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
2003, Iraq after invasion. Insurgent groups including Islamist militants targeted Shia pilgrims and religious gatherings with bombings. Perpetrators justified attacks as jihad against rival Muslim sects and foreign backed authorities, deepening sectarian religious war.
Fact
In Shinto, sacred objects called talismans are used, and Shinto treats these items as carrying spiritual protection.
Looking for Agents
One of the brain’s most powerful features is agency detection. Early humans who assumed that movement or noise was caused by something alive had a better chance of survival than those who waited for proof. Mistaking the wind for a predator was safer than mistaking a predator for the wind, so the brain learned to err on the side of intention. This instinct never switched off. Humans still look for agents behind events, even when none exist. Storms become angry, illness becomes punishment, and fortune becomes reward. Once agency is assumed, the leap to invisible agents is small, and gods slip neatly into the gap.
Quote of the day
“Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.” Michel de Montaigne.
Ask the right question
If a prophet speaks for god, how can ordinary people reliably distinguish a true prophet from a deluded or manipulative one?
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.
For more information, google the name.
Religion is supposed to bring morality but it also seem to bring a lot of crooks who take advantage of people.