Science VS Religion

Science Flies You to the moon
Religion Flies you Into Buildings

5 Truly Bizarre (and Discredited) Historical Theories

From subterranean Martians to female hysteria, people have been known to believe some pretty bizarre things. What does it take to make a believable scientific hypothesis out of a strange idea like Hollow Earth theory, what suspension of believe is needed to agree with the Intelligent Design nutjobs? Apparently, not much. Here are five of the strangest examples and who knows what people will find hilariously untrue from our era in 50 years? Everyone will no doubt have other ideas for what the world’s weirdest theories are so give it a shot in the comments below!

1. Trepanation

Ouch. In one of the oldest known medical interventions, a hole is drilled in the skull of a patient who is suffering from defects such as seizures or migraine headaches. The idea was to relieve pressure in the head which was believed to be causing the ailment. Today, trepanation is used on a very limited basis as a mechanism to access the brain for necessary surgery. Some people practice recreational or spiritual trepanation, presumably because they need modern medicine like they need a hole in the head.

2. Female hysteria

Women in the Victorian age were said to be suffering from female hysteria when they were moody or a little more “difficult” than usual. Fortunately for them, the treatment was something called pelvic massage. We can’t laugh too hard at this one, though. Many years later, it directly caused vibrating devices to be widely available for, um, home treatment.

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3. Expanding Earth

As bizarre theories go, this one doesn’t sound that far-fetched. Expanding Earth is the idea that the planet was once a lot smaller and completely covered in one continent. If you mentally shrink the globe and try to fit the continents together like a puzzle, you could almost start to believe this theory – after all, the galaxy is said to be expanding, right? However, the Expanding Earth theory has been discredited by nearly all of Earth’s scientists.

4. Phrenology

Would you believe me if I told you that I could tell you how likely you are to commit a crime in the future without talking to you? What if I could do it just by rubbing my grubby hands all over your noggin? Phrenology was on the cutting edge of Victorian-era medical science. Practitioners claimed to be able to determine your personality, propensity for crime, and intelligence from the size and shape of your skull. Although it’s been discredited by modern medicine, there is a small but dedicated community of people who still believe that phrenology is a useful science. Yes, seriously.

5. The Island of California

The idea that California was an island separated from North America by the Gulf of California was actually a cartographic error that was blown way out of proportion. In the 16th century, Spanish explorers mistook what we now know as California for a legendary Atlantis-like paradise island. Despite being disproved by subsequent explorers, many people continued to believe in the Californian island paradise. Something tells me that even without accurate maps, you wouldn’t get many people to believe that legend these days. Other theories like Quantum Evolution may explain everything or might equally well be just as funny as these five in fifty years.

Amazing Egyptian Discoveries

King Tut Red

The discovery of jars of wine in King Tuts tomb prompted a team of Spanish scientists to try and determine if the boy king preferred red or white wine. An analysis of residues in 2005 revealed that the jars contained syringic acid, which implied that the wine was made with red grapes.

Big Toe

Archeologists explored a tomb near Thebes in 2005 and discovered an artificial big toe attached to the foot of a mummy. The fake body part could prove to be the earliest working prosthetic body part to date.

Child Mummy

The mummified remains of an Egyptian 6-year-old sat in the attic of its owners before being donated to the St. Louis Science Center in 1985. Researchers at the center have used CT scan technology to help unravel the mystery of its origins.

Queen Mummy

Authorities in Cairo announced in July of 2007 that the remains of a mummy discovered in the Valley of the Kings, was that of Queen Hatshpsut, a female pharaoh that ruled in the 15th century. DNA analysis was used to identify the first royal Egyptian mummy since King Tut in 1922.

Dwarf Statue

This statue was erected in honor of Seneb, an Egyptian dwarf who served under King Pepi II during the 6th Dynasty. A study published in December of 2005 concluded that dwarves, such as Seneb, were respected and even attained high positions in society

Preserved Ship

Archeologists announced in March of 2006 that an excavation near the Red Sea had unearthed a shipyard containing the world’s oldest sea-faring ships. The artifacts, such as wooden planks and cargo boxes, suggest that Egyptians had set sail 4,000 years ago.

Lost City

Satellites have located and zoomed in on a 1,600-year-old Egyptian city. Snapshots of the site taken from space as part of a project to map as much of ancient Egypt’s archaeological sites, or “tells,” as possible were released in July of 2007.

Sand Sea

The Great Sand Sea in the Eastern Sahara is currently nothing more than 45,000 square miles of desert land. But a climate study published in July of 2006, suggests that monsoon rains that occurred around over 10 millennia ago made it very hospitable for humans and wildlife

Ancient Frolicking

Ancient artistic depictions of swimming activities discovered inside a cave is evidence that people living in southwest Egypt once frolicked in rain pools 8,000 years ago. This was before monsoon rains ended and left the Sahara uninhabitable.

Best Mummies?

Archeologists exploring a 2,500 year old Egyptian tomb in 2005 found three intricate coffins, with one containing an amazingly well-preserved mummy. One of the archeologists called it perhaps “one of the best mummies ever preserved.”

Gimme!

Claiming that many of their artifacts were taken from Egypt illegally, Egyptian officials announced in April of 2007 that it would ask museums abroad to temporarily send back some of its most precious artifacts including the Rosetta Stone and bust of Nefertiti.

Pyramid Secrets Revealed

Evidence has been offered to suggest that some of the stone blocks used to construct the Great Pyramids of Giza were cast—not carved and then quarried, as some had thought. An examination of the stones revealed that the outer and inner casing stones were unlikely to have been chiseled from natural limestone.

King Tut

Forensic scientists and artists completed in 2005 the first ever facial reconstructions of King Tut using CT scans of his mummified remains. The pharaoh’s reconstructed facial composition turned out to be strikingly similar to ancient portraits of Tut.

Weird Religious Practices

Mormom Temple Garments

In some denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, the temple garment (or the Garment of the Holy Priesthood, or informally, the garment or garments) is a set of sacred underclothing worn by adult adherents who have taken part in a ritual ceremony known as washing and anointing ordinance, usually in a temple as part of the Endowment ceremony. Adherents consider them to be sacred and may be offended by public discussion of the garments. Anti-Mormon activists have publicly displayed or defaced temple garments to show their opposition to the LDS Church.

According to generally-accepted Mormon doctrine, the marks in the garments are sacred symbols (Buerger 2002, p. 58). One proposed element of the symbolism, according to early Mormon leaders, was a link to the “Compass and the Square”, the symbols of freemasonry (Morgan 1827, pp. 22-23), to which Joseph Smith (creator of Mormonism) had been initiated about seven weeks prior to his introduction of the Endowment ceremony.

