Those who complain about religion in American politics do not appreciate how simple it is to appease believers whose God generally demands no sacrifice other than a change of heart, or the occasional ingestion of a little wine with one's wafer. Apparently polytheism is a little like campus politics: the smaller the spirits on the committee, the more in blood and guts they demand. Or so it would seem from the case of Nepal.
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday. ... The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said. It is common in Nepal to sacrifice animals like goats and buffaloes to appease different Hindu deities.
How many goats and buffaloes would Northwest need, say, per plane? And while we are at it, does the sky god cover airport security, or would that fall in some other deity's portfolio?
And then there is this BBC story from India, where Hindu hardliners forced the government to withdraw a report on a canal project because it questioned the existence of the God Ram:
Scientists and archaeologists say the Ram Setu (Lord Ram's bridge) - or Adam's Bridge as it is sometimes called - is a natural formation of sand and stones.
In their report submitted to the court, the government and the Archaeological Survey of India questioned the belief, saying it was solely based on the Hindu mythological epic Ramayana. They said there was no scientific evidence to prove that the events described in Ramayana ever took place or that the characters depicted in the epic were real.
Hindu activists say the bridge was built by Lord Ram's monkey army to travel to Sri Lanka and has religious significance.
It's too bad that Lord Ram's monkey army didn't have an air force, like the monkey army commanded by the Wicked Witch of the West. Instead Lord Ram was forced to rely on his monkey corp of engineers.
It is easy to make fun of religious stories like this, and modern Christianity has its share. I remember seeing an add in the Sunday paper back in Arkansas about a book that explains how the Grand Canyon was carved out in a few days as the Biblical flood drained back into the ocean. But it's also worth noting that Christianity has been making its peace with science for about eight hundred years. Both faith and reason have benefited, I would argue. By contrast, Lord Ram's monkey army and geology are only now squaring off. That is one of the problems of the twenty-first century.
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