Weird and Religious
Among the ancient Maya, human sacrifice was tied to astronomy and kingship. Captured rulers or nobles could be sacrificed during major calendar events. Blood was seen as sacred nourishment for the gods, linking political power, timekeeping, and violence in a single religious act.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
2015, Garissa in Kenya. Al Shabaab gunmen attacked a university, killing many students. The attackers separated Muslims from Christians and justified the massacre as jihad, presenting Christians as enemies of Islam and targets in a religious war.
Fact
In Zoroastrianism, heaven and hell are part of belief, and Zoroastrianism links these states to the balance of a person’s moral life.
Myth as fact
Truth, when it matters, must be testable or logically defensible. A claim about reality should be demonstrable through observation, measurement, or a sound chain of reasoning grounded in known facts. If this cannot be done, the honest position is not belief, but uncertainty. Saying we do not know is not weakness. It is intellectual discipline. One of religion’s defining failures is its refusal to occupy that middle ground.
Between true and false there is a vital third position. We do not know. This position keeps inquiry alive. It invites investigation rather than obedience. Religion rejects it because uncertainty undermines authority. A god who admits ignorance would lose power. As a result, religion presents speculation as knowledge and myth as fact, insisting on answers where none exist
Quote of the day
“Religion is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.” H. L. Mencken.
Ask the right question
Why do claims of demons, spirits and possession decline as medical and psychological knowledge increases?
Religious Crooks
Herbert W. Armstrong founded the Worldwide Church of God, preaching apocalyptic messages while building a media and education empire funded by tithes, with later internal scandals and financial controversies after his leadership period.
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.
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.