Scientology E-Meter

An E-meter is an electronic device manufactured by the Church of Scientology at their Gold Base production facility. It is used as an aid by Dianetics and Scientology counselors and counselors-in-training in some forms of auditing, the application of the techniques of Dianetics and Scientology to another or to oneself for the express purpose of addressing spiritual issues.

E-meter sessions are conducted by church employees known as auditors. Scientology materials traditionally refer to the subject as the “preclear,” although auditors continue to use the meter well beyond the clear level. The preclear holds a pair of cylindrical electrodes (”cans”) connected to the meter while the auditor asks the preclear a series of questions and notes both the verbal response and the activity of the meter. Auditor training describes many types of needle movements, with each having their own special significance.

A 1971 ruling of the United States District Court, District of Columbia (333 F. Supp. 357), specifically stated, “The E-meter has no proven usefulness in the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of any disease, nor is it medically or scientifically capable of improving any bodily function.”

Exorcism

Exorcism is the practice of evicting demons or other evil spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed (taken control of). The practice is quite ancient and still part of the belief system of many religions, though it is seen mostly in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Solemn exorcisms, according to the Canon law of the church, can only be exercised by an ordained priest (or higher prelate), with the express permission of the local bishop, and only after a careful medical examination to exclude the possibility of mental illness. The Catholic Encyclopaedia (1908) enjoined: “Superstition ought not to be confounded with religion, however much their history may be interwoven, nor magic, however white it may be, with a legitimate religious rite”.

To listen to two authentic recordings of exorcisms, visit the Top 10 Incredible Recordings.

Jewish Kaparot

Kaparot is a traditional Jewish religious ritual that takes place around the time of the High Holidays. Classically, it is performed by grasping a live chicken by the sholder blades and moving around one’s head three times, symbolically transferring one’s sins to the chicken. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor, preferably eaten at the pre-Yom Kippur feast. In modern times, Kapparos is performed in the traditional form mostly in Haredi communities. The ritual is preceded by the reading of Psalms 107:17-20 and Job 33:23-24.

On the eve of Yom Kippur 2005, more than 200 caged chickens were abandoned in rainy weather as part of a Kaparot operation in Brooklyn, NY; some of these starving and dehydrated chickens were subsequently rescued by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Jacob Kalish, an Orthodox Jew from Williamsburg, was charged with animal cruelty for the drowning deaths of 35 of these chickens. In response to such reports of the mistreatment of chickens, animal rights organizations have begun to picket public observances of kaparot, particularly in Israel.

Shamanism Wikipedia

Shamanism refers to a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. There are many variations in shamanism throughout the world, though there are some beliefs that are shared by all forms of shamanism. Its practitioners claim the ability to diagnose and cure human suffering and, in some societies, the ability to cause suffering. This is believed to be accomplished by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits.

Shamans have been credited with the ability to control the weather, divination, the interpretation of dreams, astral projection, and traveling to upper and lower worlds. Shamans were used in Tibetan Buddhism as a form of divination by which the Dalai Lama was given prophesies of the future and advice.

Dowry

This is a cultural practice rather than a religious one. The practice of dowry exists across India. Despite laws against it, the practice continues. The girl child’s dowry and wedding expenses often sends her family into a huge debt trap. As consumerism and wealth increase in India, dowry demands are growing. In rural areas, families sell their land holdings, while the urban poor sell their houses.

To curb the practice of dowry, the government of India made several laws detailing severe punishment to anyone demanding dowry and a law in Indian Penal Code (Section 498A) has been introduced. While it gives boost to a woman and her family, it in the same time also put a man and his family in a great disadvantage. Misuse of this law by women in urban India and many incidents of extortion of money from the husband done by the wife and her family (this is called sowry) have come to light.

Mormon Baptism of the Dead

Baptism for the dead, vicarious baptism or proxy baptism is a religious practice of baptising a living person on behalf of an individual who is dead; the living person is acting as the deceased person’s proxy. It has been practiced since 1840 in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where it is also called temple baptism because it is performed only in dedicated temples.

In the practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a living person, acting as proxy, is baptized by immersion on behalf of a deceased person of the same gender. The baptism ritual is as follows: after calling the living proxy by name, the person performing the baptism says, “Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you for and in behalf of [full name of deceased person], who is dead, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” The proxy is then immersed briefly in the water. Baptism for the dead is a distinctive ordinance of the church and is based on the belief that baptism is a required ordinance for entry into the Kingdom of God.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vicariously baptizes people regardless of race, sex, or creed. This includes both victims and perpetrators of genocide. Some Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and their supporters have objected to this practice.

Jainist Digambaras

Digambar also spelled Digambara is one of the two main sects of Jainism. Senior Digambar monks wear no clothes, following the practice of Lord Mahavira. They do not consider themselves to be nude — they are wearing the environment. Digambaras believe that this practice represents a refusal to give in to the body’s demands for comfort and private property — only Digambara ascetics are required to forsake clothing. Digambara ascetics have only two possessions: a peacock feather broom and a water gourd.

The native Jain communities of Maharashta, Bundelkhand (MP/UP), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu are all Digambaras. In north India, the Saravagis and the Agrawals are also Digambaras. In Gujarat and Southern Rajasthan, the majority of Jains follow the Svetambara tradition, although some Jain communities of these regions like the Humad are also Digambaras.

Islamic Niqab

A niqab is a veil which covers the face, worn by some Muslim women as a part of sartorial hijab. It is popular in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf but it can also be found in North Africa, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

The niqab is regarded differently by the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence known as madhahab. Some see it as obligatory, or fard , while others see it as recommended, or mustahab, and a few see it as forbidden. The majority of scholars believe hijab is required, but only a few see niqab as required, although this is not the common perception among the general population.

Jehovah’s Witnesses Refusal of Blood Transfusions Wikipedia

A fundamental doctrine of the Jehovah’s Witnesses teaches that the Bible prohibits consumption, storage and transfusion of blood, including in cases of emergency. This doctrine was introduced in 1945, and has been elaborated upon since then. Although accepted by a majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses, evidence indicates a minority does not wholly endorse this doctrine. Facets of the doctrine have drawn praise and criticism from both members of the medical community and Jehovah’s Witnesses alike.

In 1964, Jehovah’s Witnesses were prohibited from obtaining transfusions for pets, from using fertilizer containing blood, and were even encouraged to write to dog food manufacturers to verify that their products were blood-free. Later that year, Jehovah’s Witnesses doctors and nurses were instructed to withhold blood transfusions from fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses. As to administering transfusions to non-members, The Watchtower stated that such a decision is “left to the Christian doctor’s own conscience.”

