Weird and Religious
Some African Christian movements blend biblical stories with older local beliefs, including ideas about spirit possession, protective charms, and prophetic dreams. Churches may hold all night prayer sessions aimed at driving out spirits believed to cause everyday problems.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
1839 to 1842, Qing China. The Taiping movement, led by Hong Xiuquan who claimed a Christian inspired divine mission, began rebellion that became a massive war. Followers justified violence as establishing a heavenly kingdom, destroying demons, and carrying out God’s will on earth.
Fact
In Jainism, spiritual teachers called Tirthankaras are honoured, and Jainism regards them as guides who showed the path to liberation.
Thrivng on a Weakness
The brain is a pattern-hungry machine that connects dots constantly, whether they belong together or not. This ability helped ancestors track animals, seasons, and threats, but it also causes humans to see meaning in coincidence and order in chaos. Faces appear in clouds, messages appear in random noise, and when two unrelated events occur close together, the brain often treats them as connected. Religion thrives on this weakness. A prayer followed by a positive outcome becomes evidence, and a ritual followed by survival becomes proof. Failed predictions are quietly ignored or reinterpreted, and the pattern survives because the brain wants it to.
Quote of the day
“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.” Napoleon Bonaparte.
Ask the right question
Why do religious conversion experiences occur in every religion and point in different directions?
Religious Crooks
José Luis de Jesús Miranda was a Puerto Rican religious leader who declared himself a divine figure and built a following that contributed money and loyalty to his ministry, with critics pointing to extravagant displays of wealth and claims that religious devotion was used to sustain his lifestyle.
For more information, google the name.
History tells us that wherever fools gathered, there was always a religious crook to take advantage of them. The best way to stop the crooks is not to be a fool.