Jewish Atheist

It is time to identify the real enemy, the elephant in the living room: religion. Religion creates a fantasy world which can be used to manipulate young people’s minds and turn them into suicidal maniacs that wreak havoc and threaten whole societies.

It’s staggering. When we see how humanity is bound by its own mental constraints, it’s enough to call for Santa Claus to break up the logjam, to get people to see that they are killing each other for no reason at all, other then that they cling to religious myths that have long since outgrown their usefulness, if they ever had any.

The truth is, we are our own saviors: any salvation will be accomplished on this earth, by ourselves and through each other. Only we can take responsibility for our sins, only we can repent, only we can offer and seek forgiveness. And we know that real friends are infinitely more important and powerful than imaginary ones.

Ever since I can remember, clerics have been urging their flocks to “put the Christ back into Christmas.” I think we should take him out.

As I always say when an icon is brought low by sex scandal — and this one, to me, is of the order of Elliot Spitzer and the elegant, humiliated Silda — why does it always go one way? How often do you hear of a prominent FEMALE athlete or politician embarassed and toppled by the revelations of male paramours?

Santa can generate another teachable moment, this one for older kids: asking a kindly old man for what you want in life, whether sitting on his lap or bowing in prayer, doesn’t work. Christmas presents come from stores and such, procured by the labor of adults. Similarly, all virtue comes from people. So does all forgiveness and salvation. If humans don’t kill each other, there will be peace on earth. Let human beings be proud of what they’ve accomplished, instead of handing credit to God or Santa.

Hanukkah celebrates, in part, the rededication of the temple in the second century CE by a bunch of Jewish Taliban. It was the restoration of the old time religion. Once again, the relatively primitive, tribal Jews were in (temporarily victorious) conflict with a secular, rational, cosmopolitan culture. (We caught up quickly once the Enlightenment opened up secular opportunities.)

Mindless consumerism and all-absorbing media have achieved a degree of complacency that Hitler or Stalin could never achieve with violence. The government moves to expand its wars, but with no draft, even at a trillion dollars a year, who cares?