Whoever seeks to set one religion against another seeks to destroy all religion.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Religious practices are diverse all around the world. Religion and cultures are based to a specific group of people and are different from the others in many ways. While religions do a good thing of uniting people, they also follow a norm of not hindering the other’s beliefs. Sometimes the religious practices can be so weird that it can go beyond your expectation and imagination. Listed below are the 15 most bizarre religions from all around the world:
1 – Satanism
Image Source (Image Source)The worshippers of Satanism are either spiritualists who consider Satan as a deity or atheists who consider it as a crisis of faith. Additionally there are certain sects that are notorious such as ‘Beasts of Satan’ who were responsible for murders in Italy between 1998-2004 and ‘Order of Nine Angels’ who affirmed human sacrifice in 1960.
2 – Church Of Euthanasia
Image Source (Image Source)With a constant rise in human population and fall in moral values, the Church of euthanasia was born. It identifies itself with slogans such as ‘Eat a Queer Fetus for Jesus’ or ‘Save the planet, Kill yourself’, purely by choice.
3 – Rastafarianism
Image Source (Image Source)The Rastafari are a voice against oppressive colonialism and they believe the Ethiopian King Haile Selassie is the God of All. They aim towards restoring the pride in African identity and consider Zion as the birthplace of all instead of Babylon. Bob Marley was a famous Rastafari.
4 – Raelism
Image Source (Image Source)Raelism is a religion started by Claude Vorilhon. They believe that the aliens, Elohim, are responsible for the genesis of humans and Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed are prophets of Elohim. Their use of Swastika as a symbol has caused them problems in Israel.
5 – Iglesia Maradoniana
Image Source (Image Source)Diego Maradona’s fans started a religion for him in 1998 with more than a million followers in around sixty countries. Their church counts the years since the football legend Maradona’s birth in 1960.
6 – The Body Of Christ
Image Source (Image Source)This pseudo-Christian group believes in the power of faith healing. In 2002, the pastor of this religion, Robidoux and his wife Karen E. Robidoux, were charged for murder of their child, as they din feed him and were waiting for the god’s sign to do so. Inspired by ‘Born in Zion’, this group denounced the society in 7 systems.
7 – Aum Shinrikyo
Image Source (Image Source)This was founded in 1984 in Japan by Shoko Asahara who claimed that he can cleanse all the sins of his followers and help them survive the end of the world, which will apparently be a nuclear armageddon. But after this group perpetuated the Tokyo subway sarin attack, it was labelled as a terrorist organisation.
8 – Scientology
Image Source (Image Source)The Church of Scientology was established by Ron Hubbard in 1954, to answer the spiritual questions through science. The publication ‘Dianetics’, sowed the seeds and focused on concerns such as ‘What the soul is doing to the body’. It was regarded as the first effort to explain religion through science.
9 – Christian Science Church
Image Source (Image Source)Mary Baker Eddy survived a fatal accident while reading a bible. She established this Church with a belief in faith healing and that anyone can find god for help when in trouble. She has also written books like ‘Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures’.
10 – Jediism
Image Source (Image Source)Jediism was founded by Daniel Jones and his brother Barney in 2008, inspired by George Lucas’s ‘Star Wars’. They refuse to take off their hood in public, which has caused them problems in public. While there are no specific scriptures, they do have a certain guidelines for Jedi marriages.
11 – Pastafarianism
Image Source (Image Source)The people following Pastafarianism worship the flying spaghetti monster. It all started when Bobby Henderson’s wrote an open letter to the Kansas School Board demanding the theory of the Flying Spaghetti Monster should be taught to students along with theories of Evolution.
12 – Frisbeetarianism
Image Source (Image Source)The comedian George Carlin described that a soul stays stuck up there until someone knocks it down with a long pole and then a new life begins. Idolising this theory, the religion was started.
13 – Aetherius society
Image Source (Image Source)George King combined U.F.O. claims with ideas from different religions and apparently said that he was approached by an extraterrestrial intelligence called Aetherius. This organisation claims to spread the teachings from the extraterrestrial intelligence.
14 – Vampirism
Image Source (Image Source)The followers of vampirism believe in the existence of Vampires. For them the active vampires suck on blood from human or animals and psychic vampires feed on the other person’s aura.
15 – Cao Dai
Image Source (Image Source)This Vietnamese religious group of Cao Dai, believes that there are 36 levels of Heaven and 72 planets having intelligent life. Earth is positioned at level 68. Their symbol is the left eye of god.
