Weird and Religious
The ancient Norse believed that warriors who died bravely in battle were chosen by Valkyries and taken to Valhalla, where they would fight each other daily, die, come back to life, and feast every night. Eternal life was imagined as an endless cycle of violence and eating.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
2020, Cabo Delgado in Mozambique. Islamist Muslim insurgents attacked villages, beheaded civilians, and displaced thousands. The group justified violence as jihad to establish Islamic rule, punish those cooperating with the state, and cleanse society of un-Islamic influence.
Fact
In Buddhism, insight meditation aims to see reality clearly, and Buddhism uses close observation of experience to understand impermanence, dissatisfaction, and non self.
Redefining God
Attempts to deny the close resemblance between humans and their gods usually involve redefining god into abstraction so that god becomes love itself, goodness itself, or existence itself. This is not discovery but retreat. The original gods with emotions, commands, and preferences become embarrassing under scrutiny, so they are dissolved into vagueness. What remains cannot think, feel, or act, which makes it indistinguishable from nothing at all. This strategy preserves belief while discarding its content, a linguistic gesture that saves the word while losing the idea.
Quote of the day
“Faith means not wanting to know what is true.” Friedrich Nietzsche.
Ask the right question
Why do moral insights often arise from secular philosophy and science rather than from new revelations?
Religious Crooks
Nithyananda is a Hindu self proclaimed guru accused of sexual assault and abuse of followers, facing criminal charges in India, with critics alleging that spiritual status was used to manipulate devotees.
For more information, google the name.
Almost all of the crooks appearing in this section have their own wikipedia page.
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.