All Fun and Games

It has been estimated that over 100,000 different religious faiths have existed since the dawn of humankind. Most of them, obviously, have failed. (source)

The oldest religious custom is that of burying the dead, which has religious connotations. There is evidence of Neanderthals burying the dead as early as 60,000 B.C., in the Shanidar cave in northern Iraq. (source)

Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (reigned circa 1351–1334 B.C.) was the first recorded monotheist. He decreed that Aten was the only god that was to be worshipped, and the images of the old official god, Amun, were destroyed. However, this revolution did not affect the general population, who continued to worship their own regional gods, and after his death the old gods were reinstated. (source)

Confucius, the Chinese sage, was a poor boy who began life as a store-keeper. (source)

The Greek philosopher Thales (624-546 B.C.) is considered to be the first philosopher, as he was the first man in history to ask questions such as "Of what is the Universe made?", and to answer without introducing gods and demons. In later centuries, when the Greeks made up lists of the "seven wise men", Thales invariably was placed first. (source)

Socrates, one of the greatest philosophers of Ancient Greece, was forced to commit suicide by drinking hemlock after he was found guilty of "corrupting the youth of Athens". (source)

Why were the first lunar missions nicknamed "Apollo"? At the height of Greek colonization of the ancient world, Apollo was seen as a god who accompanied emigrants and travelers on their way. The name "Apollo" was suggested by Abe Silverstein, an early director of the Lewis Research Center and one of the "founding fathers" of NASA's Manned Spaceflight Center (now Johnson Space Center) in Houston. (source)

According to the rules of logic, the question "What would happen if an irresistible force met an immovable object?" is meaningless. In a universe where one of the above conditions exists, by definition the other cannot exist. (source)

The philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was the first person to propose that what we now call galaxies lay outside the Milky Way and were indeed galaxies (or "island universes", as Kant called them) in their own right.

Isaac Asimov, one of the most prolific authors of the 20^th century, has a book in all of the major categories of the Dewey Decimal System—except for the 100s (Philosophy and Psychology). (source)

The largest religious building ever constructed is Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, which encloses 402 acres. It was built in honour of the god Vishnu by the Khmer King Suryavarman II between 1113 and 1150. (source)

The Donatists of fourth-century North Africa were so committed to martyrdom that they would stop strangers, demanding to be killed by them. Because they threatened the strangers with death if they refused, this demand was frequently met.

Gerbert of Aurillac, who became Pope Sylvester II, was the greatest Latin scholar of his age. In his youth he went to Muslim Spain to study philosophy and mathematics. The education he received from his Arabic teachers made him so intellectually superior to his Christian contemporaries that for many centuries Gerbert was regarded as the possessor of mysterious powers of sorcery and black magic.

The seven deadly sins (anger, covetousness, envy, gluttony, lust, pride, and sloth) do not appear in the Bible; they were first set forth by St. Thomas Aquinas. (source)

The philosopher Spinoza enjoyed watching spiders fight.

Socrates was said to always have worn an old, worn-out coat, always to have gone shoeless, and to have been ugly. (source)

Nietzsche's autobiographical Ecce Homo includes chapters entitled "Why I Am So Wise," "Why I Am So Clever," and "Why I Write Such Good Books". (source)

Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most significant philosophers of the 20th century, gave away his share of his large inheritance in 1919, not to the poor, whom he believed might be corrupted by the wealth, but to some of his already rich relatives, believing that it wouldn't corrupt them further. In 1935 he applied to emigrate to the Soviet Union and become a Russian peasant. While the Soviet Union was willing to welcome him as a professor, they didn't need any more peasants so Wittgenstein returned to Britain. Later on in his career at Cambridge, if any of his philosophy students expressed any interest in pursuing philosophy, he would ban them from attending any more of his classes.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) did not demand a return of humans to a natural state, where they would live like animals. He believed that people were fundamentally good, but civilisation often led to injustice and misfortune. He proposed a democratic social contract and and education that didn't destroy children's natural tendency towards good.

While most of us believe that we "obviously" have free will, many that study the subject become less convinced, believing that everything that we do is determined (determinism). Whatever happens happens for a reason, and all processes, including all decisions that humans make, are caused by other processes. Otherwise, there would be no order in the world.

Four major religions were born in India: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. These religions are followed by 25% of the world's population. (source)

Hedonism, the living in accordance with the principles of pleasure, was introduced by the Greek philosopher Epicurus (circa 341–270 B.C.). However, he advocated a simple life, not overindulgence in pleasure, because anyone who leads a simple life will get more pleasure from pleasurable occasions than someone inured to those pleasures.

The smallest chapel in the world can be found on the grounds of a Benedictine monastery near Covington, Kentucky, U.S.A. Not much larger than a telephone booth, it was built by Brother Albert Soltis for his personal use in 1878 and can accommodate no more than three people at once. (source)

The South American country of Suriname consists of about 23% Catholics, 25% Protestants, 20% Muslims, and 27% Hindus. As well, many of the native people practise traditional animism, a population of former black slaves whose ancestors escaped into the rainforest practise an African syncretic faith, and its Chinese community practises Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. (source)

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) was not Machiavellian. He wrote a book in 1519 called The Prince, which describes how a ruler must be cruel to keep in power. Machiavelli, however, was a philosopher, musician, playwright and poet, not a statesman, and so didn't commit any such cruel acts.

Because Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) laid great stress on duty, emphasising that valid ethical rules must be applied under all circumstances, he gained a reputation for being dry and humourless. However, that reputation was incorrect, as he was a great conversationalist, an excellent host, and a witty and imaginative lecturer.

In 1997, U.S. News & World Report surveyed readers as to whether they believed that various well-known figures were "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to go to heaven. More people (87%) picked themselves as being likely to get into heaven than anyone else, ahead of people such as Mother Teresa (second place, 79%) or Oprah Winfrey (third place, 66%). (source)

It is estimated that over 7,500,000,000 copies of the Bible have been made. (source)

In the 2001 census for England and Wales, around 390,000 people listed their religion as "Jedi". The United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics does not recognise "Jedi" as a separate category, so people listing "Jedi" were classified as atheists. (source)

The Free Pentecostal Holiness Church is a fundamentalist Christian sect with branches in the southern United States. Its members believe the Bible to be the literal word of God. As Mark 16:18 states that true believers can defy serpents, poison, and fire, as part of their religious services the congregation will handle rattlesnakes, drink strychnine and touch fire, apparently without discomfort or ill effect. (source)

The Temple of the True Inner Light, a storefront church in Greenwich Village in New York City, was attracting worshippers in 1988 by offering as the communion drink dipropyl tryptamine, a legal yet powerful psychadelic drug. (source)

The English name for the chief Christian feast, Easter, comes from Eostre, the name of the pagan Anglo-Saxon goddess of dawn. (source)