Remember the tale of The Emperor's New Clothes? (No, not the Disney movie with the llama.) Basically, the Emperor of this new land is approached by a pair of men who claim to be able to make a magic suit of clothes that do not appear visible to the stupid or those unfit in their positions of office. So the Emperor pays for this suit. Naturally he sent his ministers to inspect the work. As they could see no clothes, they pretended to see something otherwise they thought they'd be out of a job. The Emperor himself made an inspection and he too saw nothing but claimed he did, due to peer pressure.
Then came the day he tried on his new "gear" and went to present himself to his subjects. The crowd too pretended to see something for fear of being labeled foolish. All except a young boy who dared to state honestly what he saw. A naked Emperor. The spell of peer pressure was broken and the crowd laughed at the Emperor. Emperor himself is forced to realise he had been a fool, not because he failed to see the clothes, but to realise there were none.
An interesting story, but I get something out of it that Hans Christian Andersen, the story's author may not have realised.
Here we have a claim made, a fabric that cannot be seen by the foolish. A similar claim is made in Psalm 14:1 "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." Naturally this verse is pointed to in attempts to convince atheists that there is a god.
It is not unheard of that people who have lost faith in the gods they are supposed to worship still attend ceremonies because everyone else does. These closet atheists still claim to others they believe in order not to appear foolish just as the people in the story do. They fear their peers will look down at them. They fear to be ostracized and shunned by the community.
Like the swindlers in the story, the preists and the rabbis sell this god like the magic fabric. Seen only to those who truely beleive, and unseen to the "unwise." Lining the coffers from the tithes and other donations in exchange for this fictional god's love.
Nowerdays it's easy to see things as they are. Because like in the story, people have dared to say "there is no god." People are realising they have been lied to. That there is nothing there.
Who is the more foolish, the one who cannot see something magical, or the one who pretends to?
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