Wikipedia:Unusual articles/Religion and spirituality

Religion and spirituality

Abeguwo	Remember when you were a kid, and joked that the rain was peeing? Well...
Adorcism	For when you want spirits inside you.
Asher yatzar	A Jewish blessing, read to praise the ability to excrete urine or faeces.
Axinomancy	Foretelling the future by looking at an axe or hatchet.
Jim Bakker	Televangelist founds a Christian theme park so successful that it competes with Disneyland, gets arrested for fraud and loses his park, then promptly returns to televangelism upon release. Also admitted to never fully reading the Bible until his imprisonment, and to getting information on it from Lyndon LaRouche.
Ben Hana	A homeless man in Wellington, New Zealand who worshiped the Māori sun-god Ra (not to be confused with the ancient Egyptian sun-god Ra).
Bhekuli Biya	"Frog marriage", designed to bring rain. At least one has ended in divorce in order to stop floods.
Braco (faith healer)	Meet the Gazer and be healed with a single glance.
Cargo cult	Tribal rites and rituals developed in the belief they will attract the goods, wealth and materials – the "cargo" – of a more technologically advanced and affluent culture.
Church of the SubGenius	A parody religion created in Texas which preaches that a 1950s salesman, who is also a yeti, is their messiah and tries to protect people from the numerous conspiracies that haunt their lives.
Coconut Religion	A religion founded in Vietnam that advocates subsisting solely off of coconuts and coconut milk, created a "Coconut Kingdom" on an islet of the Mekong River, and referred to its leader and founder as "His Coconutship".
Coke Fatwa	It's the real thing... and thankfully, it's not haram.
Crepitus (mythology)	A Roman god of flatulence (allegedly)
Ded Moroz	Like Santa, but Russian, and blue.
Dendera light	Does an engraving of the Egyptian creation myth show that Ancient Egypt had lightbulbs? As it turns out, no.
Dhana Kumari Bajracharya	A woman did not walk for 60 years.
Dinkoism	A parody religion that places Dinkan, a comic character from Malayalam children's magazine Balamangalam, as the one true God and the creator of the Universe.
Disconnection (Scientology)	The result of a poor signal with Scientology.
Fluffy bunny	A controversial epithet in Wicca.
Flying Spaghetti Monster	The basis of a satirical religion created to make fun of intelligent design.
Gang Bing	After his act of self-castration, he became the patron saint of eunuchs.
Haitian Vodou and sexual orientation	Surely a troll, you say? No! A perfectly legitimate article!
High-Heel Wedding Church	Want to get married in a giant shoe in Taiwan?
Iglesia Maradoniana	A religion with the Argentine footballer Diego Maradona as its god.
Incident (Scientology)	Bubble Gum Incident, Obscene Dog Incident, Bodies in pawn, blah, blah...
International date line in Judaism and Jewish law in the polar regions	Jewish law can get tricky when you travel to Hawaii... or go for a hike near the North Pole.
Invisible Pink Unicorn	Best buds with the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Jedi census phenomenon	A phenomenon in which 390,000 British citizens listed their religion as "Jedi Knight" on a 2001 census form, which would've made it the fourth-largest religion in England and Wales.
Jerusalem syndrome	For some people, a visit there is just too much.
Jewish pope Andreas	A Jewish pope..?
Johnson cult	Was US President Lyndon B. Johnson worshiped as a god in Papua New Guinea?
Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory	Can't decide whether to blame the Jews or the Freemasons? The conspiracy nuts have you covered.
Kacchera	Sikh underwear.
