Weird and Religious
In ancient Egypt, priests of certain temples shaved every hair on their bodies, including eyebrows and eyelashes, every three days to avoid lice, which they saw as ritually unclean. Cleanliness was not just hygiene but a spiritual requirement.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
1683, Vienna. A second Ottoman siege ended in major battle involving Catholic and Muslim armies. Both sides used religious rhetoric, with Christians describing defence of the faith and Muslims invoking jihad and imperial religious duty to justify warfare.
Fact
In Zoroastrianism, prayers are recited regularly, and Zoroastrianism uses specific formulas to honour divine order.
The darkness of faith
Faith demands submission of the mind, and religion calls that submission virtue. In practice, it is surrender. When faith is celebrated, questioning becomes dangerous and obedience becomes sacred. That is the point at which reason dies, not through argument lost but through curiosity forbidden. A belief that cannot endure scrutiny deserves none of its protections. Faith does not deepen understanding, it ends it. It does not open the mind, it closes it and then praises the darkness for its tranquillity.
Quote of the day
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Blaise Pascal.
Ask the right question
Why do religious conversion experiences occur in every religion and point in different directions?
Religious Crooks
Swami Premananda was a Hindu guru who ran an ashram in India and attracted international followers, later convicted of rape and linked to additional serious crimes, with courts finding that his spiritual authority was used to control and exploit devotees.
For more information, google the name.
Almost all of the crooks appearing in this section have their own wikipedia page.
Today we took a look at yet another religious crook but there are hundreds of thousands of them. You could spend a lifetime researching the topic.