VIA

The Mummy X-posed: The face of an Ancient Egyptian priestess revealed after 3,000 years

She has lain undisturbed for nearly 3,000 years, sealed in a decorated coffin ready for her voyage to the underworld.

Now the face of Meresamun, a priestess who sang in the temples of Ancient Egypt hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, has been revealed to the world for the first time.

Using a hospital scanner, scientists were able to peer inside her closed casket, and see through the layers of linen that protected her mummified features.

The first level scan reveals the surface of the coffin, left, while a deeper scan shows clear details of the body sealed inside

The astonishing three-dimensional pictures reveal her skeleton and her face, apparently with stones placed on the eyes.

Egyptologist Dr Emily Teeter, from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute museum, where a new exhibition featuring the images opens this week, said: ‘It is so exciting to be able to see this.

The decorative coffin enters the scanner

‘The mummy is still in the coffin. It is like having X-ray eyes to see the relationship between the coffin, the wrappings and amount of linen used.’

A close-up of the mummy’s face

Meresamun is thought to have worked and lived in the temple of Thebes around 800BC. Her name, shown in an inscription on the casket, means ‘She Lives for Amun’ – an Egyptian god.

According to the inscription she was a priestess-musician who served as a ‘Singer in the Interior of the Temple of Amun’. The scans suggest she was about 5ft 5in and in her late 20s or early 30s when she died.

The cause of Meresamun’s death is unknown and all the more mysterious since she
appears to have been in good health.

The state of her bones shows she had a nutritious diet and an active lifestyle.

Although she bore no signs of dental decay, her teeth were worn down by the grit in Egyptian bread, which was made from stone-ground flour.

The sealed casket was bought in Egypt in 1920 by James Henry Breasted, founder of the Oriental Institute.

Creationism

God created the Earth in seven days, literally and exactly seven 24-hour days. And if you don’t like it, you can go to hell. That is, you can literally go to hell.

In all the world’s rich panoply of religious and spiritual pursuits, there’s nothing quite so inspiring as watching people desperately tie their entire view of the moral universe to an idea that’s obviously wrong. Creationism is a particularly entertaining variant on an age-old theme. (Remember when Galileo was excommunicated for the ludicrous idea that the Earth goes ’round the sun and not the other way around?)

Creationism is pretty much summed up in the first sentence of this article. Creationists like to call their belief system “creation science” and would like to have it taught in school alongside the theory of evolution.

Now, it’s certainly possible that some God or other created the world in seven 24-hour days. Any sentence that contains the word “God” is pretty much wide open to debate. But is it science?

Oh, wait, that sounded like a rhetorical question. It actually has an answer. No, it’s not science. It’s religion. Nothing wrong with religion, lots of people have it. Often very smart and well-educated people.

But beliefs based solely on the text of the Bible aren’t science. Science is the “systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.” There is no scientific test which will show that Adam and Eve existed. At least, not according to the commonly accepted definition of science. However, if creationism is about anything, it’s about language.

Western civilization has believed the seven-day theory for about 6,000 years longer than it’s believed in evolution. The weight of that history is great indeed. Although Genesis was originally a Jewish scripture, the Christians were responsible for institutionalizing its contents as the undisputed truth about the world’s origins.

The original notion of evolution dates back to the ancient Greeks, but early thinking on the subject was crushed by the Church of Rome. By the 17th century, however, the Protestant revolution and the whole Galileo fiasco had given the public reason to think that the Vatican was not necessarily the best source for scientific information.

Nevertheless, the idea that people had somehow evolved from a lower life form was abhorrent to most people, right up through the Victorian era. “Man” (and specifically the white male) was considered the highest possible form of life on earth, elevated above all others.

When Charles Darwin came along in the middle of the 19th century, all hell broke loose. Although Darwin outlined a progression of primitive man through modern man, the average joe looked at his chart and made the immediate mental leap that men essentially came from monkeys. The Victorians were not amused.

A violent religious backlash arose in response to the theory. Nearly 150 years later, depressingly, the backlash continues.

The theory of evolution quickly gained traction in scientific circles, but the common man held out for a lot longer. As it does with virtually all issues of any importance in the world, the United States responded to the controversy with litigation.

The state of Tennessee passed a law in 1925 banning schools from teaching any theory of human origin that conflicted with the Biblical account. A biology teacher named John Scopes defied the ban and was brought up on charges. A legal battle of historic proportions resulted, as Clarence Darrow stepped up as attorney for the defense; William Jennings Bryan came to the assistance of the state.

The “Scopes monkey trial” wrapped up with Darrow calling Bryan and staging a virtual debate over the issue of evolution vs. creation under the guise of cross-examination. It would have been great television, had there been television at the time.

DARROW: I will read it to you from the Bible: "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." Do you think that is why the serpent is compelled to crawl upon its belly?

BRYAN: I believe that.

DARROW: Have you any idea how the snake went before that time?

BRYAN: No, sir.

DARROW: Do you know whether he walked on his tail or not?

BRYAN: No, sir. I have no way to know. (Laughter in audience).

DARROW: Now, you refer to the cloud that was put in heaven after the flood, the rainbow. Do you believe in that?

BRYAN: Read it.

DARROW: All right, Mr. Bryan, I will read it for you.

BRYAN: Your Honor, I think I can shorten this testimony. The only purpose Mr. Darrow has is to slur at the Bible, but I will answer his question. I will answer it all at once, and I have no objection in the world, I want the world to know that this man, who does not believe in a God, is trying to use a court in Tennessee...

DARROW: I object to that.

BRYAN: (...) to slur at it, and while it will require time, I am willing to take it.

DARROW: I object to your statement. I am exempting you on your fool ideas that no intelligent Christian on earth believes.

In his closing remarks, Darrow conceded that his client was guilty and that he couldn’t in good conscience plead otherwise, but that a higher court would have to decide the issue. These inspirational remarks led to the expected guilty verdict, which was later overturned on appeal for a technicality. Aside from the high drama, the trial accomplished pretty much nothing, since the technicality superseded the constitutional issue. The law remained on the books until 1967.

The bad publicity that came out of the trial left other states unenthusiastic about mandating creationism in the schools, but that didn’t stop Protestant fundamentalists from rallying around the issue for the next 80 years.

Weirdly, although the whole issue had stemmed from an overly literal intepretation of the Bible, the second wave of creationists began madly embellishing the Biblical accounts of early man in an effort to get around some of the more undeniable evidence, such as dinosaur fossils.

