Weird and Religious
In certain strands of Jewish mysticism, letters and numbers in sacred texts were believed to hold hidden codes about the structure of the universe. Rearranging letters or calculating numerical values was treated as a way to uncover divine secrets.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
2020, France, Nice. An Islamist extremist killed worshippers in a church. The attacker framed the act as revenge for perceived insults to Islam and justified killing civilians as part of a religious struggle against unbelievers.
Fact
In Buddhism, bodhisattvas are important in Mahayana traditions, where Buddhism presents the bodhisattva as someone who seeks enlightenment while also committing to help all other beings reach liberation.
Centuries of inequality
Religion insists that its gender rules are sacred, yet they are not. They are historical artefacts frozen into dogma. Their persistence does not demonstrate truth but endurance. When belief protects inequality from criticism, it stops being belief and becomes domination.
The treatment of women is not a marginal flaw in religion but its clearest diagnostic feature. It exposes who wrote the rules, who benefited from them, and who suffered their cost. A divine moral authority would not require half of humanity to submit in silence. A human one does. Religion did not receive its view of women from god. It imposed its view of women onto god and then demanded obedience in his name. The result has been centuries of inequality justified as holiness, defended not as custom or law but as destiny. Once this is recognised, the sacred mask falls away, and what remains is what it has always been: patriarchy, speaking with divine confidence.
Quote of the day
“Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help.” Jesse Ventura.
Ask the right question
Why do end times predictions repeatedly fail across many religions and centuries?
Religious Crooks
Edd Branson is a Zimbabwean prophet known for prophecy and miracle branding, with critics alleging that religious image and promises are used as part of a money generating enterprise.
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.
Religion is supposed to bring morality but it also seem to bring a lot of crooks who take advantage of people.