Hundreds of religious books are published every year.
In the last two or three years, about half a dozen books by atheists have been published and gone on to become quite popular and this has got right up the backs of many religious people.
Half a dozen. Wow. How weak is their faith?! But to address some points made in this:
First, Christianity makes sense of who we are in the world
The creator of the universe has made billions of planets (and continues to do so now - or leaves it to nature, Christians can't agree). Out of all these planets, he chose only one planet to put life on. He set up a system in which 99% of his creation would go extinct, and after billions of years, evolution would eventually make man (again, not all Christians agree).
Humans existed for about 100,000 years before God decided to publish his first book. In it, he writes a big fat metaphor for how everything came to be, and also writes about how he tested some humans somehow, and they failed him. So because two humans, or a group of them, failed him, God decided to punish every other human around at the time, plus all their descendants (and the descendants of those who hadn't failed him). (Not all Christians agree). He spoke about women now having pain in childbirth and men becoming workers of the soil, somehow forgetting that this was the way it had always been for thousands of years anyway.
Satan was cast down at some point. The Bible says 6,000 years ago, but with science getting a look in, some Christians think it was much earlier than that, or that maybe Satan is a metaphor too. Things such as suffering and disease and natural disasters either exist because of Satan, or it's just how God set things up for us before Satan was cast down, and it has nothing to do with man's fall - Christians can't agree.
God got involved with one tribe in the Middle East and helped them kill other humans and basically kept his eye on them. But most humans were evil.
The almighty decided only a blood sacrifice would do to make things right again. It's a barbaric thought to most people today, but this was God's idea and he knows best so there we are. 2,000 years ago, he (or his son) came down to Earth to live as a Jew. Before he died, he let people know that there were some new rules. There was now a new place called hell where you can burn forever, and in order to avoid that you had to believe in him.
Little did he know at the time (or perhaps he did!) but his chosen people, the Jews, wouldn't actually believe Jesus was the Messiah, so he ended up dooming the very people he'd been best buddies with before. Some of the Jews changed their religion and became Christian - God now had some new best friends.
Any day now, Jesus is going to return and cleanse the Earth (again). To be saved, you have to pick him over the 3000 other gods, even though there's no more reason to believe in him over them. Muslims believe Allah is real, believe in him or go to his hell. Egyptians thought their gods were real, believe in them or go to duat. Believe in Thor or go to helheim. And so on. Decisions, decisions.
It makes perfect sense.
Christianity has always embraced both reason and faith.
Maybe this could be mentioned to the 50% of Americans who believe in creationism or a 10,000 year old universe.
Christianity provides a comprehensive and believable account of who we are and why we are here.
I shouldn't laugh, but lol.
Christianity also infuses life with a powerful and exhilarating sense of purpose.
Worship God* or die.
*the Biblical one.
While atheism in most of its current forms posits a universe without meaning
If it were a worldview...
With atheism, life can have whatever meaning you want it to have.
Christianity makes of life a moral drama in which we play a starring role and in which the most ordinary events take on a grand significance
...which is very humble, believing that our species alone has been given special consideration by the creator of everything.
Christianity teaches that this life is not the only life
Greedy.
and there is a final judgment in which all earthly accounts are settled
and in which eternal torture is considered a fair punishment.
Christianity also offers a solution to the cosmic loneliness that we all feel. However successful the secular life, there comes to every thinking person the recognition that, in the end, we are alone. Christianity removes this existential loneliness and links our destiny with God.
This is where friends come in. Speaking to oneself may help, but it's delusional to believe something is listening and gives a crap.
Time magazine reported on the case of a woman who suffered a series of tragedies. Her husband was laid off. She had a miscarriage. A month later her first cousin was diagnosed with cancer. Then two hurricanes struck her home town in Florida. Finally, one of her best friends died from a brain tumor. Here is the woman's reaction: "We're putting our lives in God's hands and trusting He has our best interests at heart. I've clung to my faith more than ever this year. As a consequence, I haven't lost my joy."
See what I mean about God not giving a crap? For all this suffering, it's like God doesn't exist! An atheist can see these bad events as natural events. They can still be painful to go through, but there's no wondering about why God doesn't pull his finger out and help.
Christianity also gives us the hope that when someone dies, we will see that person again.
It can be comforting, I give them that. It could be why people WANT there to be a God so much. It's a comforting delusion.
This is why, for the Christian, death is not so terrifying.
Before I was born, it was fine. A non existence like that after death would be fine. Hoping I'd picked the right god and done enough sucking up to avoid burning forever would be a burden, not a comfort.
And Christianity not only makes us aspire to be better, but it also shows us how to be better.
...as long as you mainly stick to the NT and avoid all the nasty stuff.
This means that marriage functions best when each partner focuses primarily on the happiness of the other.
Good advice. I believe that and I'm not even Christian, so no belief in God is needed for selfless acts.
Religion is not needed to be good citizens or have good morals.
Whatever the merits of Weinberg's observation, it clearly requires this corollary: "For bad people to do good things -- that takes religion."
Name a moral statement made or moral act taken by a Christian that could not have been said or taken by an atheist. Go.
