This is crazy

[JuliaL]

I think there are plenty of religious people who cannot relate to self-flaggelation and devotional crucifixion and other forms of "mortification of the flesh."  It is an extreme thing to do, though such things have been going on for a very, very long time.  So it is not unique to any particular age, nor to any particular religion.  But most adherents of most religions don't go to such extremes.

It is also not unique to the biggest religions in the world either.  

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See (don't click on any link below if you are too easily upset):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_ritual

There are also some bloody initiation rites in some cultures, and often they are pretty well required rather than being purely voluntary (unlike devotional crucifixion):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initiation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarification

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penile_subincision

The above is just a short list of things that were found with just a little poking around online; there is much, much more of this sort of thing.

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There are quite a lot of strange things that various people have done in many different cultures that involve either self-mutilation or being mutilated by others for religious and possibly other reasons.

I didn't chase those links.  But thanks.
A common theme seems to be behaviors encouraged or required for inclusion in a social group.
I wonder what equivalent behaviors I exhibit.  
A suit and tie seems pretty tame.
Though being polite at some family get togethers has been pretty stressful.