The dwindling pool of modern creationists now tries to paint a picture of a Fred Flintstone-style Garden of Eden in which cheerful velociraptors traipse around with Adam and Eve like oversized puppies. According to these revisionist-literalists, pretty much any reference to a generic animal in the Bible is inclusive of dinosaurs.

The modern crop of creationists is often perceived as a bunch of harmless cranks, like Jerry Falwell and the Attorney General of the United States. Sure, harmless! They run wacky organizations like the “Institute for Creation Research” and the “Center for Scientific Creation,” which contain arguments like “Evolutionists raise several objections. Some say, ‘Even though evidence may imply a sudden creation, creation is supernatural, not natural, and cannot be entertained as a scientific explanation'” and “Teaching scientific evidence for creation has always been legal in public schools. Nevertheless, many teachers wonder how to do this.”

If you’re thinking that you don’t know a lot of evolutionists who say evidence implies a sudden creation, or teachers who are wondering how to teach said evidence, welcome to the club. But then, it takes a special kind of thinking to keep ancient anachronisms alive and kicking.

A special kind of thinking of the sort perpetuated by the aforementioned Attorney General John Ashcroft, who launched a Justice Department investigation of a Texas professor for demanding that future medical students truthfully tell their opinions about the origins of human life before he would agree to write recommendation letters for them. But hey, who wouldn’t want a doctor that believes women can be extracted from your ribs?

Secret Societies

For centuries, humans have been trying to keep information from other humans. Paradoxically, many have come to the conclusion that the best way to keep a secret is to tell it to a bunch of other people and then swear them all to secrecy.

When this effort is unsuccessful, we call the result a “secret society.” When the effort is successful, we don’t call the result anything, because we plebians never hear about the effort to begin with.

In short, the society part is easy. The secret part is hard.

Nevertheless, secret societies have become deeply embedded in the zeitgeist. In some cases, their secrets are so poorly kept that a quick run through Google will yield nearly anything you could possibly want to know. In other cases, the society manages to keep some of its secrets secret, but the group itself becomes known to a greater or lesser extent.

There are many different ways to structure a secret society, but there are a few specific models which recur fairly often. In order to qualify as a secret society, a group generally has to be based around initiation rituals, degrees of authority and dramatic oaths of silence.

Most groups can arguably be included in more than one of the categories which follow, and probably all of them can be included under the final heading:

* Political
* Religious
* Fraternal
* Fictional
* Insane

Political

Many people look at the state of the world and come to the understandable conclusion that they must be missing something. After all, no rational person would make the decisions some world leaders make… unless, of course, they have a hidden agenda that we don’t know about.

So whose agenda is it, anyway? Some favorite contenders include:

* Freemasonry
* Skull and Bones
* Trilateral Commission
* Bilderberg Group
* Council on Foreign Relations
* Muslim Brotherhood

Some of the aforementioned examples are pretty dicey, others are very well documented. Throughout history, small groups of intelligentsia have banded together for the sake of instigating political change.

The Carbonari in Italy, a derivative of the Masons, helped forment revolution in the 19th century. Edelweiss, a European group, advanced a pro-Nordic racial agenda and produced such illustrious members as Herman Groerning. Thule Gelleschaft, an occultish group of the day, reputedly inspired Hitler to adopt the swastika as the Nazi emblem.

A Russian group, Land and Liberty, used terrorism and assatination to lay the groundwork for revolution. Formally known as the Fists of Righteous Harmony, the Boxers began as a small Chinese nationalist society toward the end of the 19th century before swelling to incredible size, embarking on a reign of terror against foreigners and subsequently getting slaughtered by the U.S. Navy.

There’s plenty of evidence to show that secret societies have formed to accomplish specific political goals, but those groups that don’t get killed in the process tend to fade away after the immediate political crisis is resolved.

The idea that a secret society might be running the world can be appealing. It offers the possibility that every stupid, pointless thing done by world leaders might actually be smart and pointful, part of some sort of plan. However, it doesn’t take much live experience to realize that individual people are generally stupid and pointless, and Occam’s Razor tells us the simplest explanation is most often correct.

Nevertheless, people will talk. If all the above secret societies aren’t enough to satisfy your paranoid tendencies, you can always look into “The Octopus” — an uber-secret society which purportedly links all of the other secret societies in one vast conspiracy to control the world.

The Octopus was first tenatively identified by a freelance investigative reporter named Danny Casolaro, who believed it linked such conspiracies as Iran-Contra, BCCI,INSLAW to such government agencies as the CIA, FBI and the NSA.

Casolaro turned up dead due to an extremely suspicious “Suicide” in 1991. His story (or rather, a wildly imaginative telling of his story) has made him a martyr to the conspiracy crowd.

Some political secret societies eventually metamorphose into criminal organizations, such as the Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza and the Chinese Triads. You can also make a case that race-based hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan were also working from a political mindset, at least in their formative years.

Religious

Many secret societies have a religious or occult component, but some are very explicitly devoted to advancing one form of religion or another. Religious secret societies are very real, and they have often had a tremendous impact on history, which explains why you’ve probably heard of a few:

# Knights Templar
# al Qaeda
# Al Takfir Wal Hijra
# The Assassins
# Sufism
# Knights of Malta
# Ordo Templi Orientis
# Scientology
# Cathars
# The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

The Knights Templar were perhaps the ultimate Christian secret order, and to this day, no one is quite sure exactly what secrets they were keeping. Many Heterical beliefs have been forced underground during the history of the Christian church, which may account for the strong strain of Ghosticism hat runs through many secret societies. The Templars were rumored to have Gnostic tendencies, but it’s difficult to prove that 1,000 years later.

In order to counter heretical groups, the Catolic Chruch has created its own secret orders from time to time, under auspices of the pope. The Templars originated as such an officially sanctioned group, but they fell out of favor when their wealth and power challenged the political status quo.

Envy and fear led to charges of witccraft and other wrongdoing, and the Church eventually exterminated the order… or did they? These days, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some group that claims to be a continuation or an offshoot of the Templars.

The history of Islam is also riddled with secretive groups which have had an incalcuable effect on history, from the Assassins of the 11th Century to al Qaeda in the present day. One reason these groups are so effective is their embrace of violence, paired with a complete disregard for the personal safety of their members. The Assassins and the Templars were rumored to have shared trade secrets and engaged in other covert alliances.

The list of religious secret societies goes on and on. Buddichist got into the act, with organizations like the White Lotus Groups (of which the Boxers were technically a part), and variations sprouted among Hindus and Jews as well.

