I've been going through athiest Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion lately and I'm almost near completion of reading it.  One thing that strikes me odd is his style of really minimizing aspects of Christianity taken from the bible.  For example, in the story where Abraham obeys God's test of faith by nearly taking his son's life, Dawkins asserts that the child will end up growing up mentally traumatized and that Abraham should be penalized for child abuse.  Dawkins' overall tone is quite belittling that he might as well have said something like the following regarding Jesus' feeding of the 5000: "Well, if Jesus fed 5000 men, why didn't he feed ALL of the starving people in the world?  What kind of saviour is that?  Why didn't he go on and give them all houses too?  What kind of saviour is that??  Why didn't he go on and give them all 21st century technology?  What kind of saviour is that???  Why didn't he give everyone iPods?  Why didn't he make everyone on earth millionaires?  Oh please tell me... what kind of saviour is that!??!!!!!!!!!!"  I can picture Dawkins making this claim, while using some silly music soundtrack as background accompaniment.

You get the idea.

So let's use Dawkins' tone when talking about athiesm: "So, you say there is no God?  Well, if there is no God, then I guess now I can truly be happy!!!  Rejoice!  Now I can finally live with the satisfaction of knowing that I am now truly living the good life!  Now I can fornicate all I want!  Hey, as long as it's between consenting adults, it's okay!  And guess what?  Now I can truly say I'm not being brainwashed!  For you see now I only let Mr. Dawkins brainwash me, and all of the other scientists who say that there is gravity!  Even though I can't see gravity, I guess I'll just believe it since I can feel the force of it acting on me!  Hoorah!  And what else...  now I can live knowing that my life is meaningless since the real reason we are in existence is because... oh wait, there is no God...  I'm in existence for absolutely no good reason!  Hallelujah!!!!"

Of course I'm using a belittling and condescending tone here, just like Dawkins does in his book.  With such a style, it's hard to appreciate just how objective a work of literature is.

I particularly take interest in this one quote of Dawkins.

I do not, by nature, thrive on confrontation. (The God Delusion, p.281)

Well if that's the case, then I guess his thriving on the confrontation that his book has created amongst atheists and non-athiests is not the reason why he's thriving on the glorious profits of his book.

I've heard of religious becoming athiests.  I've heard of athiests becoming priests.  God sure has interesting plans for each and everyone of us...