Weird and Religious
In medieval Christianity, pieces of saints’ bodies were treated as powerful objects. Churches claimed to possess multiple skulls or bones of the same saint, sometimes more body parts than one person could physically have had. Pilgrims still travelled long distances to see them.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
2003, Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula carried out bombings against residential compounds. The group justified attacks as jihad against Western presence and un-Islamic rulers, promising religious reward for striking perceived enemies of Islam.
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.
Religion and agriculture
When humans began to settle and agriculture emerged, belief systems changed in response to new dependencies. Land, seasons, and fertility became central to existence, and gods became specialised according to the needs of the moment. One governed rain, another crops, another birth, and another death, reflecting the growing complexity of human labour and the vulnerability of settled life to forces beyond control. Success now depended on coordination, patience, and long-term planning, and religion adapted by providing calendars, festivals, and rituals that synchronised human effort with agricultural cycles. The divine thus became a management tool for time, labour, and community.
Quote of the day
“Religion is based on dogma and belief, whereas science is based on doubt and questioning.” Richard Dawkins.
Ask the right question
If revelation is clear, why do legal and moral systems based on scripture require endless interpretation?
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.
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.