nomad4ever

Now it really happened! Strong waves at Tanah Lot swept a group of 11 relatives out to sea on Sunday as they were performing a ritual cleansing; one of the group drowned, the family said.

“We were praying in front of the temple, and it was low tide, but suddenly a large wave crashed down on us and swept us out,” family member Dayu Armini told reporters, referring to the famous Tanah Lot temple perched atop a rock on the southwest coast of Bali.

Ten of the group managed to get back to shore, but one, a 24-year-old man, drowned, she said.

It’s really scary, how many lifes are taken in the waters around Bali in just a short time. Every week you can read in the local newspapers about spring-waves, the tides and currents pulling and killing people in the surrounding seas. But these incidents mainly happen around the Kuta area and usually drunken tourists (read: ‘Aussies’) or local teenagers are involved.

So far nothing happened around Tanah Lot. It is amazing though, if you stand close to it and watch the waves running against the rocks on and on. But why push your luck and get too close? Do the gods live in the sea now?

I wonder though, what they were praying for? And of course another reason for me, why religion is an outdated concept, developed for mass manipulation during dark pre-medieval ages. Here I totally agree with blogger Indcoup, who did put it this way:

In fact when it comes to religion there ain’t no shortage of absurdities. Here are some of my favorites:

1 The fact that praying does not work. Economists and statisticians have already proven that religion is a sham. It’s actually very easy to show that this is the case. How? By showing that praying doesn’t work. Take a data set for example of 1,000 people who have terminal cancer. Half of them religious, half not. Do the former live any longer? Of course not! So why are they bothering to pray? Cos it doesn’t work. Similarly, the data also shows that people who pray don’t have fewer traffic accidents, get better jobs, do better at examinations etc. Bottom line: God don’t listen.

Read about the other reasons for yourself here. Unfortunately Indcoup didn’t use permalinks, so just do a quick search for ‘praying’ on the main site and you’ll find the article. :-)

Okay, I admit that maybe the reason for the big wave wasn’t for them praying at the temple – then several Tsunamis would have swept away the middle-east already ages ago. No – this could have happened to everyone there at the wrong time. Neither are all drunken tourists on Bali Aussies. Ahem! Almost all of them are – surely. You get the picture. Anyway – wave, alcohol or both – I’m definitely for swimming lessons as early as possible. Thank you Mama! I’m outta here, the beach is calling.