Africa has been rife with secret societies of all sorts, many of which are based in the rituals of scamanistic tribal religions. An outgrowth of African spiritual beliefs, Voudoun was intimately linked with Hatian secret societies, many of which are political in nature. An American variation on the theme, Santeria, is practically a secret society in itself.

You will be the hit of the cocktail party when you hold forth on the origins of the word “Mumbo Jumbo,” which is a botched transliteration of the name of a Mandingo secret society. The account originated with the 18th century explorer of Africa Francis Moore, who wrote that the all-male society, bound by terrible oaths, existed primarily to adjudicate disputes between men and women… in favor of men. So how did Moore find out about this “secret” group?

About the year 1727, the king of Jagra having a very inquisitive woman to his wife, was so weak as to disclose to her this secret; and she being a gossip, revealed it to some other women of her acquaintance. This at last coming to the ears of some who were no friends to the king, they, dreading lest if the affair took vent, it should put a period to the subjection of their wives, took the coat, put a man into it, and going to the king’s town, sent for him out, and taxed him with it: when he not denying it, they sent for his wife, and killed them both on the spot. Thus the poor king died for his complaisance to his wife, and she for her curiosity.

The first rule of Mumbo Jumbo is DON’T TALK ABOUT MUMBO JUMBO!

Fraternal

Some people are attracted to the bizarre rituals and self-important playtime of a secret organization without necessarily wanting the responsibility of ruling the world or protecting the arcane keys of occult power. For those who just want to play at global conspiracy, there are a number of options ranging from the ridiculous to the… well, also ridiculous.

* Elks
* Lions
* Moose
* Shriners
* Oddfellows
* College fraternities
* Beavers
* The Knights of Columbus

All of these groups are basically clubs for silly boys, to a greater or lesser extent.

They are based around “lodges,” a word nicked from Masonic practice which means, in this context, a place you go to get drunk in the company of men. Most of these groups feature some sort of thinly veiled homoerotic bondage play as a form of initiation.

Generally, these groups are all male, all the time, though some have women’s auxiliary groups and others have been forced by American law to open their doors to all comers. Most fraternal organizations require you to pay dues, which entitles you to use of the bar.

Fraternal clubs often perform charity work in a vain effort to justify their existence. They can also provide business networking opportunities for those who are insufficiently ambitious to hook up with the Masons, or even better, the Trilateral Commission.

Fictional

Most secret societies have a fictional history, concocted to make them look important. Some groups are more fictional than others, however.

* Illuminati
* Stonecutters
* The Invisibles

Many authors have discovered that once you create a secret society with a sufficiently intriguing premise, people will automatically assume it’s based on something real. If the author tries to deny it later, well, that just means someone got to them.

The Illuminati are technically not fictional, but so many fictional things have been written about them that they might as well be. In addition to many earnest flights of fancy composed by the slightly deranged, the Illuminati got the most ink in the famous Illuminatus! trilogy written by Robert Anton Wilson. Illuminatus! was so successful that many of its yarns are now taken as gospel truth by such illustrious conspiratorial minds as David Icke.

H.P. Lovecraft created a fictional cult known as Cthulhu, which he shared with several other horror writers of the day. The cult was based around a series of shapeless, nameless, writhing monstrosities and an entirely mythical grimoire known as the Necronomicon. Lovecraft tried to explain that he had made the whole thing up, but people are frequently found to be stupid or insane, and you don’t have to look very far to find some idiot trying to conjure up a Shoggoth.

There was an 18th century Italian secret society called The Invisibles, but the name was adopted by comic book auteur Grant Morrison for a 1994-2000 comic book series which set out with the goal of making The Invisibles real. If someone hands you a blank badge, you’ll know Morrison’s quest succeeded.

Other notable fictional secret societies include the Talamasca (a vampire-hunting group of scholars in Anne Rice’s books), the Clandestine Watchers Council (a vampire-hunting group of scholars in Buffy the Vampire Slayer), the E-Branch (a vampire-hunting group of secret agents in Brian Lumley’s Necroscope books), and the Millennium Group (an Apocaliptic organization inexplicably unconcerned with vampire hunting, and the brainchild of X-Files creator Chris Carter).

Insane

Between the paddling and the dreams of world domination, any given secret society is going to attract a certain element of the deranged. Some groups are way out there… even relative to other secret societies.

The Ku Klux Klanoriginated as a politcal white supremacy group in 1886. At the time, it was not that far out of the political mainsteam. Racism was rampant after the Civil War, and many people resented the North’s exploitation of the South.

Nevertheless, the Klan was rooted in bizarre behavior. The original group dressed in white hoods and pretended to be ghosts in order to frighten freed slaves. Subsequent iterations were not much more sophisticated and today the Klan is populated with fringe personalities with too much time on their hands.

The Klan also had its sworn enemies, such as the memorably named Order of Anti-Poke-Noses, which formed to oppose “any organization that attends to everyone’s business but their own.” The bad guys outlived these intrepid crusaders, however.

Strange behavior hardly begins and ends with the Klan. A quick browse through the pages of The International Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders by Alan Axelrod yields up a smorgasbord of strangeness.

Fils d’Adam is an au courant French secret society devoted to the joys of similating necrophilia and performing actual bestiality on some extremely loosely contrived premise having to do with Original Sin.

The Abecadarians, also French, formed to battle the insidious evil of the printing press during the 15th century. The theory was that ignorance is divinely mandated and that everyone should strive to the pinnacle of ignorance of everything, including the letters of the alphabet — thus their name comes from A-B-C-D… Clever, you might think, until you realize that anyone who knows the group’s name now knows the first four letters of the alphabet and therefore can no longer be saved. (The doctrine was later supposedly adopted by the Illuminati.) (The real ones.)

The Society of Goats in 18th century Germany wore goat masks in order to frighten the local peasantry and accomplish various acts of crime. (And people think Batman is implausible.) Their initiation involved riding a wooden goat rigged up approximately in the manner of a mechanical bull. The goat itself may also have been a Baphomet-Style symbol of Satan. They were eventually exterminated by the local authorities, and bore no relation to the even stranger Order of Pink Goats, which arose in the 20th century.

The Hermanos Penitentes were originally a European order which enjoyed self-flagellation. They celebrated Good Friday each year by crysifuing one of the sect’s members, though the lucky victim was removed from the cross before dying. Despite being the recipient of a papal censure, the group not only survived, but continues its tradition of crucifixion, much to the bemusement of the occasional newspaper feature writer who stumbles across the event.

The Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo… well, OK, the Hoo-Hoos were largely just kidding around. The members were lumberjacks and people whose jobs related in some vague manner related to lumber. Many of their titles and rituals were based on Lewiss Caroll’s Jabberwocky. Amazingly, the organization continues to day under a different name, despite what Darwin’s theories would suggest.

