Did the Goats Help?

A recent BBC News article tells how Nepal Airlines were having trouble with an aircraft and so decided to sacrifice two goats in front of the plane to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu god of sky protection.

The plane was then fixed, the problem was apparently an electrical fault, and it then successfully flew to Hong Kong. So did the goats help?

A friend of mine found this very funny – which I assume the BBC also did since they ran the story which has no other relevance. I found it funny too, but then when I think about it, its only as funny as anything else ceremonial.

Weekly, many catholics eat crackers they believe to actually have been transformed into the body of Christ. Its not a metaphor, they actually believe it IS the body of Jesus Christ. Why they then eat him I have no idea but it hardly matters.

Billions of payers are said everyday to a ‘man in the sky’ in many corners of the world. When these prayers are answered people thank the man in the sky and when they are not they simply say it wasn’t God’s will. So why pray?! It strikes me that this is very similar to the situation with the goats.

But if I dare to suggest that maybe there is no man in the sky people tell me that’s sad. They say its a shame that I can’t have faith in something like that. It seems Christians have more respect for Muslims and Hindu’s than atheists.

On a similar note, I am often mocked (albeit lightly) for being vegetarian. If I was vegetarian for religious regions no one would mock me for in case they offended me. But surely doing something like that just because you’ve been told to is far crazier than doing it for a good reason!

So going back to the plane and the goats, aren’t Hindu’s mostly vegetarian? How can it make sense not to eat them because of a deep-set belief in non-violence toward animals but then to kill them to help an electrical fault in a plane.

Inconsistent, irrational and ridiculous.

…now where did I put that Richard Dawkin’s book?