Weird and Religious
Among the Dinka people of South Sudan, cattle are deeply woven into spiritual life. Cows are given personal names, songs are sung to them, and their colours and horn shapes can have ritual meaning. A person’s identity and spiritual world can revolve around their cattle as much as their family.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
2014, Peshawar in Pakistan. Islamist Muslim Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan gunmen attacked a school, killing many children and staff. The group justified the massacre as revenge against the army and part of jihad, claiming even children of soldiers were legitimate targets.
Fact
In Confucianism, good government is moral rather than forceful, and Confucianism teaches that rulers should lead by example.
Early gods
The earliest gods were not wise, loving, or morally concerned. They were practical. They existed to do things. Rain needed to fall. Crops needed to grow. Enemies needed to be defeated. Children needed to be born. When these outcomes mattered to survival and no reliable control existed, gods were invented to manage them. Each god had a task because human life revolved around tasks that could not be guaranteed. These gods were not guardians of virtue. They were tools of negotiation with a hostile world.
Quote of the day
“What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.” Christopher Hitchens.
Ask the right question
If animals also suffer, are they being punished for past lives as well, and what moral system would justify that?
Religious Crooks
Julio César Grassi is an Argentine Catholic priest who founded a charity for vulnerable children and was later convicted of sexually abusing minors in his care, with investigations showing how his religious and charitable status helped shield him for years.
For more information, google the name.
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.