Weird and Religious
Some early Christian monks believed that demons caused distracting thoughts, including ordinary desires or random ideas. A stray thought about food or comfort could be treated as a literal attack by an invisible being rather than a normal mental process.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
1998, Maluku Islands in Indonesia. Christian and Muslim militias clashed in communal warfare, burning villages and killing civilians. Both sides justified violence as defence of their Christian or Muslim faith communities, protection of churches or mosques, and resistance to domination.
Fact
In Taoism, simplicity is valued, and Taoism often presents a simple, modest life as closer to natural balance than ambition and excess.
God the tribal leader
Gods are temperamental, requiring praise, demanding attention, and reacting badly to being ignored. They punish disbelief more harshly than cruelty because their psychology mirrors insecure authority rather than divine wisdom. These are not the traits of a supreme intelligence but the traits of a ruler who fears disloyalty. They reflect human social hierarchies where loyalty outweighs fairness and obedience is valued more than wellbeing. A god who behaves like a tribal leader makes perfect sense in a tribal society but makes no sense as a description of ultimate reality.
Quote of the day
“So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.” Bertrand Russell.
Ask the right question
Why should ancient testimony about supernatural events be trusted when we reject similar modern claims as unreliable?
Religious Crooks
Robert Tilton is a US prosperity preacher who raised large sums through television appeals, later facing lawsuits and media investigations alleging deceptive fundraising and staged prayer practices.
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.
That was just a tiny case in a vast ocean of religious crooks.