Religionlessness

Baz-Dar , the King of Thriscally was also the the high priest of the island's ancient and respected religion, Bazism .
One day as Baz- Dar sat in his holy temple meditating upon the holy scriptures of his forefathers , he realised that there was no mention in any of the sacred texts that the prophets ever ate potatoes. Being very concerned that the purity of the ancient teachings should be preserved , Baz-Dar decided to legislate against the eating of potatoes throughout Thriscally in order that his people remain close to God. Many of the faithful immediately obeyed the new law , however some objected on grounds of principle and others objected purely because they were in the business of selling potatoes. But the vast majority of those who opposed
the new law ,did so simply because they could not afford to eat anything else but potatoes.
Now many of the potato-eaters had to go into hiding to avoid persecution and to be able to cook their potatoes in peace .Bazism, the religion of Thriscally, had split into two factions.Life became very difficult for the potato-eaters , they had become second class citizens with no more hope of living their lives with dignity as Baz-Dar's oppressive regime took hold of them.Many had died of starvation until there was no other choice but to organise an armed struggle by forming para- military groups of freedom fighters.
Years of sporadic, mindless bloodshed escalated into a full scale civil war .After several years of fierce battles causing enormous destruction throughout the once beatiful and tranquil island, the potato-eaters had emerged victorious .
Baz-Dar was eventually captured by the resistance and imprisoned for life where he was force fed boiled potatoes three times daily.
The potato-eaters eventually ceased hostilities , established peace and formed a secular , democratic republic. Royalty had been abolished and religion was now to be a private affair of choice with no influence over the affairs of the government in order to maintain freedom of choice for every individual citizen.The new democratic republic even granted an amnesty to all the non potato-eaters thereby permitting them to abstain from eating potatoes.Yes , Thriscally had restored its former glory .
One day during the assembly of the democratic peoples' republic of Thriscally , it was pointed out by one representative of the people that some citizens were seen biting their finger nails in public. This was deemed unworthy of a free citizen living in a democracy.Soon , finger nail biting was to become illegal.....

(Adapted from :'A cynic's book of knowledge' copyright ,J.Pellas 1990).