So yesterday was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. I atoned, I fasted, I went to Long Island to deal with annoying relatives and break the fast with an array of bagels and fish. I've done this every year since I can remember. Some years I took it even further - I meditated and tried to overcome various problems or emotional issues, or focused on my dreams and aspirations. This year, I read The Chosen by Chaim Potok.

The Chosen is a wonderful book about two boys growing up in Brooklyn, one Orthodox, one Hasid. It discusses issues like friendship, trust, the history of Jewry in Europe and America, and, since it takes place during WWII, the creation of Israel. Oppression, prejudice, torture, murder, ghettos, pogroms, holocausts – the Jews ain't had it so easy. Ever. Since Ancient Egypt, they've been fighting to keep their religion alive, even when they had to keep it secret.

It made me think about the nature of religion, and how insane it is. It's all based on faith – and what is faith? My dictionary links it to "belief", as in "belief and trust in and loyalty to God, belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion; firm belief in something for which there is no proof."

Did you see that last one?

"Firm belief in something for which there is no proof."

Throughout the centuries, millions upon millions of people have died – either by their own hand or by someone else's – for something for which they have no proof even exists. Not just Jews, either. Christians, Muslims, Jains, Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Atheists and more have all died or been killed in the name of their own religion or someone else's. Crusades, Jihads, pogroms, Inquisitions, and martyrdom have all taken people's lives and loved ones away.

And for what?

For something that has never been proven to exist. Not empirically, not scientifically, not physically, nothing. No proof. What proof did Zeus ever give that he existed? Or Odin? Or Vishnu? Or Jesus? Or Yahweh? They didn't have driver's licenses or birth certificates. They didn't have mug shots hanging in post offices. They didn't leave any signatures or thumbprints anywhere. And yet people are willing to kill, torture and convert people who don't share the same "faith" that they hold. For something they THINK might exist, MAYBE.

So, as I was atoning for the wrongs I had committed throughout the previous year, I realized that I just don't believe in religion. I believe in treating each other with courteous respect, and that there are basic social rules and mores that should be followed in order to have a stable society, but that religion as an entity is bogus.

And yet, there I was, fasting to atone for my sins in the hopes that "God" would forgive me and move me from his "naughty" list to his "nice". Does that make me a hypocrite? What about lighting the menorah at Channukah? Or having a seder at Passover? Does the fact that I don’t believe in religion mean I can't celebrate any of the holidays or participate in any of the traditions? How can I reconcile myself to this? I LIKE seders and menorahs. Does being agnostic mean I have to go cold turkey?

And what about any children I might have (theoretically)? I like the idea of traditions and rituals and I would want my children to experience them, too. Does this mean I have to make up my own now?

And I realized, no. I can follow the traditions and rituals – but I can give them my own meaning. I can attend a seder and follow the traditions AS traditions, as a representation of the heritage to which I was born and to which my ancestors adhered. I can fast on Yom Kippur as a representative cleansing rather than as atonement. Or, I can consider it a personal atonement, one that I can acknowledge myself instead of hoping "The Invisible Man in the Sky" (as George Carlin calls him) acknowledges it. And I can explain the difference to my children and let them make up their own minds about it all, just as my parents did for me.

And I can make up my own traditions, too! I can have my Halloween traditions, and my equinox traditions, and my Boxing Day traditions, and I can pass THOSE onto my kids as well.

Fasting makes you hungry – physically and spiritually.

I guess that's the whole point.