Pentagram

Lately it’s been besmirched as a sigil of Satanism, but the pentagram is a versatile totem, and it’s been around since long before anyone got around to inventing Satan.

The design is an equidistant five-pointed star drawn with a single continuous motion of the pen. Sometimes the design is enclosed in a circle. The symbol goes back to 4,000 B.C. at least, where it surfaced in the earliest form of writing, pictographic languages used in ancient Mesopotamia, whose alphabet consisted of little pictures that represented whole words.

No one knows what the pentagram meant to the Sumerians (despite what you might hear to the contrary), but most of the stone tablets of this period consist of really simple, pragmatic lists — such as tax records, inventories and gene

The odds are quite good that the original meaning of the pentagram was something extremely boring, like “cow”. It might have meant “person”, since the shape famously corresponds to a head, two outstretched arms, and two legs, or it might have meant “hand”, with its five points representing five fingers. But all this is sheer guesswork.

Whatever its original context, it didn’t take long for the shape to absorb a more elevated status. Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher who basically invented formal geometry, believed that the world was made of math and that everything in life could be numerically quantified and represented.

His premise isn’t too far from what a physicist would tell you today, but some of his direct conclusions were naive (in a manner appropriate to the time). Pythagoras was fascinated with the pentagram, as well as the six-pointed hexagram, and spent a lot of energy analyzing its properties, as well as its relation to other shapes.

Pythagoras made several observations about the pentagram, such as that there’s a pentagon inside it, and that if you draw a pentagon from the points of the star, it’s inverted compared to the inside one, and that you can draw a pentagram with one continuous stroke. In other words, Pythagoras had little interesting to say about the topic, but he considered the design important enough that his followers used it as their insignia. They believed it symbolized health or perfection.

Pentagrams were also used by Jewish mystical artists dating back to an unknown period of antiquity. The oldest documented examples were in synagogues with a few centuries of the start of the Christian era, but later legend has it that the pentagram was also associated with King Solomon, as part of his seal and as a symbol prominently featured in his Temple.

Pentagrams were frequently used in pagan, Jewish, Eastern and even Christian mystical contexts as a symbol of just about anything that came in fives. Frequently, it was taken as a symbol of the four alchemical elements — earth, air, fire and water — plus a fifth point that meant different things to different people, most often either divine power or the human soul.

Because humans all over the world have five fingers, the number five carries significance in virtually every culture, and the pentagram was a convenient carrier of that number. There are examples of the pentagram being used in Taoism and other Chinese systems as a symbol of the five elements used in Eastern cosmology — wood, metal, earth, fire and water. In some early Christian traditions, including Gnosticism, the five points of the star represented the five wounds of Christ. Eventually other traditions used pentagram-derived stars as a representation of a star from the sky, likely an effort to artistically represent the twinkling effect caused by atmospheric distortion.

During the middle ages, however, the pentagram underwent an major transformation, which would permanently shape its image for centuries to come. Probably the most important document in pentagramology is the Seal of Solomon, perhaps the most influential of the many medieval grimoires that offered believers a chance to grab the brass ring of cosmic superpowers.

The Seal of Solomon inspired a lot of derivative magickal texts, which spread the pentagram far and wide. The status of the symbol took a giant leap forward when it was adopted by the occult-influenced Freemasonry movement, and related sects like the Eastern Star, the Golden Dawn, and the O.T.O. The Masons may have taken their cue from the Knights Templar, who are perhaps posthumously the sect most responsible for the pentagram’s association with Satanic beliefs.

When the Templars were destroyed in the early 1300s, they were accused of many Satanic atrocities, including the worship of an unspecified object that resembled a cat or a head, known as Baphomet.

While some have theorized that the object in question may have been the Shroud of Turin folded to display the head of the Christ figure on the cloth, the popular conception of the Baphomet was later influenced by occultist Eliphas Levi, and subsequently by Aleister Crowley and some of his cronies.

Levi put forward a Baphomet design that featured an image of a goat’s head inside an inverted pentagram, with the horns extending up into the points of the star. The goat symbolizes Satan, and the symbol was later adopted by Satanists of the Anton LaVey school. The symbol was then retroactively “discovered” to have an extensive occultist history by revisionist New Age and occult historians, who claimed it was an ancient symbol in virtually every magic tradition, including traditional and Wiccan witchcraft, pseudo-Egyptian occultist, etc., etc.

By the time this association had been firmly established, the pentagram or its filled-in variant had been institutionalized all over the world in a whole lot of different contexts — including religions, secret societies and many others — for instance, in the flag of the United States and the crescent and star symbol of Islam.

The retroactive — and largely inaccurate — association of the pentagram with all things devilish has provided ample fodder for those loonies whose lives are devoted to seeking to chart the dark influence of Satan all over the world.

The pentagram has also become a mainstay of the New World Order conspiracy craze, where it is seen as a link between the lords of the military-industrial complex and the Masonic-Illuminati-whatever plot to rule the world. As if they needed more encouragement.

Wicked Sufferings of Hell

Hell, according to many religious beliefs, is an afterlife of suffering where the wicked or unrighteous dead are punished. Hell is almost always depicted as underground. Hell is traditionally depicted as fiery within Christianity and Islam. Some other traditions, however, portray hell as cold and gloomy.

Some theologies of hell offer graphic and gruesome detail (for example, Hindu Naraka). Religions with a linear divine history often depict Hell as endless (for example, see Hell in Christian beliefs). Religions with a cyclic history often depict hell as an intermediary period between incarnations. Punishment in hell typically corresponds to sins committed in life. Sometimes these distinctions are specific, with damned souls suffering for each wrong committed (see for example Plato’s myth of Er), and sometimes they are general, with sinners being relegated to one or more chamber of hell or level of suffering (for example, Augustine of Hippo asserting that unbaptized infants, whom he believed to be deprived of Heaven, suffer less in hell than unbaptized adults).

In Islam and Christianity, however, faith and repentance play a larger role than actions in determining a soul’s afterlife destiny.

Hell is often portrayed populated with demons, who torment the damned. Many are ruled by a death god, such as Nergal, the Hindu Yama, or some other dreadful supernatural figure (e.g. Satan).

In contrast to hell, other general types of afterlives are abodes of the dead and paradises. Abodes of the dead are neutral places for all the dead, rather than prisons of punishment for sinners. A paradise is a happy afterlife for some or all the dead.

Modern understandings of hell often depict it abstractly, as a state of loss rather than as fiery torture literally under the ground.

