The news out of Israel should be very encouraging for any atheist out there, the writer Yoram Kaniuk has finally got his religion status removed from the nation registry, meaning he is no longer identified as “Jewish” in the governmental files. There should be no mistake here, this particular person is very much an Israeli, he had fight for this country and sacrificed much for it, however he is against the ever lasting embrace Israel has with the Jewish religion.
The author told journalists that “Personally, I have always been an atheist. I belong to the Jewish nation; I have never belonged to the Jewish religion”, which is fair enough, to be of the Jewish nation but not to participate or to support the main ideas of the religion is exactly what atheists need. Since we can not, or should want, to break away from our personal heritage we need to separate the religious condition into which we were born and the actual idea of that same religion.
Following the move to register Kaniuk as “without a religion” hundreds (some say thousands) of now “Jewish” Israelis are now asking to have the same done to their status in the registry, which just shows you that if only given the chance atheism could be the the fastest growing non religion of our time.