Source: Zen Shaman

Ridiculous Beliefs: Pythagoras

Pythagoras is a world-renowned mathematician credited with coming up with the Pythagorean Theorem. This theorem forms the crux of trigonometry and, as any half decent geometry student should know, posits that the square of a right triangle’s hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides. As one might glean, Pythagoras was heavily invested in explaining natural phenomena mathematically, and is credited for discoveries in music, astronomy and medicine.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Not content to confine his thoughts to the material world, Pythagoras often dabbled in the divine. Reasonably enough, Pythagoras believed in the reincarnation of souls and advocated vegetarianism and pacifism, but beneath that lurked some rather odd beliefs. For example, Pythagoras believed that beans were made from the same material as humans and should not be consumed.

He also sanctioned that you must smooth out all bodily indents on your bed/pillow; you cannot step over a crossbar, allow swallows to nest under the roof or walk on highways. Pythagoras’ religion, Pythagoreanism, had an established following – a secret brotherhood – that pursued the practices of their master, and he appears in religious or priestly guises across Greece.

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