Smallest Mass Wedding Infographic

From what I've heard, polyamorous relationships can work, but require a lot of hard work and communication. This is definitely not an ideal way to start.

©2015 James Mathurin

Most gods sighted in one place Infographic

Faith and food, are they ever that far apart?

©2015 James Mathurin

Quickest Holy Crusade Infographic

Frankly, crusades are never good news. If they had all been over as quickly as this one, it would have been for the best.

©2015 James Mathurin

Apocalyptic 1980s London cult Infographic

So, the apocalypse didn't happen in 1985. Still, you have to admire the tenacity of apocalyptic cults from the East End.

©2014 James Mathurin

Oldest Public Transportation System infographic

An infographic of the archaeological dig that discovered the world's oldest public transportation system.

©2013 James Mathurin

The most people ever converted to a religion Infographic

Infographic for a large-scale conversion.

©2013 James Mathurin

World's most excessive Instruction manual Infographic

This one originally went up not too long ago, so here's the infographic version.

©2013 James Mathurin

The world’s most excessive instruction manual

The world’s most excessive instruction manual is produced by Better Beverage Industries, of Houston, Texas. The manual accompanies their novelty Easter coffee mug, with scenes of the crucifixion around the outside, and the interior of the mug displaying a scene of Christ rising from his tomb, and has been packaged with the cup since 2006.

The manual runs for 95 pages, with detailed diagrams of the correct method of pouring in both hot and cold beverages (“It is not advisable to have a small child hold the cup above their heads while you pour boiling water into it.”), the correct way of holding the mug (“firmly, by the handle; do not raise arm higher than at a right angle to the body; do not consume while lying down; rest mug on a level surface, such as a table, when not in use.”), and the correct way of storing it (“If storing on a shelf, ensure the cup is fully on the shelf, and as little as possible is over the edge. If hanging from a hook, make sure that the hook is attached to something.”). 

The manual is multilingual, and has translations in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Klingon, Dutch, Portuguese, Afrikaans, Swedish, Zulu, Hieroglyphics, Norwegian, and (inspired by the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ) Ancient Latin.

An illustrative photograph from the manual, detailing on of 6 different examples of "cup racks, which may act as an alternative to shelves." The manual goes on to explain 7 differences between the methods of storage utilised with shelves and racks. Photograph by .Larry Page.

 ©2013 James Mathurin

The earliest public transport network

The earliest public transport network was a system of catapults unearthed in the ruins of the ancient Aztec city of Zingalamaduni, dated to around the 13th Century AD. With 17 temples and 3 palaces, it is believed that the catapults were devised to allow priests to perform several religious rites at different sites in quick succession, particularly at times of lunar or solar eclipse, when both sacrifices, marriages, baptisms and magistrates’ hearings would all be conducted within a very short time frame. It is believed that the system was abandoned after one disastrous eclipse, where a catapulting mix-up led to a groom being sacrificed, his bride-to-be being married to a new-born prince, a goat being baptised and the high priest being catapulted straight into the wall of a temple, killing him instantly.

This photograph shows a team of archaeologists excavating the Zingalamaduni site in 2003. The site was hailed by the dig's leader, Professor Bryan Philpot, as a "truly exciting find, especially when I was accidentally thrown 20 metres by a remarkably well-preserved catapult!" Photograph by Odense Bys Museer.

©2013 James Mathurin

The most people ever converted to a religion

The most people ever converted to a religion at one time was 19,020 in August 1934. This was the mainly Hindi population of the island of Trumptuvu, in the Indian Ocean. When the fishing community there learnt that a tidal wave was headed towards their island, a visiting catholic missionary, father Brennan O’Beard sailed out to meet it. O’Beard washed back up on Trumptuvu 2 days later, and announced that he had blessed the wave, declaring that anyone touched by the water was now a Catholic. The islanders accepted this edict out of politeness, but all reconverted back to Hinduism when O’Beard left the island 3 weeks later.

The beach on Trumptuvu, where Father O'Beard returned. One of the villagers, Amitabh Gupta, remembering the mass conversion, said,

"The Priest did nothing to stop the wave. It was not as large as we had been told, and we simply moved our boats to safety, and erected what barriers we could. Truthfully, we were never actually that worried, and we just felt a bit bad that the Priest had gone to that trouble, so we agreed to his offer of conversion, to let him save face."

Photograph by ciamabue.

©2012 James Mathurin

The ‘Punchy’ cult (The Fifth Pentecostal Glorification of the Beloved Saviour of the Sinners of East London)

The ‘Punchy’ cult (The Fifth Pentecostal Glorification of the Beloved Saviour of the Sinners of East London) achieved notoriety by predicting the Apocalypse 18 times in one year. Thomas Dobie, the leader of the cult, which was based out of Dagenham, London, preached to his 59 followers that God had revealed to him that the world would end when his son, Dave, brought a jar of mustard to his house, and that this would happen on 15th June 1985.

