Weird and Religious
The Dogon people of Mali have complex cosmological stories involving star systems and invisible beings called Nommo, described as amphibious ancestral spirits. Their myths link creation, water, and the structure of the universe in ways that mix observation and symbolic storytelling.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
2016, Syria, sectarian militias. Various Shia and Sunni Muslim militias committed atrocities during the civil war. Fighters justified actions as defending their branch of Islam, protecting shrines, and fighting heretics or unbelievers.
Fact
In Zoroastrianism, truthfulness is a key virtue, and Zoroastrianism opposes deception as aligned with destructive forces.
How it all started
Early humans were not inventing gods in bad faith; they were responding to fear with the only tools they had. Good intentions do not prevent error, and the fact that a belief soothes anxiety does not make it true. Children believe monsters live under the bed for the same reason adults believe gods watch over them. Fear plus imagination plus authority creates conviction, and time turns conviction into tradition. Religion later learned to weaponise these fears. Fear of death became fear of punishment, fear of the unknown became fear of doubt, and fear of helplessness became obedience. Once gods existed, fear was no longer just a problem to be soothed; it became a tool to be used. Yet at the beginning, fear was simply human.
Quote of the day
“Belief means not wanting to know what is true.” Friedrich Nietzsche.
Ask the right question
If meditation or prayer can influence physical reality, why can this not be demonstrated reliably in laboratories?
Religious Crooks
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also known as Osho, led a wealthy spiritual movement that established a commune in the United States, where senior members carried out crimes including immigration fraud and a bioterror attack, with the movement widely criticised as financially exploitative.
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.
If a real God existed, would he allow crooks to act on his behalf?