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A group of unusual religious movements known as "cargo cults" appeared on several small Pacific islands during the first half of the 20th century. These islands had been claimed as colonies by various industrialized countries, and small numbers of foreigners had come to live on them. Most of these foreigners were Christian missionaries, government officials, soldiers, or businessmen. After they began arriving, ships would sometimes deliver supplies to them, and the native people would usually help unload the cargo.
Many of the items in this delivered cargo amazed the natives. Because they had never seen any modern manufactured goods, they thought that the items must have been created through miracles or supernatural effects. Not surprisingly, they began looking for ways to acquire such items themselves, and this is what led to the formation of the cargo cults.
The beliefs and practices associated with these cults varied from one island to another. For example, the natives on some islands thought that the manufactured items in the deliveries must have been created by gods. Another explanation, which appeared on at least one island, was that the items had been made by the natives' own dead ancestors. In this case the natives believed that the items were intended for them, but that the foreigners were intercepting and stealing everything.
Several of these cults appeared on islands that were temporarily occupied by American military forces during the Second World War. As the war progressed, the natives on these islands witnessed deliveries of large quantities of equipment and supplies. Sometimes they were even given gifts, such as candy and cigarettes, that came from the cargo. After the war ended, the Americans left and the deliveries stopped arriving. But on several islands cargo cults were formed to try to get the deliveries resumed. For this purpose, the members of these cults tried to use a form of sympathetic magic in which they imitated the earlier activities of the Americans. For example, on one island they dressed in clothes that resembled U.S. army uniforms and conducted military drills under an American flag. On another island they built a landing strip to try to attract airplanes. Of course, no cargo miraculously arrived, and on most islands these cults eventually disappeared.
49. Monuments Built by a God
The mysterious ruins of Tiahuanaco lie about 4000 meters [12,500 feet] above sea level at a remote location in western Bolivia. According to many experts, the precision and quality of the stonework at the site is unmatched anywhere in the world. Some of the individual stone blocks weigh more than 70 tons and were transported from a quarry about 10 kilometers [6 miles] away. One well-known monument, the Gateway of the Sun, was cut with remarkable precision from a single block of a very hard type of rock called andesite. The overall workmanship at the site is so good that modern stone-cutters equipped with steel tools and electrically-powered machinery would find it hard to achieve the same quality.
According to scientists who have studied Tiahuanaco, it was a major ceremonial center of a pre-Inca civilization that arose in the region about 2000 years ago. Eventually, for unknown reasons, this civilization disappeared. Centuries later, when the first Spanish explorers reached the area, the people who lived near Tiahuanaco knew virtually nothing about the earlier civilization. In fact, these people believed that the structures at the site had been built by a god. They also believed that this god, whose name was Viracocha, had created some gigantic artificial robots to help move the massive stones.
Note: Because the precision and quality of the stonework at Tiahuanaco is so remarkable, some people refuse to believe that pre-modern humans would have been capable of building it. There is even a theory that it was actually built by aliens from another planet who visited the earth thousands of years ago. Some supporters of this theory say that native legends depicted these aliens as gods, and that this could have led to the belief that Tiahuanaco was built by a god. Of course this theory is mostly speculation.
The belief that diseases and deformities can be miraculously cured through supernatural effects is found in many parts of the world. It is even common in some advanced societies where modern medical treatments are available. Unfortunately, modern medical practices still can't cure many conditions, and people sometimes become so desperate that they turn to unconventional treatments like faith healing. It is most often used in attempts to treat conditions such as cancer, arthritis, paralysis, and tuberculosis. It has also traditionally been used to cure blindness, deafness, mental disorders, lameness, and leprosy.
Faith healing is also called divine healing. Attempts to use it as a method of treatment probably originated in prehistoric times, and many ancient people believed in its effectiveness. According to the bible, Jesus could cure people almost instantly just by saying a few words. Saint Paul also performed some miraculous cures. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he wrote that the ability to heal is one of the special gifts of the Holy Spirit, and that certain people may possess this gift to a very high degree. Most modern Christian healers attribute their supposed abilities to the power of the Holy Spirit.
Some modern faith healers in the United States claim to have cured hundreds of people. Some have even performed apparent cures on live television. But there are many skeptics who doubt that any of these cures were genuine. Actually, a few apparent cures could have been brought about by the placebo effect or by spontaneous remission, because the human body is sometimes able to heal itself naturally. But there is evidence that many claimed healings are fraudulent. There have also been reports that some televangelistic healers have become very wealthy from contributions sent in by their viewers.
Members of some religious groups have such a strong belief in faith healing that they oppose the use of modern medical techniques, and refuse to see doctors or go to hospitals. Some people have even been charged with crimes after their children died from diseases or conditions that could have been successfully treated by modern methods. But prosecutors in such cases have had difficulty obtaining convictions, because the accused often use legal guarantees of religious freedom as part of their defense.
In ancient Arabian folklore, ghouls are fiendish creatures that open up graves during the night and eat the rotting flesh of dead bodies. They are a type of invisible spirit called a Jinn (or genie), but they can also assume a physical form, and sometimes appear in the guise of a human or animal. However, no matter what form they take, they always leave the hoof prints of a donkey. In addition to eating corpses, they also rob graves, drink blood, steal coins, and kill young children. The only defense against a ghoul is to strike it dead in one blow, because a second blow will bring it back to life again.
