Weird and Religious
The ancient Persians practised a ritual in which a dog was brought to look at a corpse. The gaze of the dog was believed to drive away evil forces associated with death. Dogs had a specific spiritual role in dealing with the dead.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
1839 to 1842, Qing China. The Taiping movement, led by Hong Xiuquan who claimed a Christian inspired divine mission, began rebellion that became a massive war. Followers justified violence as establishing a heavenly kingdom, destroying demons, and carrying out God’s will on earth.
Fact
In Hinduism, the Upanishads explore questions about the self, consciousness, and ultimate reality, often focusing on the relationship between the inner self and the universal principle.
Women under Islam
The language of protection is frequently used to conceal uncomfortable realities. Women are described as valued, honoured, or safeguarded, yet in practice protection means restriction, honour means control, and value means obedience. Women are protected from freedom, from independence, and from equality, and the cost of this protection is borne entirely by them. Religion calls this order. The world recognises it as subordination. What makes this particularly striking in Islam is not only the content of its rules but their continued enforcement. In many Islamic societies today, women’s lives remain constrained by religious law. Education, movement, dress, marriage, and speech are all regulated in the name of god. Dissent is punished, and noncompliance is labelled immorality. The system does not merely reflect inequality. It institutionalises it and defends it as sacred.
Quote of the day
“The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.” George Bernard Shaw.
Ask the right question
How did language diversity arise so suddenly in stories like the Tower of Babel without leaving any linguistic or archaeological trace?
Religious Crooks
Paul Schäfer led Colonia Dignidad in Chile, presenting it as a Christian community while running an isolated compound where followers’ labour and assets were controlled, later exposed as a site of extensive abuse and corruption.
For more information, google the name.
Almost all of the crooks appearing in this section have their own wikipedia page.Every country in the world has its fair share of spiritual crooks.
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.