Weird and Religious
In parts of medieval Christianity, people believed that animals could be excommunicated. Insects that damaged crops were sometimes formally cursed and ordered to leave an area in the name of the Church.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
1947 to 1948, Palestine. Fighting between Jewish and Arab Muslim forces included attacks on civilian areas and expulsions. Religious narratives about promised land, holy sites, and sacred duty were used by both sides to justify control and removal of populations.
Fact
In Taoism, rituals and deities appear in religious forms of the tradition, and Taoism includes temples, offerings, and spiritual beings in many communities.
Myth as fact
Truth, when it matters, must be testable or logically defensible. A claim about reality should be demonstrable through observation, measurement, or a sound chain of reasoning grounded in known facts. If this cannot be done, the honest position is not belief, but uncertainty. Saying we do not know is not weakness. It is intellectual discipline. One of religion’s defining failures is its refusal to occupy that middle ground.
Between true and false there is a vital third position. We do not know. This position keeps inquiry alive. It invites investigation rather than obedience. Religion rejects it because uncertainty undermines authority. A god who admits ignorance would lose power. As a result, religion presents speculation as knowledge and myth as fact, insisting on answers where none exist
Quote of the day
“Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear.” Bertrand Russell.
Ask the right question
Why do religious conversion experiences occur in every religion and point in different directions?
Religious Crooks
Father Yod, born James Baker, led the Source Family in the United States, presenting himself as a spiritual master while running businesses staffed by followers, with accounts describing communal control of members’ earnings and assets.
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.
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.