The term Hell is derived from Old English Hel and ultimately from Proto-Germanic Xaljo. The English term is related to Old Norse Hel. In relation, surviving representations of Germanic polytheism in the form of Norse mythology feature Hel, the daughter of Loki and Angrboda. Hel rules over Niflheim.

Hell appears in several mythologies and religions. It is commonly inhabited by demons and the souls of dead people.

Hell is often depicted in art and literature, perhaps most famously in Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Baha’i Faith

The Baha’i Faith regards the conventional description of hell (and heaven) as a specific place as symbolic. Instead the Baha’i writings describe Hell as a “spiritual condition” where remoteness from God is defined as hell; conversely heaven is seen as a state of closeness to God. Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith, has stated that the nature of the life of the soul in the afterlife is beyond comprehension in the physical plane, but has stated that the soul will retain its consciousness and individuality and remember its physical life; the soul will be able to recognize other souls and communicate with them.

Baha’u’llah likened death to the process of birth. He explains: “The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother.”

The analogy to the womb in many ways summarizes the Baha’i view of earthly existence: just as the womb constitutes an important place for a person’s initial physical development, the physical world provides for the development of the individual soul. Accordingly, Baha’i’s view life as a preparatory stage, where one can develop and perfect those qualities which will be needed in the next life.

The key to spiritual progress is to follow the path outlined by the current Manifestations of God, which Bahá’i’s believe is currently Baha’u’llah. The Baha’i teachings state that there exists a hierarchy of souls in the afterlife, where the merits of each soul determines their place in the hierarchy, and that souls lower in the hierarchy cannot completely understand the station of those above. Each soul can continue to progress in the afterlife, but the soul’s development is not dependent on its own conscious efforts, but instead on the grace of God, the prayers of others, and good deeds performed by others on Earth in the name of the person.

Buddhism

As diverse as other religions, there are many beliefs about Hell in Buddhism.

Most of the schools of thought, Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana would acknowledge several hells, which are places of great suffering for those who commit evil actions, such as cold Hells and hot hells. Like all the different realms within cyclic existence, an existence in hell is temporary for its inhabitants. Those with sufficiently negative karma are reborn there, where they stay until their specific negative karma has been used up, at which point they are reborn in another realm, such as that of humans, of hungry ghosts, of animals, of asuras, of devas, or of Naraka (Hell) all according to the individual’s karma.

There are a number of modern Buddhists, especially among Western schools, who believe that hell is but a state of mind. In a sense, a bad day at work could be hell, and a great day at work could be heaven. This has been supported by some modern scholars who advocate the interpretation of such metaphysical portions of the Scriptures symbolically rather than literally.

China

In Chinese mythology, the name of hell does not carry a negative connotation. The hell they refer to is Di Yu . Diyu is a maze of underground levels and chambers where souls are taken to atone for their earthly sins.

The popular story is that the word Hell was introduced to China by Christian missionaries, who preached that all non-Christian Chinese people would “go to hell” when they died. As such, it was believed that the word “Hell” was the proper English term for the Chinese afterlife, and hence the word was adopted.

The Chinese view Hell as similar to a present day passport or immigration control station. In a Chinese funeral, they burn many Hell Bank Notes for the dead. With this Hell money, the dead person can bribe the ruler of Hell, and spend the rest of the money either in Hell or in Heaven. There is a belief that once the dead person runs out of Hell money, and if he does not receive more, he will be eternally poor…

Christianity

Luke 12:5 records Jesus speaking about God’s Judgment: “But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath Power to cast into Hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him.” In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian church he describes a separation taking place: “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the Presence of the Lord, and from the Glory of his Power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)

Most modern Christians see Hell as the eternal punishment for unrepentant sinners, as well as for the Devil and his demons. Unbelievers are said to deserve Hell on account of original sin according to many conservative denominations. Sometimes exceptions are understood for those who have had extenuating circumstances (youth, mental illness, invincible error, etc.). As opposed to the concept of Purgatory, damnation to Hell is considered final and irreversible.

However, the foundation of the Christian faith is that it is the death of Jesus Christ, and acceptance of his love for us, that allows repentant sinners to avoid the torments of Hell and enjoy eternity with God. Various interpretations of the torments of Hell exist, ranging from fiery pits of wailing sinners to lonely isolation from God’s presence. However, the descriptions of Hell found in the Bible are quite vague.

The books of Matthew, Mark, and Jude tell of a place of fire, while the books of Luke and Revelation report it as an abyss. Also, Revelation 20:10 (NIV) illustrates Hell as a “lake with burning sulfur”. Our modern, more graphic, images of Hell have developed from writings that are not found in the Bible. Dante’s The Divine Comedy is a classic inspiration for modern images of Hell.

Other early Christian writings also illustrate the anguish of Hell. These texts include the Apocalypse of Peter and the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul. Both these pieces of literature tell of the author being taken on a personal tour of Heaven and Hell. These writings tell of what the authors witnessed during their journeys.

Most Christians believe that damnation occurs immediately upon death (particular judgment), and others that it occurs after Judgment Day, which is written about in the book of Revelation. Attitudes by many Christians toward Hell and damnation have changed over the centuries, and most Restorationist groups reject the traditional concept of Hell altogether. These latter theologies allege the mutual exclusivity of barbaric portrayals of Hell with the benevolent nature of God.

Russian Orthodox Church mystic Daniil Andreev (1906-1959) described hell in his opus magnum Roza Mira (Rose of the World). His vision significantly departed from the Christian tradition, depicting an entire hierarchy of multiple Sheols different in appearances, purposes and relationships to human cultures and to ‘diabolic’ worlds co-existing with the visible Universe.

Hinduism

In Hinduism, there are contradictions as to whether or not there is a hell (referred to as ‘Narak’ in Hindi). For some it is a metaphor for a conscience. But in Mahabharata there is a mention of the Pandavas and the Kauravas going to hell. Hells are also described in various Puranas and other scriptures. Garuda Purana gives a detailed account on Hell, its features and enlists amount of punishment for most of the crimes like modern day penal code.

It is believed that people who commit ‘paap’ (sin) go to hell and have to go through the punishments in accordance to the sins they committed. The god Yama, who is also the god of death, is the king of hell. The detailed accounts of all the sins committed by an individual are supposed to be kept by Chitragupta who is the record keeper in Yama’s court. Chitragupta reads out the sins committed and Yama orders the appropriate punishments to be given to the individuals. These punishments include dipping in boiling oil, burning in fire, torture using various weapons etc. in various hells. Individuals who finish their quota of the punishments are reborn according to their karma. All of the created are imperfect and thus have at least one sin to their record, but if one has led a generally pious life, one ascends to Heaven, or Swarga after a brief period of expiation in Hell.

