Weird and Religious
In ancient Greece, there were curse tablets where people scratched the names of enemies onto thin sheets of lead and buried them in graves or wells. They asked gods or spirits of the dead to harm rivals in love, business, or court cases. Religion functioned as a supernatural legal weapon.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
1839 to 1842, Qing China. The Taiping movement, led by Hong Xiuquan who claimed a Christian inspired divine mission, began rebellion that became a massive war. Followers justified violence as establishing a heavenly kingdom, destroying demons, and carrying out God’s will on earth.
Fact
In Buddhism, non self is a key teaching, meaning that Buddhism holds that there is no unchanging, permanent soul behind a person, but rather a collection of changing processes.
Early gods
The earliest gods were not wise, loving, or morally concerned. They were practical. They existed to do things. Rain needed to fall. Crops needed to grow. Enemies needed to be defeated. Children needed to be born. When these outcomes mattered to survival and no reliable control existed, gods were invented to manage them. Each god had a task because human life revolved around tasks that could not be guaranteed. These gods were not guardians of virtue. They were tools of negotiation with a hostile world.
Quote of the day
“One man’s religion is another man’s belly laugh.” Robert A. Heinlein.
Ask the right question
Why would a god reveal different and conflicting rules to different groups of people?
Religious Crooks
Claude Vorilhon, known as Raël, founded the Raëlian movement claiming extraterrestrial revelations, building an international organisation that critics say operates as a personality centred system sustained by member donations and paid events.
For more information, google the name.
History tells us that wherever fools gathered, there was always a religious crook to take advantage of them. The best way to stop the crooks is not to be a fool.