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  Urban Legends Reference Pages:
Religion
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A familiar aspect of many religions is the use of narratives such as parables and fables to teach and reinforce moral attitudes and religious principles in forms easy to assimilate and remember. Likewise, urban legends are narratives often used to spread and reaffirm societal mores and beliefs, and since much of our moral code is mirrored in religion, the world of parables and urban legendry frequently intersect.

All stories teach us something, and promise us something, whether they're true or invented, legend or fact. — Stewart O'Nan

    The legends and stories indexed on this page are preceded by colored bullets:

        Green bullet identifies true statements or legends based on real occurrences.

        Red bullet indicates false statements.

        Yellow bullet indicates statements of undetermined or ambiguous veracity.

        White bullet indicates legends of indeterminate origin.

Select this link for an expanded definition of our rating system.

Urban Legends References Pages © 1995-2003
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
This material may not be reproduced without permission


Religion

  Red bullet NASA scientists discovered a lost day in time.

  White bullet Atheist professor challenges God to keep a piece of chalk from breaking.

  White bullet Son discovers wealth secreted in a spurned Bible.

  Red bullet Alabama redefined the value of pi to 3 to bring it in line with Biblical precepts.

  Red bullet Scientists drilling in Siberia punch through to Hell.

  Red bullet A group known as 'The Second Coming Project' is seeking to clone Jesus from the DNA of holy relics.

  Red bullet You must sign a petition to stop Jesus from being portrayed as a homosexual in an upcoming film.*

  Red bullet Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair is circulating a petition to have religious broadcasting banned from American airwaves.*

  Green bullet The Rev. Joe Wright offered a controversial prayer at the opening of a Kansas legislative session.*

  Red bullet Attorney General Janet Reno defined a cultist as someone "who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second Coming of Christ . . ."*

  Red bullet Mike Hutchinson, a missionary serving in Africa, is about to be hanged for the accidental death of a pedestrian.

  Red bullet Prayers are needed for David Allen, a missionary serving in Thailand, who is wasting away from an unknown disease.

  White bullet John Michael Montgomery's song "The Little Girl" is based on a true story.*

  Red bullet St. Chad is the patron saint of disputed elections.

  Red bullet George W. Bush took a half hour off from glad-handing supporters at a 'thank you' dinner to witness for Christ to a teenage boy.*

  Red bullet John Wayne was brought to Jesus thanks to a note from an evangelist's injured teenage daughter.*

  Red bullet Marking 'Jedi' as your religion on census forms will force your government to grant it official status.

  Red bullet The red dot on a Hindu woman's forehead is nothing more than an indicator of her marital status.

  Multi-colored bullet Having survived a horrific storm, a slave trader promptly gave up his livelihood, became a Christian, and penned the hymn 'Amazing Grace' in thanksgiving.

  Red bullet Woman dies leaping through her car's sunroof when events conspire to convince her Jesus has returned.

  Red bullet Man contemplating suicide receives a phone call from Almighty God.

  Red bullet Orthodox Jews have marital relations through a hole in a sheet.

  Yellow bullet 7th graders in California are subjected to an intense three-week course in Islam and are forced to pray to Allah and memorize Koran verses.

  Green bullet By proclamation of Governor George W. Bush, 10 June 2000 was 'Jesus Day' in Texas.

  Multi-colored bullet A Saudi Arabian newspaper ran an article claiming that Jews use the blood of Christians and Muslims in foods created to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim.

  Multi bullet Psalm 118 is the center of the Bible.

  Red bullet Certain symbols displayed on the packaging of a variety of grocery items signify that their manufacturers have paid a secret tax to the Jews.*

  Green bullet Billy Graham and John Wayne had a hand in the creation of the song "It Is No Secret."

  Red bullet Teen dies in car crash with dashboard-mounted plastic Jesus in her heart.

  Red bullet Quranic verse speaks of the "wrath of the Eagle cleansing the lands of Allah."*

  Green bullet Lightning strikes a church during a sermon after preacher identifies thunder as the voice of God.

  Green bullet A physician once placed dying patients upon a scale in order to measure the weight of the human soul.

  Red bullet While a student, Albert Einstein humiliated an atheist professor by using the "Evil is the absence of God" argument on him.

  Yellow bullet The practice of raising a finger when leaving the Sanctuary originated with slaves signaling they'd received permission from their masters to absent themselves.

  Red bullet Not permitted to celebrate Christmas in Meulaboh, Christians gathered on a high hill nearby and thus were spared when the tsunami wiped out the city.

  Yellow bullet Part of the process of determining that a Pope has died call for him to be tapped on the forehead with a silver hammer.

  Red bullet Airlines will not pair Christian pilots and co-pilots out of fear that The Rapture will snatch away both crewmembers capable of landing the flight.

  Red bullet The exclamation 'Holy Smoke' derives from the burning of the ballots used to elect a Pope.*

  Multi-colored bullet In response to the death of his wife and child, the famous jazz band leader Tommy Dorsey wrote Precious Lord.*

  Yellow bullet An archaeologist discovered the Pharaoh's chariot and bones of horses and men in the Red Sea.

* Entries marked with an asterisk will display in a separate browser window

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/religion

 
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