Islam

Muslims believe in jahannam (which comes from the Hebrew word gehennim and resembles the versions of hell in Christianity). In the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, there are literal descriptions of the condemned in a fiery Hell, as contrasted to the garden-like Paradise (jannah) enjoyed by righteous believers.

In addition, Heaven and Hell are split into many different levels depending on the actions perpetrated in life, where punishment is given depending on the level of evil done in life, and good is separated into other levels depending on how well one followed God while alive.

There is an equal number of mentions of both Hell and paradise in the Qur’an, which is considered by believers to be among the numeric miracles in the Qur’an.

The Islamic concept of Hell is similar to the medieval Christian view of Dante. However, Satan is not viewed as Hell’s ruler, merely one of its sufferers. The gate of hell is guarded by Maalik also known as Zabaaniyah. The Quran states that the fuel of hellfire is rocks/stones (idols) and human beings.

Names of hell according to Islamic Tradition based on the Quranic ayah and Hadith:

Jahim
Hutamah
Jahannam
Ladza
Hawiah
Saqor
Sae’er
Sijjin
Zamhareer

Although generally hell is often portrayed as a hot steaming and tormenting place for sinners there is one hell pit which is characterized differently from the other Hell in Islamic tradition. Zamhareer is seen as the coldest and the most freezing hell of all, yet its coldness is not seen as a pleasure or a relief to the sinners who committed crimes against God. The state of the Hell of Zamhareer is a suffering of extreme coldness of blizzards ice and snow which no one on this earth can bear.

The lowest pit of all existing hells is the Hawiyah which is meant for the Hypocrites and two-faced people who claimed to believe in Allah and His messenger by the tongue but denounced both in their hearts. Hypocrisy is considered to be the most dangerous sin of all despite the fact that Shirk (association of God with His creation) is the greatest sin viewed by Allah.

The lightest torture given by God in the hereafter to the unbeliever has been said to be given to Abu Talib. He was the father of Ali bin Abi Talib the fourth Caliph and the uncle of Muhammad. He helped Muhammad in his mission but failed to denounce his ancestral worship of pagan idols. He was said according the prophet to have suffered from the burning under his feet which makes his brain boiled.

The Qur’an also says that some of those who are damned to hell are not damned forever, but instead for an indefinite period of time. In any case, there is good reason to believe that punishment in Hell is not meant to actually last eternally, but instead serves as a basis for spiritual rectification.

Even though in Islam, the devil, or shaytan, is created from fire, he suffers in hell because hellfire is 70 times hotter than the fire of this world. It was also said that Shaytan is derived from shata, (literally `burned’), because it was created from a smokless fire.

Japanese Religions Note: The following viewpoint does not specify which Chinese-based religion it is referring to. The structure of Hell is remarkably complex in many Chinese and Japanese religions. The ruler of Hell has to deal with politics, just as human rulers do. Hell is the subject of many folk stories and manga. In many such stories, people in hell are able to die again.

Judaism

Judaism does not have a specific doctrine about the afterlife, but it does have a tradition of describing Gehenna. Gehenna is not hell, but rather a sort of Purgatory where one is judged based on his or her life’s deeds. The Kabbalah describes it as a “waiting room” (commonly translated as an “entry way”) for all souls (not just the wicked). The overwhelming majority of rabbinic thought maintains that people are not in Gehenna forever; the longest that one can be there is said to be 11 months, however there has been the occasional noted exception. Some consider it a spiritual forge where the soul is purified for its eventual ascent to Olam Habah (heb. “The world to come”, often viewed as analogous to Heaven). This is also mentioned in the Kabbalah, where the soul is described as breaking, like the flame of a candle lighting another: the part of the soul that ascends being pure and the “unfinished” piece being reborn.

When one has so deviated from the will of god, one is said to be in gehinom. This is not meant to refer to some point in the future, but to the very present moment. The gates of teshuva (return) are said to be always open, and so one can align his will with that of god at any moment. Being out of alignment with god’s will is itself a punishment according to the Torah.

Maya Faith

In Maya mythology Xibalba is the dangerous underworld in nine levels ruled by the demons Vucub Caquix and Hun Came. The road into and out of it is said to be steep, thorny and very forbidding. Metnal is the lowest and most horrible of the nine hells of the underworld. It is ruled by Ah Puch. Ritual healers would intone healing prayers banishing diseases to Metnal. Much of the Popol Vuh describes the adventures of the Maya Hero Twins in their cunning struggle with the evil lords of Xibalba.

Taoism

Ancient Taoism had no concept of Hell, as morality was seen to be a man-made distinction and there was no concept of an immaterial soul. In its home country China, where Taoism adopted tenets of other religions, popular belief endows Taoist Hell with many deities and spirits who punish sin in a variety of horrible ways. This is also considered Karma for Taoism.

Unification Church

The Unification Church teaches that hell is the condition of being separated from God’s love. Hell can be said to exist in this world as well as in the afterlife. Those in the state of hell can repent by paying a condition of indemity and change their condition, both before and after death (Although, the process is done differently). The Divine Principle, the main textbook of church teachings, says:

It is not God who decides whether a person’s spirit enters heaven or Hell upon his death; it is decided by the spirit himself. Humans are created so that once they reach perfection they will fully breathe the love of God. Those who committed sinful deeds while on earth become crippled spirits who are incapable of fully breathing in the love of God. They find it agonizing to stand before God, the center of true love. Of their own will, they choose to dwell in hell, far removed from the love of God.

If You Hate A Person….

Hermann Hesse:

“Ah, but it is hard to find this track of the divine in the midst of this life we lead, in this besotted humdrum age of spiritual blindness, with its architecture, its business, its politics, its men! How could I fail to be a lone wolf, an uncouth hermit, as I did not share one of its aims nor understand one of its pleasures…I cannot understand what pleasures and joys they are that drive people to overcrowded railways and hotels, into the packed cafes with the suffocating and oppressive music…I cannot understand nor share these joys, though they are within my reach, for which thousands of others strive. On the other hand, what happens to me in my rare hours of joy, what for me is bliss and life and ecstasy and exaltation, the world in general seeks at most in imagination; in life it finds absurd. and in fact, if the world is right, if this music of the cafes, these mass enjoyments of these Americanized men who are pleased with so little are right, then I am wrong, I am crazy. I am the Steppenwolf who I often call myself; the beast astray who find neither home nor joy nor nourishment in a world that is strange and incomprehensible to him.”