religion is stupid

As we head towards Ramadan a little anecdote I once heard about it. I have a friend that served in the Royal Navy, and at one point his ship was cruising up in the northern latitudes close to the Arctic circle. On board was an officer from the Saudi Royal Navy attached to them for joint training. Never the most reliable person the crew realised that he was getting even more flaky than normal. You see that year Ramadan, which follows the Luna rather than solar calendar, fell during the summer and in keeping with his strong religious beliefs the Saudi officer was fasting during the hours of daylight. Unfortunately for him at that latitude dusk was not going to fall for several months, which could have been a bit of a problem. Some radio calls to the uber-mullahs back in Saudi and they managed to find a loop hole so that he could eat and get back to his normal, but still flaky, self.

The point of this story? The laws presented by an omnipresent god to be implemented across the entire planet do always seem strangely adapted to the local situation of the prophet that picked up the call. Weird that.