun Gong comes off more as a dingbat cult rather than a simple system of Tai-Chi-esque breathing exercises. Given the propaganda going both ways that surrounds this cult, it gets very difficult to get a realistic picture of them without a critical look at the Falun Gong's own dogma beyond what their PR usually presents in the mainstream press. In scenarios like this, having "both sides of the story" isn't always enough --- instead, what neither side cares to make into a story can be what counts.
(The Pitto News, May 24, 2006)