Day 143: About religion

Day 143 - Tuesday, August 28th 2018: Skibbereen to Lough Hyne via Baltimore 19 km / Total 2948 km, 17°C, cloudy Sleeping in a comfy bed was just what I really needed. A real breakfast, no wet tent, the perfect conditions. Except that I had to carry water as it would be wild camping at night. That's why I prefer real accommodation, just to get my bag lighter.  The road from Skibbereen to Baltimore was busy, and I had to focus on the incoming cars. Suddenly, a man stopped and told me he couldn't give me a lift because the front passenger seat was already occupied by his cutting grass engines. I said it was all right as I was on a walking trip. He asked me where I was from and as I answered from France, he asked "are you Catholic ?". I've been baptized, but as I was three months old then, it was not really with my consent. I received a Catholic education at school, and during my first communion, the girl next to me almost suffocated swallowing the Host. Anyway, apart from that, I don't consider myself a Catholic, as I have no faith and I don't believe in God. I understand how useful religion can be in society, how helpful it can be for some people, giving answers to some philosophical questions for example. But in my case, I don't need it, I feel too rational, and if I really had to choose a religion, I'm not sure it would be Catholicism. Let's say that it's not really a model of exemplariness, and it had been quite a hypocrite on some topics. Especially here in Ireland, as the Pope has just been visiting the Country, and had not been very welcomed by all, regarding some unforgivable things the Church let happened here. Not only the paedophile acts committed by priests, but also regarding the case of the Magdalen sisters, for example, the story of these "fallen" women, who got pregnant without being married (some of them were raped). They were sent to "laundry convents" where they spent their life exploited as slaves. The last one was closed in 1996 only.  So, to answer that man, I just told him "Atheist". Which he didn't get. Ok, it's not a religion. So I add "I don't believe in God". And he left. I just told him the truth, I had no reason to lie to him. Few meters later, he had parked his car and was waiting for me, to make me read something. It was the story of a Protestant reverend and his family, who were on a boat emigrating to Australia when they got into a storm. One of the passengers, an Irish Catholic man, said a prayer and throw his icons into the sea and suddenly the storm calmed down. So the reverend decided to convert him and his family to Catholicism.  After reading that, the man wanted to give me the same icons. It was very kind, but I had to refuse, it would be something else to carry which is not useful (I consider myself lucky in general). Maybe if it had been food ... In Baltimore, I ended up in front of a pizza place served by French staff, but not as friendly and welcoming as the Irish. And then I took a quiet and peaceful road, which was climbing, to reach Lough Hyne. As it a sea-salt lake, it's a marine reserve, which is interesting because the water is provided by the sea with a curious tide: four hours to get low and eight hours to get high (while the normal tide is six hours high and six hours low). The lough is surrounded by forest on sloped ground. This means it was hard to find a place flat and large enough for my tent. I ended up close to a pontoon. Not really flat, not very large, and full of spiders. I sat on the pontoon for an hour and a half, reading, before building my tent, just to be sure the place was not a walking dog area or too visited. Of course, it's when I was inside the tent that two French Canadian girls arrived but they didn't stay too long.  And while I was sitting on that pontoon, I was lucky to see a seal swimming!