Weird and Religious
In medieval Europe, people believed in “changelings.” If a child was ill, disabled, or behaved differently, families sometimes thought fairies had stolen the real child and left a substitute. This belief led to cruel treatments intended to force the fairy to return the original child.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
2016, Syria, sectarian militias. Various Shia and Sunni Muslim militias committed atrocities during the civil war. Fighters justified actions as defending their branch of Islam, protecting shrines, and fighting heretics or unbelievers.
Fact
In Taoism, flexibility is admired, and Taoism uses images such as water to illustrate strength through softness.
Religion and Storytelling
Storytelling is central to religion. Humans do not think in statistics but in narratives. A story with characters, motives, and consequences is easier to remember and transmit than a complex explanation or an honest admission of ignorance. Gods became characters in humanity’s longest-running story. They explained the seasons, justified suffering, and promised resolution. Each retelling polished the narrative. Gaps were filled, contradictions ignored, and authority added. Over generations, stories turned into myths, myths into doctrines, and doctrines into sacred truth. The original fear that inspired them was forgotten, but the structures remained.
Quote of the day
“Religion is the one area of our discourse in which it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about.” Sam Harris.
Ask the right question
If revelation is clear, why do legal and moral systems based on scripture require endless interpretation?
Religious Crooks
Marcial Maciel was the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, a Catholic religious order, and was later found by Vatican investigations to have sexually abused minors and seminarians over many years while using his religious status to avoid scrutiny.
For more information, google the name.
Almost all of the crooks appearing in this section have their own wikipedia page.
Today we took a look at yet another religious crook but there are hundreds of thousands of them. You could spend a lifetime researching the topic.