Skeptically.org

As its name suggests, this website encourages visitors to take a skeptical attitude toward “facts” and views promoted by established government, business, political, and religious institutions. The authors of the site believe that misinformation put out by these institutions causes great harm to individuals, and to society in general, and one of the purposes of the site is to correct this misinformation by giving the true facts.

The site contains more than a thousand individual articles. The titles in the main index give a good indication of who its authors regard as their major opponents. These titles include “Reforming Big Pharma”, “U.S. Stolen Elections”, “Social Justice – Eight Steps Forward”, “Holy Horrors”, and “American Justice Revealed through Published Federal Cases”. There are also a number of articles about economic theory and the defects of capitalism.

The most depressing article I read is called “Holy Horrors”. It contains a long list of atrocities, enslavements, and mass murders committed in the name of religion. Examples include the human sacrifices of the Incas and Aztecs, the Christian persecutions of the Jews, the Thug murderers of India, the “holy wars” of Islam, and the torturing and burning of thousands of witches by Christians. The article points out that religious wars aren’t just things of the past, but still occur in the modern world, and mentions recent conflicts in northern Ireland, Croatia, Palestine, and Kashmir as examples.

Go to Skeptically.org to view this site. In addition to the articles, there are also videos, cartoons, and book reviews.

The Weird Encyclopedia

As its name indicates, this is an encyclopedia of the “weird”. This word is apparently interpreted quite broadly, because the index of subjects includes such diverse entries as acupuncture, alien abductions, angels, Bigfoot, conjoined twins, demonic possession, devil’s footprints, the elephant man, Joan of Arc, speaking in tongues, the Hope Diamond Curse, unicorns, voodoo, werewolves, and zombies.

In addition to the main articles, there is also a “True Stories” section in which visitors can describe their own personal weird experiences, such as encounters with ghosts, aliens, or strange animals.

In an article called “Demons A to Z”, I found a long list of individual demons with accompanying names and descriptions. I learned that a demon named Amduscas is a “Grand Duke of Hell who commands 29 legions of devils”, and that Lilith is a well-known female demon who was the first wife of Adam before he married Eve.

This is a very large site, and a visitor could spend many hours perusing its varied content. To see it for yourself, go to Weird Encyclopedia.

Demonic Possession

Recently I came across an interesting article about demonic possession and exorcism. The idea that an evil spirit can take control of a person’s body is found in many societies. But most of the discussion in this article is focused on Christian beliefs about the subject.

I was surprised to learn that the first miracle of Jesus mentioned in the Gospel of Mark is an exorcism. Before he expelled the demon, he had a conversation with it, since it was able to control the vocal chords of the possessed man. Jesus expelled it simply by ordering it to leave the man’s body.

According to the article, in modern exorcisms the demon will often actively resist being expelled, and sometimes the process becomes so violent that the victim is tied down, beaten, or even starved. In a few cases, people have actually died as a result of attempted exorcisms.

John 7:20 says that Jesus himself was even accused of being possessed by a demon. The article says that this was an explanation for his ability to perform miracles. In ancient times it was thought that a possessed person could have unusual powers.

The article points out that the possessed people mentioned in the gospels probably had mental illnesses, and that demonic possession is similar to multiple personality disorder. And Jesus may have cured them by using psychological techniques.

To read this article, go to Demon Possession

Occultopedia

This website contains a large collection of articles about the “occult”. From the main index page, I gathered that this word covers a very broad range of topics, including alchemy, astrology, demons, angels, lost worlds, magic, voodoo, witchcraft, myths, pseudoscience, religious mysteries, secret societies, UFOs, extraterrestrials, and superstitions. Perhaps the best general adjectives for all of this would be “mysterious” and “unexplained”.

The Religious Mysteries section contains articles about such subjects as the Devil, demonic possession, speaking in tongues, reincarnation, stigmata, the Shroud of Turin, Jesus, religious relics, and faith healing. From the stigmata article, I learned that blood can somehow slowly ooze from stigmata even though there are no breaks in the skin. The article on demonic possession says that the voice and facial expression of a possessed person can change during periods when the demon has overt control of the body.

This very large website also includes an art gallery, a shop, a very extensive bibliography, and a long list of links to other sites.

To visit this site, go to Occultopedia

WikiMedia Commons

This free resource contains images and maps on almost any conceivable subject. As with the main Wikipedia site, nearly all of this material is contributed by users. Also, most of the images and maps are in the public domain, meaning that anyone can freely use them.

The site keeps a running count of the number of available free files, and when I checked today, the count has reached more than 2.4 million. In addition to images and maps, the material also includes photographs, diagrams, animations, music, spoken text, and video clips. This is an amazing resource for anyone looking for free images, photos or video to put on their website or blog. And the treasure only continues to grow as people upload new material.

According to the site’s guidelines, you are free to use any of the files on the site, provided that you credit the source and the authors, and also release your copies/improvements under the same freedom to others. To this end, the database and the texts in it are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. More details about this license, and about usage guidelines can be found on the site.

Wikimedia Commons is almost wholly supported by the public, since it depends on contributions of material, on volunteers, and on private donations to pay for the tremendous expense of operating an image resource site. Check it out today.