Weird and Religious
In ancient Rome, priests known as augurs interpreted the will of the gods by watching birds. The direction of flight, their calls, and even how chickens ate grain could influence state decisions such as whether to go to war.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
2015, Paris in France. Islamist Muslim extremists linked to Islamic State killed civilians at multiple sites. The group claimed the attacks were punishment for Western actions in Muslim lands and framed mass killing as religiously sanctioned jihad.
Fact
In Buddhism, the Middle Way describes how Buddhism avoids both extreme self indulgence and extreme self denial, teaching a balanced approach to living and practice.
No theological escape
The concept of Free Will collapses under scrutiny. Religions insist that humans are free to choose, yet god is said to know everything that will ever happen. If god knows with certainty what a person will choose tomorrow, that person cannot choose otherwise, and a choice that cannot be different is not free. Knowledge and freedom cannot coexist in the way religion demands. Either god does not know future actions, which undermines omniscience, or humans are not free, which undermines moral responsibility, and theologians have tried for centuries to escape this trap without success.
Quote of the day
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” Benjamin Franklin.
Ask the right question
If scriptures are morally perfect, why do they contain endorsements of slavery, child marriage or violent conquest?
Religious Crooks
Paul Mackenzie, a Kenyan preacher, led a small religious group in which followers were urged to undertake extreme fasting to meet Jesus, leading to mass deaths and investigations into how religious control and isolation were used within the community.
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.