The fact is there were not a few other religions there and now that I have direct access to the Absolute Truth, 21st Edition, I can pretty much delve into what ever strikes my fancy -- the only problem being, of course, that it is rather slow going, as the Absolute Truth is, literally, voluminous -- there are several of or kilometers from the top of a page to its bottom.
I have mentioned earlier something of the Buddy -- he was what one might call a reformer of the Hudoo religion. The Hudoo religion developed on the subcontinent of Indya and both of them are concerned to a large degree with conscious awareness -- the term, Buddy, actually refers to the light of awareness. Many Hudoos have the custom painting a small, red dot in the middle of the forehead, as this is considered to be the seat of consciousness.
Seen from the viewpoint of their religions, the Mashers and Peelers consider themselves to be "single-taters", that is they consider that there is only One Great Potato and they tend to look down upon Hudooism and Buddyism. They accuse the Hudooists of practicing "many-taterism", that the worship many potatoes or 'taters. They tend to sneer at Buddyism and say that it is a "no-tater" religion. This is because the Buddy refused to discuss the Great Potato.
The Peelers and Mashers are the two youngest of what are known as the three great "single-tater" religions in the Third Galaxy -- the third, and oldest, is the religion of those known as the "Strugglers". All three of these religions sprang up in the area around Holy California and they all tend to refer to the Great Potato as "Spud"
I have written elsewhere about how Broken Wing thought that his Spud wanted him to sacrifice his only son, Laughing Boy. As you know, if you have read the tale, Broken Wing did not murder his son. Depending on your level of cynicism, this was fortunate -- or not -- for the three single-tater religions all evolved from Laughing Boy's descendants.
When Laughing Boy grew up he had two sons, Red Harry and Little Deceiver. They were twins, but not identical twins. Red was the first to be born and therefore should have inherited every thing from his father. But, Deceiver was a clever fellow and worked things out so that he got all the inheritance for himself.
Deceiver had some trouble with his conscience about this and not a little anxiety because he thought his older twin was going to kill him. While in the wilderness wrestling with his thoughts and anxieties, it seemed to him that he was wrestling with an angel sent by his father's Spud, the Great Potato. He lost the struggle with the angel, of course, but the angel, it seemed to him, gave him a new name: Strugg-El, that is, "he who struggles with El" -- and as is well known, "El" is an older name for the Great Potato. That is why those who follow the oldest of the single-tater religions are called Strugglers, or Struggs, for short.
If the attitude of the practitioners of the single-tater religions was negative towards the Hudoos and Buddy's, they paled in comparison to the antagonism they held towards each other. Great and bloody wars were fought between them -- all in the name of and for the sake and glory of the Great Potato they each claimed as their Spud. Indeed, the Peelers had a particular animosity towards the Struggs whom they accused of having murdered the Holy Idaho and more than once tried to exterminate them.
Since these religions were all supposedly to be based on love and peace, an outside observer would not have to be all that cynical to come to the conclusion that most of the people who called themselves, Mashers, Peelers and Struggs had their collective head up their ass.
However, there were always a few people in the Third Galaxy who could reject the obvious stoopidities in religion without throwing out the baby with the bath water so to speak. For example, this brief quote from Elmer Eggplant:
"There is a deeply spiritual element in our common humanity. In my opinion, it is essential for our continued survival.
None of the so-called "revealed" religions are more than approximations of putting a handle on this spirituality.
None of these "revelations came from any "Spud" person. The best came from the genius of our common human creativity. The worst came from charlatans and hustlers out to make a buck without working for a living.
As for the organized religions and religious movements, that some of them actually impede the realization of our common humanity -- shame on them!"
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