Weird and Religious
In ancient Rome, there was a festival called Saturnalia where normal social order was briefly reversed. Slaves could mock their masters, gambling was allowed, and public behaviour loosened. Religion created a scheduled period where rules were suspended under divine approval.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
1692, Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands. Government soldiers killed members of Clan MacDonald after a delayed loyalty oath amid sectarian tension. Though political, it was partly justified as enforcing a Protestant settlement and suppressing rebellion associated with Catholic and Jacobite loyalties.
Fact
In Zoroastrianism, truthfulness is a key virtue, and Zoroastrianism opposes deception as aligned with destructive forces.
Sacred error
Truth must remain open to revision because evidence accumulates and understanding improves. A claim that cannot be questioned cannot be corrected. Science advances because it treats truth as provisional and revisable. Religion resists this because its authority depends on permanence. A clear example is the resistance to the idea that the Earth moves around the Sun. When early astronomers presented observations that contradicted long held scriptural interpretations placing Earth at the centre, religious authorities treated the claim as a threat to doctrine rather than a scientific question. Evidence from telescopes and planetary motion kept accumulating, yet acceptance was delayed because preserving theological certainty was given priority over adjusting beliefs to match observable reality.
When belief is frozen, error becomes sacred.
Quote of the day
“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.” Steven Weinberg.
Ask the right question
If divine punishment teaches a lesson, what lesson is learned through eternal punishment?
Religious Crooks
Mitsuo Matayoshi was a Japanese political-religious claimant who presented himself as a divine figure and mixed spiritual authority with public fundraising and self promotion, drawing criticism that religious identity was used for personal platform building.
For more information, google the name.
Almost all of the crooks appearing in this section have their own wikipedia page.
That was just a tiny case in a vast ocean of religious crooks.