Weird and Religious
Some Islamic traditions say that when a person dies and is buried, two angels named Munkar and Nakir come into the grave to question the dead person. The grave becomes a kind of interview room where answers determine comfort or distress until the final judgement.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
1568 to 1648, parts of the Netherlands and German lands. Conflicts within the Eighty Years War and Thirty Years War saw massacres and destruction tied to Catholic and Protestant divisions. Violence was justified as defending correct doctrine, protecting believers, and ruling territories according to God’s will.
Fact
In Shinto, prayer often involves simple requests for health, success, or protection, and Shinto connects everyday life with spiritual presence.
Death as transition
For frightened early humans, death demanded an explanation most of all, for it was the ultimate disruption and the ultimate unknown. Religion softened death by embedding it within a story in which the dead did not simply stop but went somewhere to be judged, rewarded, punished, or transformed. Death became not an end but a transition, and this reframing made grief survivable and fear manageable. The absence of evidence did not matter because no alternative explanation could compete emotionally with the promise of continued existence and reunion.
Quote of the day
“Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine.” Arthur Schopenhauer.
Ask the right question
Why would a god reveal different and conflicting rules to different groups of people?
Religious Crooks
Jim Bakker was a US televangelist who built a massive ministry empire and a Christian theme park, then was convicted of fraud and conspiracy after soliciting money from supporters through misleading financial claims.
For more information, google the name.
Every country in the world has its fair share of spiritual crooks.
Throughout history and still to this day, there has never been a shortage of religious leaders who were not always following their own spiritual advice.