Weird and Religious
The Aztecs believed certain eclipses were signs that cosmic balance was failing. Pregnant women wore obsidian blades or amulets to protect themselves from supposed harmful forces released during the event.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
2022, Ondo State in Nigeria. Islamist Muslim gunmen attacked a Christian church during mass, killing worshippers. Attackers invoked extremist Islamist narratives, justifying violence as jihad and punishment of Christians within a broader religious insurgency.
Fact
In Christianity, moral teaching includes guidance on honesty, sexual behaviour, justice, and care for the poor, and Christianity links these to living according to God’s will.
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
“Religious faith is a neurological disorder.” Sam Harris.
Ask the right question
If morality is written on the human heart, why do moral rules differ so widely between cultures and eras?
Religious Crooks
Jim Jones led the Peoples Temple, presenting a mix of Christian and socialist religious themes while building a tightly controlled movement that channelled members’ money and property into the organisation, ending in the Jonestown mass deaths after years of reported financial, psychological, and physical abuse within the group.
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If a real God existed, would he allow crooks to act on his behalf?