Weird and Religious
Among the Dinka people of South Sudan, cattle are deeply woven into spiritual life. Cows are given personal names, songs are sung to them, and their colours and horn shapes can have ritual meaning. A person’s identity and spiritual world can revolve around their cattle as much as their family.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
1998, Maluku Islands in Indonesia. Christian and Muslim militias clashed in communal warfare, burning villages and killing civilians. Both sides justified violence as defence of their Christian or Muslim faith communities, protection of churches or mosques, and resistance to domination.
Fact
In Sikhism, courage and willingness to defend justice are valued, and Sikhism includes a history of resisting oppression.
Women under Islam
The language of protection is frequently used to conceal uncomfortable realities. Women are described as valued, honoured, or safeguarded, yet in practice protection means restriction, honour means control, and value means obedience. Women are protected from freedom, from independence, and from equality, and the cost of this protection is borne entirely by them. Religion calls this order. The world recognises it as subordination. What makes this particularly striking in Islam is not only the content of its rules but their continued enforcement. In many Islamic societies today, women’s lives remain constrained by religious law. Education, movement, dress, marriage, and speech are all regulated in the name of god. Dissent is punished, and noncompliance is labelled immorality. The system does not merely reflect inequality. It institutionalises it and defends it as sacred.
Quote of the day
“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.” Napoleon Bonaparte.
Ask the right question
Why do moral insights often arise from secular philosophy and science rather than from new revelations?
Religious Crooks
Kirtanananda Swami, a leader in the Hare Krishna movement in the United States, oversaw a large commune and was later convicted on racketeering related charges, with the community also associated with abuse and exploitation under religious authority.
For more information, google the name.
Almost all of the crooks appearing in this section have their own wikipedia page.Every country in the world has its fair share of spiritual crooks.
Religion is supposed to bring morality but it also seem to bring a lot of crooks who take advantage of people.