All religions start out as cults. Most have some sort of blackmail to ensure that adherents don't opt out. Christianity promises Hell, damnation, lack of salvation.

What I find most interesting about Scientology is the level of vitriol directed against it. Having studied early Christian history(1st to 4th centuries CE), I find many interesting parallels.

Give it a few centuries. If a cult survives long enough to be considered a religion and to be considered respectable, then it means that it tapped into some people's need to believe. So yes. I expect defections. I expect court challenges. I expect persecution. I expect death. I expect wars. In short, I expect the usual process by which a cult becomes a religion.

I find Scientology no less ridiculous than those who believe that a dead Jewish zombie has somehow saved them from the magical construct called sin that all men have inherited through Lamarckian evolution because one woman ate an apple.