Can You Convince Me?

I had a conversation with Marc in Matrouh about religions. It was mainly about religions requiring believers to blindly accept things that are beyond comprehension. Things like how Mary supposedly had Jesus while still a virgin, or the occurrence of Isra and Mi’raj to Mohammed, traveling from Mecca to Jerusalem in one night on a winged donkey-like animal!

I remember I told them that that isn’t only the case with religions in our parochial societies. People tend to follow some traditions and rules blindly even though there are no convincing reasons behind them. Parents raise their children the same way as they were raised by their parents. They put in place a lot of red lines that their children shouldn’t often cross for no reason. They avoid answering the same embarrassing questions they asked when young.
Yet, there is a big difference between these two kinds of questions. The religious ones might not have valid answers at all but children will one day get the answers for the non-religious ones.

A situation that happened just a few days ago reminded me of this conversation. I’ve been having a glass of mint drink every day for a week or more. Every time I had one, mum told me not to drink it. When I asked her why not, her answers simply ranged between: “It’s just like that”, “our grandparents told us so and we just have to follow it”. I told her this wasn’t convincing at all and I wouldn’t stop having it if there was no valid reason. Then, she said something like: “It’s just not good for girls”. I was like; “why is it not good for girls?” She just kept silent.

I think it has something to do with the reproductive or sexual health of women but she would never tell me. It’s like a no-no or a big taboo for her. I know this was the way she was raised, to keep her lips sealed when it comes to forbidden topics like sex and sexual health but time has changed.
If she doesn’t tell me, I’ll look for someone/ something else to tell me. I might get wrong information. I might be misled. And this was what happened before. She never taught me about periods and sexual development during adulthood or how to look after my vagina and sensitive areas. Neither did my school!

I believe it’s the same case with religions. If the religions that we inherited from our parents tell us nonsense, we will search for another belief that can give us some relief. Or even better, we would join the camps of humanism, atheism or agnosticism.