Humans Plan; gods Laugh

If Israel had a version of The Onion, I would expect to find this article on the front page. But Israelis don't really have a sense of humor, so the article finds its way into the national paper of record (as it were), הארץ.

Aside from the eerie parallels to a variety of Biblical narratives, what gets me the most here is the fact that polytheism is still attractive at all. And I'm not making that argument on moral grounds, but on intellectual ones. For me (and, admittedly, I'm dwelling in a particular contextualized cultural moment) the great debate is about theism itself - is there something else or isn't there? The atheistic argument clearly has merits (though, as was once noted, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence), especially when it is couched within a different type of theism, what I might term "scientific theism" - arguing that the God of the Bible doesn't exist but an amoral clockmaker does. But how do multiple deities provide any advantage whatsoever?

Some gems from the article:

Not only does this guy not believe in biblical or rabbinic Judaism's central tenet, he evidently can't even pass a simple reading comprehension test:

"'There is a problem with Judaism. Judaism contradicts paganism. Judaism has only one god, and if you do not believe in him, you will be driven off with stones.'"

Um ... I think this is a contradiction:

"'Nobody invents new gods,' Kobets said. 'People read mythology and try to make contact with and talk to some god or goddess.'"

And to think, Agag and Goliath died for nothing:

"Another user recalled how he prayed to Anat, the Canaanite god of war, while serving in an elite combat unit."