As you can see from Texas A&M’s anthropology aggregating site (which is one of my favorite places on the net), at least a dozen stories have appeared in the past week about new archaeological finds near Stonehenge. Using ground penetrating radar and other non-invasive technology, archaeologists have discovered another henge — which was wooden, approximately [...]
Tags:Aztecs·Babylon·barrows·burial grounds·chieftains·city-states·cosmology·Druids·Egypt·elites·empires·ground penetrating radar·materialism·Mayans·megalithic·megalithic architecture·megalithic structures·pagan·pyramids·royal family·Stonehenge·Sumeria·symbolism·temples·unilineal evolution·Woodhenge·ziggurats
It was with great sadness that I read a recent article in the New York Times documenting the pillaging and destruction of Mesopotamian archaeological sites in Iraq. Although these Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian sites — and previous excavations — receive scant attention outside small groups of antiquities scholars, they are of critical importance to our [...]
Tags:Akkad·Akkadian·anthropomorphic deities·anthropomorphism·Babylon·Babylonian·Christianity·city-states·cosmology·earliest religion·Enlil·heavenly order·Iraq·Islam·Judaic·Judaism·Mesopotamia·Mesopotamian·monotheism·Muslim·polytheism·Samuel Noah Kramer·Sumer·Sumerian·Sumerian pantheon·temples·The Sumerians·Ubaid·Ubaidian·Ur·ziggurats
Yesterday the State of Utah executed Ronnie Lee Gardner using a firing squad. Why is Utah the only state that offers prisoners the option of a firing squad, which obviously results in lots of blood?
Although I have heard some rationalizations given by Utah officials that it is “faster and more humane” than other methods (which [...]
Tags:blood atonement·blood rituals·blood sacrifice·Brigham Young·execution·fertility·firing squad·Maya·Mayan religion·Mayans·Mormons·Ronnie Lee Gardner·Utah
Strange things are afoot in Monroe, Ohio, where a massive Jesus statue was hit by lightning and went up in roaring flames. Here is Jesus before the Zeus shot:
And here is Jesus auto de fe (a photo that brings to mind The Inquisition and the many thousands of “heretics” torched in his name):
The USA Today [...]
Tags:Auto de fe·destruction·end times·fire·heretics·Jesus statue·Lennox·lightning·MacBeth·Monroe·Ohio·Pat Robertson·Shakespeare·The Inquisition·Touchdown Jesus·Zeus
In a terse news item from Jerusalem last week, the AP reported that orthodox Jews rioted when construction crews broke ground for a new hospital building. The cause of the rioting? It was believed that Jews were buried there in an ancient cemetery and that the graves were being desecrated.
During the excavation, however, Israeli archaeologists [...]
Tags:grave desecration·Greco-Roman polytheism·incense altar·intolerance·orthodox Jews·paganism·pagans·Stephen Prothero·tolerance
It is no secret that religiously inspired violence has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths over the course of human history. Sectarian violence is nothing new and shows few signs of abatement. Radical jihadists have not cornered this transnational market, as was recently illustrated in Vienna, Austria, where Indian Hindus attacked a Sikh temple, [...]
Tags:Hell's Angels·Hindus·jihadists·Knights Templar·Set Free Church·Sikhs·violence
Based on keyword searches leading people to this blog, it appears that many are interested in religious syncretism. With this in mind, I thought some comments would be in order. To kick things off let’s take note of two recent articles, each of which sheds some minor light on syncretism.
In the first, Lois Solomon of [...]
Tags:Christian yoga·ecumenical·group level selection·monotheism·polytheism·sex·syncretism·tantras
As the new and organized forms of religion associated with the Neolithic Revolution matured and proliferated, various forms of polytheism spread throughout Mesopotamia, the Levant, the Mediterranean, and Europe. A diverse pantheon of gods and goddesses spawned a remarkable array of religious cults and practices that today are called “pagan,” the best known forms of [...]
Tags:cults·mythology·pagan·polytheism
