Weird and Religious
In some ancient Near Eastern traditions, there are references to child sacrifice associated with the god Molech. Texts describe children being passed through fire as part of worship. Later religious writers strongly condemned the practice, but its existence shows how sacrifice could be directed at the most vulnerable.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
2005 to 2014, northern Nigeria. Boko Haram carried out bombings, massacres, and mass kidnappings, including schoolgirls. The group justified violence as rejecting Western education, enforcing strict Islam, and punishing Muslims and Christians seen as collaborators, promising divine approval for warfare.
Fact
In Islam, pilgrimage to Mecca, known as hajj, is required once in a lifetime if a person is able, and Islam presents this as a major act of worship and unity.
Disarming reason
Religion did not demand belief in the ridiculous because it misunderstood reality. It demanded it because it understood people. Astonishment overwhelms analysis and authority thrives when reason is disarmed. For uneducated crowds, miracles were spectacle, and for institutions, they were leverage. The modern discomfort with these stories is not a problem of interpretation but a problem of honesty. Either the stories Like Noah's Ark or Muhammad ascension to the heavens are literal, in which case they are false, or they are symbolic, in which case religion spent centuries enforcing belief in fiction as fact, and there is no third option that preserves credibility.
Quote of the day
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” Karl Marx.
Ask the right question
If the human mind is damaged by brain injury, what does that suggest about the idea of an independent soul?
Religious Crooks
Samuel Bateman led a breakaway Mormon fundamentalist group, claimed prophetic authority, and controlled a closed religious community, later arrested on serious criminal charges, with authorities alleging that religious leadership was used to dominate members and their assets.
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Throughout history and still to this day, there has never been a shortage of religious leaders who were not always following their own spiritual advice.