Weird and Religious
In ancient Mesopotamia, people carried small clay statues of gods in their homes, but if disaster struck they sometimes punished the statue, even throwing it away, as though the god had failed in its duty. The relationship with the divine could be treated like a contract.
Religious image of the day.
In the name of religion
1857, northern India. During the Indian Rebellion, massacres and reprisals occurred on both sides. Religious fears over conversion and defilement played a role. Participants justified violence as defending Islam or Hindu tradition and protecting sacred customs from perceived foreign religious threat.
Fact
In Confucianism, sincerity is valued, and Confucianism connects genuine intention with moral integrity.
Religious violence
Genocide flourishes in systems that divide humanity into chosen and condemned. When god selects one people as special, others are easily dehumanised. Extermination becomes cleansing and displacement becomes destiny. The language may shift with time, but the underlying mechanism remains constant. The First Crusade, the Albigensian Crusade, sectarian phases of the Thirty Years War, the 1860 Mount Lebanon and Damascus conflict, the Islamic State campaign in Iraq and Syria after 2014, and mass killing campaigns associated with Taliban rule in Afghanistan are all historical episodes in which religion was used as a central justification for genocidal violence.
Quote of the day
“Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions.” Frater Ravus.
Ask the right question
Why do religious revivals and movements follow social and psychological patterns that can be studied scientifically?
Religious Crooks
David Koresh led the Branch Davidians in the United States, claiming unique prophetic status while controlling members’ lives, relationships, and resources, with critics and former members describing a system where religious authority justified personal power and material control.
For more information, google the name.
Almost all of the crooks appearing in this section have their own wikipedia page.
That was just a tiny case in a vast ocean of religious crooks.