Strange Beliefs

''...so everyone to their own belief as long as it does not hurt others.''

Apples and oranges.

Fortune telling, Tarot cards, Astrology, and the like, are all harmless, anodyne fun, and are only taken seriously by a small minority of drooling cretins. 

Mostly, they are a bit of a laugh and have no real control - pernicious or otherwise -  over the lives of normal, everyday people.

Organised religion, however ...

There are a lot of cynics in a lot of businesses exploiting and making money from grieving people.
However, there are very few reports of beheadings or punishment amputations perpetrated by mediums and psychics.

"Someone wrote a post saying that islamic fundamentalism is more of a danger now than christian fundamentalism"

That's not how this started, you're trying to rewrite history there.

Someone wrote a post about people getting killed for drawing pictures of Mohammad, relying on a once-off event from ten years ago, to suggest that this particular 'strange belief' is an ongoing issue, when recent history suggests otherwise.

If you think that this constitutes a serious discussion about Islamic extremism, you're very naive. Like 99% of such discussions round here, it's just an excuse have a go at Muslims.

Why is Dawkins a dick?

He assumed, obviously wrongly, that a modern, educated, intelligent journalist didn't actually believe that Mohammed flew up to Heaven on a winged horse. Like 99.9% of right thinking adults would.

But he was baffled and shocked to see that he did. He wasn't being a dick, he was just showing genuine shock at this silly belief.

There was a similar case in Knock. Fatima. Medugorje - the list is a long one.

These cases are never proven, but they are always used to attract money to the area.

That's the real miracle. All the rest is a mirage.

Actually, no, there is more reality in a mirage as it is a real, natural phenomenon. These cases come about every couple of decades in order to draw in the gullible, and in order to appear modern and objective the Vatican either ignore them, or even denounce them - but as they are money spinners, the denunciation is not too vigorous..

99.9% of adults aren't atheists. A quick wiki check says 14.8% of people in last irish census said no religion. 37% in England and Wales and 51% in soctland in their last census said same.

So there's a big chunk of people who believe in god. I don't agree with them, but questioning them on their beliefs and talking down to them is a dick move. Unless, of course, the religious is trying to impose their wills and beliefs on you.

My mother is quite religious. My ex's parents (my son's grandparents) are very religious. I fundamentally disagree with them, but they don't question my lack of belief so why should I question theirs?

I know relatively little about them, but yes, my understanding is that each blockchain entry is data that is generated by hugely intensive code that uses huge amounts of electricity, something that is generally in short supply, in order to keep the techbros pyramid scheme going.

I'd never heard of the apparitions at Garabandal until you mentioned them. From reading this article, amongst other things, the children appear to have predicted the salacious scandals within the church, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But I don't get why this article puts an emphasis on 2024.

Every aspect of our life is governed by trust in other human beings, pick anything; working, transport, governance, etc. Millions of people place their lives in the hands of other humans every single day.

I wouldn't describe the "world of money" as a strange belief. It's simply a practical system that has evolved over millennia through trial and error. There's no guarantees of anything, but current iterations generally function, even through crises, wars, etc. To date, no one has come up with something that works better (or less worse). There are isolated tribes in the middle of nowhere that have come up with their own systems of money.

The mistake belief that a UFO is somehow from another world, when all UFO stands for is Unidentified Flying Object, meaning it might be a high altitude balloon, a bird, a trick of the light, a comet or whatever? It might even be from another world if proof was provided.

I have to agree with the other poster, they exist and this isn't something new (goes back to ancient times)

Since then and when I was growing up in the e.g. 80's and 90's it wasn't much of an issue. It's always been widely known about and not a big deal.

It's only recently that it's become a big issue due to people acting insane about it (on both sides).

Not going to get into that debate, but it again leans into the much larger issue that the internet (and chiefly social media) is definitely fuelling strange beliefs. Some of which are very toxic.

I knew a girl who was a goth as well. She also didn't know if she was male or female despite the hours she spent in doctors offices with menstural pains every month.

It seemed quiet obvious to most people what she was. 😁

Another one for the strange beliefs thread