People can be manipulated to believe in absolutely anything.
I don’t think it is possible to think of something so outrageously fantastical that no one will believe it?
Humans will believe anything, no matter how ludicrous, absurd, incredible, irrational, illogical, contradictory and inconsistent.
Among humans collectively there is no such thing as beyond
belief.
Nothing is too stupid for humans to believe in.
People don't believe what is, they believe what they wish were.
Mankind has a history of totally ludicrous beliefs.
Ninety percent of the humans on this planet believe in some sort of
supernatural phenomena.
If believing in the supernatural is considered
normal, how outrageous do your beliefs have to be before you are considered delusional?
All religions require a permanent suspension of disbelief.
Here are some examples of totally irrational beliefs.
TOTALLY BIZARRE BELIEFS
Immortality
Most humans actually believe that they are immortal. To
overcome the simple fact that all humans die, they simply ascribe all the functions known to be performed by our brains, to this imaginary concept they call ‘soul’, and these ‘souls’ are of course eternal. They believe that their bodies are just a temporary vessel for their souls. These souls have a functional memory, they can think, do maths, see, hear, imagine, in fact they can do all the things that make up our personality. To believe this they have to simply ignore the mountains of overwhelming evidence that all thinking is a function of brains.
Ignore the fact that brain injury can lead to memory loss and dozens of other malfunctions.
Like I said, people don't believe what is, they believe what they wish were.
A Good God
Nothing is to contradictory to believe.
Billions of people believe that a god that murdered every single person (exept for Noah’s family) and most of life on earth, a god that cursed humanity with death and disease and floods and famine, a god that threatens infinite torture if you do not love and worship him, is actually a good, caring, benevolent, merciful god.
Demons
millions of people believe;
that there is this 'evil force' floating around, waiting for an opportunity to take over their 'souls'. The symptoms of a
possessed 'soul' are; foaming at the mouth, vomiting, violent spasms,
levitation, screaming profanities and blaspheming etc. To unposses,
(exorcise)
sprinkle some 'holy' water and display a crucifix.
Transubstantiation
As if the catholic transubstantiation ritual is not bizarre enough hundreds of Jews were killed for driving nails through communion wafer.
The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 proclaimed the doctrine of transubstantiation: that the host wafer miraculously turns into the body of Jesus during the mass. Soon rumors spread that Jews were stealing the sacred wafers and stabbing or driving nails through them, to crucify Jesus again. Reports said that the pierced wafers bled, cried out, or emitted spirits. On this charge, Jews were burned at the stake in 1243 in Belitz, Germany -- the first of many killings that continued into the 1800s. To avenge the tortured wafers, the German knight Rindfliesch led a brigade in 1298 that exterminated 146 defenseless Jewish communities in six months.
Tea leaf madness
some people believe;
in the power of tea leaves.
There are educated people who believe that it is possible to read the
future in the pattern of tea leaves left in the bottom of a teacup.
The absurdity of these beliefs are mindboggling. What depressing stupidity.
Either they believe that the tea leaves not only know the future, but also arrange themselves in a pattern that can be read by certain 'gifted' individuals that know the code,
or
they believe there is a tea leaf god who knows the future and
arranges the leaves in a readable code. The same with tarot cards, bones, the internal organs of a slaughtered animal, stars and planets etc.
some people believe;
that the position of stars and planets has an effect on personal events on earth. They believe that the position of the planets when you were born determines your charactor and the position of the planets on any
particular day determines your fate and day to day events like whether you will meet a tall dark stranger, or get a promotion or win the lottery.
Because the future positions of the planets are predictable people link this predictability of the future to totally unrelated future events here on earth, thereby trying to make the unpredictable predictable.
some people believe;
that the soles of their feat are directly connected to all the other parts of the body and that by pressing on specific areas on the
sole you can heal the connected part like the liver or heart or kidney or back etc.
some people believe;
that a glass placed upside down on a table within a cicle of the alphebeta and a group of people around will attract a 'spirit' into the class. This spirit will then move the class around and answer questions.
SPIRITUALISM
some people believe;
in astro traveling.
some people believe;
that you can communicate with people that have died.
some people believe;
that they have communicated with people that have died.
some people believe;
possessing the severed hand of a white man will make them rich.
some people believe;
that rhino horn is an aphrodisiac.
some people believe;
that they get reincarnated as rats and these rats get re-reincarnated back into humans again. In their place of worship over twenty
thousand rats have total free reign, often crawling all over worshipers. Large bowls of milk are laid out for these rats and the milk that is left is believed to have curative powers, curing the very diseases known by science to be spread by rats e.g. bubonic plague, typhoid etc.
some people believe;
that Elvis is a second Jesus.
ALIENS
some people believed;
that an alien spacecraft was hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet and it was coming to take their ‘souls’ to another happy galaxy. (the heavans gate cult)
some people believe;
that earth is frequently visited by aliens
some people believe;
that some people have been kidnapped by aliens and subjected to scientific probing
some people believe;
that they have been kidnapped by aliens and subjected to scientific probing.
some people believe;
that the center of the earth is hollow and that there is a highly advanced species living inside who are responsible for ‘mysterious’
phenomena like UFOs, the Bermuda triangle, etc.
millions of people believe;
in a omnipotent, omni present, all knowing,
loving and just god that listens to and sometimes even acts on personal
requests. (prayers)
"Beam me up Scotty, there is no intelligent life on this planet!"