In Night, did Elizer use the critique of religion as a survival technique?

On the day of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, Elie watches as thousands of starving Jewish prisoners pray and praise God Almighty. While the prisoners observe the traditional Jewish holiday and praise God, Elie refuses to pray and begins accusing God of passively allowing His devout followers to suffer unimaginable horrors in the concentration camps. Elie, who had been a devout, practicing Jew his entire life, refuses to worship God and wonders how He could allow such barbarity to take place. Elie then illustrates how he critiques religion as a survival technique by saying, "And I, the former mystic, was thinking: Yes, man is stronger, greater than God" (Wiesel, 92). Elie goes on to say,

I was nothing but ashes now, but I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long. In the midst of these men assembled for prayer, I felt like an observer, a stranger (Wiesel, 93).

Essentially, Elie experiences a feeling of independence by refusing to worship God. Elie no longer feels that his fate is linked to an almighty being and begins to view life existentially. Elie shifts the blame to God and separates himself from the deity that is allowing this tragedy to occur. By critiquing religion, Elie does not waste his time praying for salvation or fasting and simply focuses on what is immediately necessary to his survival. Unlike many of the other prisoners, who leave their salvation and fate up to God, Elie rejects God, which allows him to become responsible and focused on his own survival.