My kids love their maize meal porridge in winter. So, my 13-year-old son has taken to waking up early every morning and cooking porridge for everyone.

One morning recently, I noticed the porridge was lumpy. Now in my world there is only one thing worse than lumpy porridge: weak coffee. I do not do either if they are less than perfect. 

Anyway, that morning I wanted to see how he had got the porridge so lumpy. Then I noticed that he did not bring water to the boil first before pouring the paste. His timing of pouring the paste meant that he would have to stir for about five minutes before the maize granules expanded evenly before bonding. Consequently, he stopped stirring prematurely and the granules bonded unevenly. 

It turns out that when his sister taught him, she just told him what to do and in what proportions, but not how the process works. Now because he did not know how the process works, he was just religiously following instructions without respecting the laws of thermodynamics.

So here is the thing… religion is when people follow instructions without understanding the underlying spiritual laws. Just following instructions without understanding creates zombies. Zombies are entities that are subject to human manipulation and control. This is why religion can lead to messy consequences.

As I conclude this post, his porridge is purring effortlessly, and he just told me that I can now trust him with porridge making!