Kapo (mythology)	The Hawaiian fertility goddess, known for having a detachable vagina.
List of UFO religions	Our Father, which art in spaceship...
Lou de Palingboer	God sells eels?
Love jihad	The Indian far-right posits that Muslims are converting the world by... being more attractive to women than them.
Jesús Malverde	A popular saint among drug dealers in Mexico.
Matshishkapeu	The "fart man" of Innu mythology. Don't cross him or he'll make you constipated.
Missionary Church of Kopimism	To Ctrl+C is human; to Ctrl+V is divine.
Mizab al-Rahma	The holiest rain gutter in Islam.
Oomoto	L. L. Zamenhof as kami.
Open-source religion	And we're not talking about the Church of Emacs either.
Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption	A legally recognized religion created by comedian John Oliver for the sole purpose of exempting his show from taxes by way of the Religious Tax Exemption.
Prince Philip movement	A religious movement on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu which holds that Queen Elizabeth II's late husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was a divine being.
Pseudoskepticism	The philosophical or scientific argument that tries to appear skeptical, but really is trying to prove a position, as in "I don’t see enough evidence that we landed on the moon".
Raël	A French journalist who started a religion named after himself in the 1970s.
Religion in Antarctica	There's no continent on Earth without organized religion.
Reincarnation Application	Must be filed by all living Buddha within the People's Republic of China before they are allowed to reincarnate.
Religious pareidolia	A tendency to see religious imagery in the textures of corn chips, cinnamon rolls, toast, clouds, etc.
Saint Urho	A fictitious saint of Finland created in Minnesota.
Silver Sisterhood	A bizarre neo-Victorian Irish spiritual movement with a sideline in creating text adventure games, including the first 18-rated game.
Sin-eater	An old belief that someone eating over a body would consume the sins of the deceased.
St. Priapus Church	A religion based on the worship of the phallus.
Space opera in Scientology	L. Ron Hubbard's history of the universe, including alien Invader Forces, "little orange-colored bombs that would talk" and brainwashing episodes in "a railway carriage quite like a British railway coach with compartments".
Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case	How a British schoolteacher teaching overseas in Sudan got in trouble for letting her six-year-old students name a teddy bear "Muhammad".
Taghairm	A couple of uncomfortable methods of fortune telling.
Tlazōlteōtl	Aztec god of vice, purification, steam baths, lust, filth, and a patroness of adulterers.
Toilet god	God living in the toilet.
Turtles all the way down	A myth about the nature of the universe, or perhaps a myth about a myth about the nature of the universe.
United Nation of Islam	Royall, Allah in Person claims to have spent the 1980s in a spaceship with angels who informed him that he was God and instructed him on how to govern the world. Public records say he was a truck driver.
Universe People	Specific cult in Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The Urantia Book	Over two thousand pages of anonymous, religious, subconscious ramblings on religion and "God" (whatever that means in the billion planets out there).
Xenu	An ancient interstellar dictator who unleashed a genocide which created Christianity and psychiatry and whose story is "calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc.) anyone who attempts to solve it".
Yakub (Nation of Islam)	Mad scientist creates white race.

