yrif.org

bilconference.org

When Joel's (now) editor telephoned him, suggesting this topic for a book, his first reaction was that it seemed a bit ambitious. Why not, he asked her, start with a less-sweeping topic, like "Zoroastrianism is Probably Not The One True Faith", or "A Few Minor Points the Rabbis Got Wrong", or "At the Center of the Catholic Church Lies a Murderous Conspiracy That Only Tom Hanks Can Uncover and Defeat"?

Someone named Dan Brown, she informed him, had already written on my Zoroastrianism idea, and Simon and Schuster (Jews both) would never allow such an overtly anti-Rabbinic book to be published. In addition, she continued, the publishing world was currently enthralled by what she called "The New Atheism", a concerted push by Communists (though she never explicitly identified them as such) and creators of series of vampire-themed young-adult detective novels ("Nancy Drew Blood" is the one he explicitly remember her mentioning) to purge the bestseller lists of religious mainstays like The Bible, Chicken Soup for the Zoroastrian's Soul, and Tony Robbins's Awaken the Giant Within, to make room for a new generation of heathen authors.

A book like Your Religion Is False could be "publishing gold", she concluded, and could help her eradicate some of her payday-loan debt.