When Dave forgot the jar of mustard on June 15th, Dobie made the statement,

We know we cannot be wrong. God told me this was the date for the Apocalypse, but it appears not to have happened. What does this mean? That my vision was wrong? That I was misled? Impossible! Clearly our calendars have been altered by demonic forces, and the Apocalypse will happen, according

Unfortunately for Dobie, Dave failed to bring the mustard the next week, forcing Dobie to reset the date of the Apocalypse again, to the 22nd. The mustard being forgotten on that day, Dobie's reinterpretation of the calendar in relation to the Apocalypse once again allowed him to move his prediction to a week later. 

This process continued over 3 months, until September, when Dave finally revealed to his father that he had been deliberately leaving the mustard behind as an act of revenge for the time that Thomas had been devoting to his cult, at the expense of his parental duties. In the fight which ensued, Thomas and several members of the cult were arrested and charged with affray. Both Dobies and 3 of Thomas' followers were sentenced to a total of 19 years in prison, effectively ending the Punchy organisation.

The Punchies headquarters in Dagenham. After the imprisonment of the Dobies and the collapse of the cult, it became an off-license, where 10 ex-members of the cult are still regular customers. Photograph by J@ck!.

©2012 James Mathurin

The quickest ever Holy Crusade

The quickest ever Holy Crusade was over in 2 hours and 13 minutes on the 20^th March 1853, when Edward Denison, the Bishop of Salisbury, declared that a crusade would be organised to recover the Cap of Alginon, a holy relic that was under his possession. He declared that the cap had disappeared, and had been, “spirited away by agents of Beelzebub, probably from Switzerland,” but after preparations had begun, it was discovered that one of his maids had accidentally knocked the cap behind the Bishop’s drinks cabinet.

This image of the parchment of Lower Divebeny, produced by a verger of Bishop Denison's parish to commemorate the "Crusade of the Cap", as it became known in satirical magazines of the time. The Unicorn is sad to represent the Bishop, the Dragon to represent a "Swiss Demon", and the unidentified creature (possibly a hyena), pictured at the bottom is said to represent an angel, leading the unicorn to the drinks cabinet and the hidden cap. Picture by grongar.

 ©2012 James Mathurin

Most gods sighted in one place

The most Gods ever sighted in one place was on a piece of toast owned by Pascha Mirbel, of Prague, in the Czech Republic in 1999. He told reporters,

“I was about to butter it, when I noticed that the face of Jesus seemed to have appeared on the surface of the toast. After staring at that for a moment, I noticed that Buddha was next to him, and Kali and Krishna were on the other side. After looking further, I noticed that the Arabic script for ‘Allah’ was just under Jesus’ beard. I am so relieved my butter smelt a bit funny that morning, or I might have ended up offending many, many deities.”

Mr. Mirbel's original slice of toast was destroyed in an attack by Hank Deershorn, a Scientologist fundamentalist in April 2000. Pictured is another slice which escaped his flamethrower rampage, which unfortunately only shows one religious icon, the Virgin Mary.

Photograph by Matt Gothik

©2008 James Mathurin

The Shortest-lived religion on record

The shortest-lived religion on record was the Pondeastic sect of Lithuania, formed and dissolved on July 17th 1956 by Marzo Passakre, 24. Passakre believed that he had been contacted by God, who told him to run back home to prepare for the rapture. Within 4 hours he had recruited some 257 followers in his home town of Bursnabruk, and had written a draft for the first book of his ‘revised bible’. The religion ended when his younger brother Uri told him that the voice he had heard had actually been him passing on a message from their mother to come home to feed their goat. A friend of the family told reporters, “Marzo has always been a natural leader, and not the most thoughtful of people. Really, we should have seen this coming.”

©Copyright 2008 James Mathurin

Smallest Mass Wedding

The smallest mass wedding was conducted by the Muggy Cult of Lisbon, Portugal in May 2004. The Cult leader, Luis De Stanza, had prophesied 5 years earlier that he would perform 3,000 wedding ceremonies for his followers on that day, but since he only had 7 followers, and 4 of them were men, according to the laws of his religion, he had to marry 3 of the men to the 3 women, and then perform 2,997 ceremonies between himself and the 3 women. When one of the women, Nannetta Costa, left the cult later that year, she sued De Stanza for divorce 999 times, on 1,998 counts of bigamy, bankrupting both him and the cult.
©2008 James Mathurin