Christianity

A representation of Kolob (reference numeral 1).

"Thou shalt commit adultery." So says the Bible.

Adam-God doctrine	A previous Christian belief that Adam was an alien who became God on his death.
Alexamenos graffito	Possibly the oldest depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus was made by a boy mocking his Christian peer by depicting the Messiah with a donkey for a head.
The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters	Started by Peter the Great, and consisted mostly of drinking and partying.
As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly	An oldie but a goodie from the Bible.
Banquet of Chestnuts	Enough to make even the most committed and diehard Roman Catholic agree that the church was in a pretty poor state at the time of the Reformation.
Bible errata	A typesetter's complaint finds justification in Psalm 119.
Carlo Acutis	a to-be Catholic patron saint of influencers. He was also an epic gamer
Cadaver Synod	In 897, Pope Stephen VI had the body of the former Pope that appointed him, Pope Formosus exhumed, dressed in papal vestments and then seated on a throne while he read charges against it and conducted a trial.
Caganer	A traditional Catalan statue, similar to a garden gnome, that depicts a person defecating. Often included in Catalan nativity scenes or other Christmas decorations.
Christmas in Nazi Germany	The Nazi Party reinvented Christmas by removing a certain baby boy raised in the Jewish faith.
Church of the First Born of the Lamb of God	A fundamentalist Mormon group with a surprisingly large body count.
Chute na santa incident	An infamous kicking of a saint. Apparently done to one-up a rival TV network's previous blasphemous broadcasting.
Clare of Assisi	Because she claimed to have seen and heard Mass on the walls when she was ill, she was made the patron saint of television in 1958, despite dying 674 years before television was invented.
Criticism of Mother Teresa	Seriously? Yep, seriously. Her detractors include Christopher Hitchens, Tariq Ali and devout Hindus.
David Berg	A Christian cult leader that was so perverse, even Jim Jones mocked his sexual fixations.
Harold Davidson	A 1930s Church of England clergyman, known as "The Prostitutes' Padre", who was defrocked and later died after being mauled by a toothless lion.
Ejaculatory prayer	A short and impulsive prayer not—as the name may suggest—a prayer related to ejaculation.
Ruben Enaje	A former construction worker from the Philippines who has been voluntarily crucified 35 times as of 2024.
Ezekiel 23	One of the odder visions from God: a piece of Rule 34 with Samaria and Jerusalem portrayed as women who sleep around.
Feast of the Ass	No... this isn't about that ass. It's an old tradition where a girl and a child on a donkey go to church together, with the donkey sitting beside the altar during the sermon.
Flirty Fishing	Sharing the Gospel through prostitution.
Freedomites	A Canadian religious cult that bombed and set fire to public buildings. All while nude.
Gambling on papal elections	How much you wanna bet he's going to be Catholic?
General Butt Naked	A former Liberian warlord who found Christ and now preaches to the communities he committed atrocities against would be pretty odd even if he weren't called... that.
Great Disappointment	Hundreds of people were convinced the world would end on a very specific date. Turns out they were wrong. Ahem.
Hell house	A type of Christian horror house to make children more pious.
Holy Prepuce	One of several relics purported to be associated with Jesus. Also known as The Holy Foreskin. (See also Circumcision of Jesus.)
Jesus H. Christ	Does it stand for Henry?
Kolob	Which star does God live on?
List of people claimed to be Jesus	Christ has risen...again...and again.
Luce	Don't mess with this jubilee mascot! She has the power of God and anime on her side!
Mental health of Jesus	Many say "Hey look it's Jesus!" But none say "How is Jesus doing?"
Miracle of the Sun	70,000 people in Portugal gather to witness a miracle and are treated to an inexplicable solar event.
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God	Suicide cult or mass murder? You decide.
Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible	The Bible refers to lost books – even pagan ones – much more than you'd think.
Omphalos hypothesis	The answer to all the evidence against creationism – maybe the Earth was created to look like it was billions of years old!
Phallic saint	Figures of holy people, but a hundred times more hung.
Pope Joan	Medieval documents cite the existence of a female pope – proof of a Vatican cover up or a blasphemous slur?
Pope John numbering	There have been 21 legitimate Popes John, but there have been two known as John XXIII.
Pope Michael	Elected Pope in 1990 (by six people, including his parents) as a conclavist opponent to the current Pope, while not even an ordained priest.
Pornocracy	A near-60-year period, also known as Saeculum obscurum or the "Rule of the Harlots", where the Popes were controlled by the women of a corrupt noble family.
Prophecy of the Popes	According to this document, Pope Francis is the one who will bring about the fall of Rome. Most aren't convinced.
Rod of Iron Ministries	An offshoot of the unification church based in Pennsylvania that says that the rod of iron described in the Book of Revelation is actually a good 'ol American AR-15. They also preform ceramonies with the firearm.
Rumspringa	Amish Gone Wild.
Saint Guinefort	A Saint who was also a dog. Not to be confused with this Saint, who was also a dog. Sort of.
Secret Gospel of Mark	An incredibly elaborate forgery, or proof Jesus was gay?
Self-crucifixion of Mattio Lovat	An Italian attempts to crucify himself in public settings. Two times. And prevented by passerby in both attempts.
Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tonga	One of only a few territories (others notably including Samoa and Kiribati) where the famously Saturday-observing church observes the Sabbath on Sunday.
Skoptsy	"Holy" emasculation, started by a man who claimed to be a deceased emperor.
St. James-Bond Church	No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour!
Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera	Was Jesus' father buried in Germany?
Unfulfilled Christian religious predictions	Doomsdays that didn't.
Wicked Bible	A 1631 reprint of the King James Bible, which rendered commandment number 7 as "Thou shalt commit adultery".
Zipporah at the inn	God apparently tries (and fails) to kill Moses.

See also