Weird and Religious
In early Japan, there are legends of hitobashira, or “human pillars,” where people were supposedly buried alive at the base of bridges or castles to appease spirits and ensure the stability of the structure. Whether all accounts are historical or partly mythical, the belief shows a link between construction and sacrifice.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
2004, Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia. Armed militants seized a school, leading to a deadly siege with many child deaths. Attackers drew on Islamist insurgent narratives linked to Chechnya and justified the act as jihad and coercion to force political change through terror.
Fact
In Jainism, careful speech is stressed, and Jainism teaches avoiding words that could cause harm or false understanding.
Faith and intelligence
Faith asks a person to accept a claim as true without sufficient evidence, or even despite conflicting evidence. Reason works in the opposite direction. It withholds belief until there are good grounds, tests ideas against reality, and stays open to revision. When faith is treated as a virtue in itself, doubt becomes a weakness and questioning becomes disloyalty. At that point the process that corrects error is switched off, and belief is protected from examination rather than shaped by it. Human intelligence evolved for practical survival, not for defending doctrines. Our ancestors who could notice patterns, predict danger, solve problems, cooperate, and learn from mistakes were more likely to live and pass on their genes. Curiosity, memory, language, and critical thinking improved hunting, tool making, social bonds, and planning. The same mental abilities that built shelters and mapped seasons also built science. They depend on testing ideas against the world, not sheltering them from challenge.
Quote of the day
“No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says. He is always convinced that it says what he means.” George Bernard Shaw.
Ask the right question
Why do creation stories from different religions contradict each other in basic details?
Religious Crooks
Elizabeth Clare Prophet headed the Church Universal and Triumphant, promoting apocalyptic prophecies and building a large organisation funded by followers, with critics pointing to failed predictions and heavy financial expectations.
For more information, google the name.
Almost all of the crooks appearing in this section have their own wikipedia page.
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.