Ideas about ghouls can be traced back to the pre-Islamic superstitions of the ancient Middle East. Members of some desert-dwelling tribes originally called them "ghuls". After Islam became the main religion in the region, its followers tried to eradicate the old superstitions. But belief in ghouls persisted, and the creatures were eventually incorporated into Islam as one form of a type of spirit called a Jinn (or genie). Some descriptions of them say that they are the offspring of the Devil. In modern Islamic countries, stories about ghouls are sometimes used to frighten a disobedient child.
52. Egyptian Crocodile Worship
One of the religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians was that a god called Sebek (or Sobek) could appear on the earth in the form of a living crocodile. At one time some people even believed that this god had taken the form of a particular crocodile named Petsuchos which lived in a large pool of water beside a temple in the Fayyum province. Because this crocodile supposedly was a god in disguise, it was fed the best cuts of meat, and was pampered so much that it became quite tame. The priests at the temple even put golden rings in its ears and gold bracelets on its legs.
Ever since ancient times, the appearance of a bright comet in the sky has been regarded as an evil omen. This is because comets have long been seen as signs of impending disastrous events, such as the death of a great ruler or the outbreak of a plague. The ancient Romans recorded that a brilliant comet appeared just before the assassination of Julius Caesar, and a fiery comet seen in 1665 was blamed for a flareup of bubonic plague in London that killed 90,000 people. When a comet appeared in 1519, the Aztec king Montezuma saw it as an omen that his empire would soon be destroyed (and it soon was). Some people in the United States even connected the American defeat at the Alamo in 1835 to an appearance of Halley's Comet that year.
Some people still regard comets as bad omens. When a comet named Kohoutek approached the vicinity of the earth in 1973, members of an American religious sect called the Children of God predicted that a terrible disaster was about to occur. And in 1997 thirty-nine members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide in California because they believed that the approach of a comet named Hale-Bopp foretold the destruction of civilization.
Other types of heavenly events have also traditionally been regarded as omens. Some past eclipses of the sun have produced even more fear than comets normally do. But some events, such as the sighting of a shooting star, have usually been viewed as good omens. Another example of a good omen is the sudden appearance of a very bright new star. Astronomers call a bright new star a "supernova", and believe that they are created when a very faint star suddenly explodes and temporarily becomes much brighter. To ancient people, a supernova often appeared to be a totally new star, and in some societies its sudden appearance was thought to signal the birth of a great future leader. Some historians think that the Star of Bethlehem, which appeared just before the birth of Jesus, was a supernova.
Note: Because supernovas are created by explosions, they gradually become dimmer as time passes, and within a few years most of them are no longer visible to the naked eye.
The religion known as Zoroastrianism is based on the teachings of an ancient Persian prophet named Zoroaster (also called Zarathustra), who probably lived at least 2500 years ago. One of the unusual aspects of this religion is the practice of placing dead human bodies on top of a structure known as a Tower of Silence, and then allowing the flesh to be eaten by vultures and other birds. These "towers" are actually solid structures, made of stone, which resemble a circular building with a flat roof. After a corpse is placed on the roof, vultures usually eat all of the flesh within a short time, leaving the bones picked clean.
Zoroastrians consider earth, water, air and fire to be sacred, but regard the putrefying flesh of a dead body as unclean. They have traditionally avoided burial because the decaying body would defile the sacred earth. Similarly, they oppose cremation because the burning flesh would pollute the sacred fire. They can avoid these desecrations by using Towers of Silence to dispose of their dead.
The roofs of these towers are divided into three concentric rings. The bodies of men are put in the outer ring, bodies of women go into the middle ring, and dead children are placed in the inner ring. Vultures often sit on a tower to be ready in case a new corpse arrives. After the bones of a body are picked clean, they are collected and put into a pit sunk into the center of the roof, where they eventually disintegrate.
After Muslim invaders conquered Persia in the 7th century, the new rulers discriminated against Zoroastrians, and during the following centuries a large majority of the population gradually converted to Islam. Many of the remaining Zoroastrians migrated to other areas, including India, where they are now known as Parsis (or Parsees). According to most estimates, less than 25,000 practicing Zoroastrians still live within the area of ancient Persia, which roughly corresponds to the modern country of Iran.
During the last decades of the 20th century, the government of Iran began making attempts to prohibit the use of the towers for disposal of the dead. Also during this period, vandals began stealing corpses from the towers. As a result, the Zoroastrians in Iran have started burying their dead in graves that are lined with concrete to prevent direct contact with the earth. Many Zoroastrians in India still use the towers, but have run into difficulties because of a drastic decline in the population of vultures. According to some reports, more than 99% of the birds have died from exposure to a drug given to livestock. With fewer birds available, a corpse may lie on a tower for several weeks before all of the flesh is eaten.
In Islamic descriptions of hell, the Tree of Zaqqum grows at the lowest level. Its fruits, which look like the heads of devils, have a horrible taste. If one of them is plucked from the tree and eaten, it puts out thorns that rip into the inner lining of the belly. It also becomes so hot that it burns any flesh it touches inside the body.
As part of their punishment, the sinners in hell are always starving. In their search for food, they eventually reach the lowest level and find the Zaqqum Tree. Driven to desperation by hunger, they eat the disgusting fruit. But it doesn't alleviate their hunger or provide any nourishment to their bodies. Instead, it burns and lacerates the inside of their stomachs.
Hunger also drives sinners in hell to eat the festering pus that oozes from the sores on their own bodies. Their other possible foods include the burned flesh of other sinners and the discharge that flows from the private parts of condemned adulterers. In other words, if you end up in the Islamic hell, don't expect to enjoy any fine dining there.
