I thought long and hard about this, and decided to come up with very substantial reasons why I am a Christian and remain such, completely unrelated to my upbringing. As anyone who knows me is aware of, I'm an avid reader of literature that can expand my knowledge and broaden my horizons. Being a reader and researcher of things in the world, of my particular interests include other cultures and other religions. Feeling the need to provide Christians with an answer to these problems posed by atheists, and being prepared with enough knowledge and experience in debating, I present you with logical, sound reasons to not only remaining a Christian, but even becoming one.
Let's establish some criteria for choosing a religion:
#1. First, I will require that a good religion do good to it's fellow man, this eliminates satanism and any other hedonistic religion right off the bat, as in Anton Lavey's and Allistair Crowley's works, a facet of satanism is "do as thou wilt" live a life of wanton excess, nothing really matters other than satisfying yourself and doing what you feel like doing. Needless to say, there are no satanist charities or philanthropic causes. You will also hear rampant rumors of infant sacrifice, ritual abuse, and an obsesssion with darkness and evil. Knowing some of the inherent negative feelings that this association naturally propogates in the psyche of people, these are not the kind of rumors I want to be associated with.
#2. I also require that my religion provide all of it's information in an easy, accessible way for me to assimilate. No secret societies of dedicating my life for many years before I gain more knowledge about my religion. I want it all there at my fingertips or within reach of someone more knowledgeable than me who can tell me what I want to know, so that I know full well what I'm getting into and believing in. This eliminates Scientology, Luciferian, Gnostic, and Druidic religions of secrecy. These religions give no proof of the benefits of their special knowledge, or what they gain by it, so why would any thinking person dedicate their life to something that isn't clearly presented? While the rumors alone are bad enough, factually concerned, these religions do have an elite social network of secret societies, and when I see the character of some of their more public members, it removes all doubt as to what they are. This reason is somewhat like reason #1.
#3. I would also want a religion with a long history, going back to it's origins, that attempts to answer the essential questions of where we came from and life on Earth. Not just have it though, as most religions have a backstory, but it must also be feasible, in that followers of the religion can sufficiently defend and give evidence for it. This eliminates Hinduism, Shintoism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confuscionism, Pantheism, Paganism, Zoroastrianism, and many of the Greek, Mayan, Incan, Norse, Egyptian, and Roman mythologies. It's not that these religions don't have an elaborate creation story, as one field of Taoism has some esoteric mathematics behind it, for example. But when you get down to the brass taxes, I need something with more support than a Chinese variation of Stephen Hawking's theories. There are no significant scientific organizations bearing any of these religions and attempting to defend their description of the creation of the universe. If one such group does happen to exist for any of the above, then it doesn't have a big enough impact to notice in the world view.
Now we have narrowed it down to a handful of the world's most popular religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Let's start with the beliefs of these religions, and let's see the kind of people that these major religions of the world churn out, and why I object to them.
Islam: Many adherents of Islam are known for both past and present day terrorism, I don't think we need to delve very far into the culture or history of this religion, and there shouldn't be much doubt as to what the popular opinion of Muslims are, granted there are always exceptions. The central hub of Islam in the middle east is fraught with destruction and danger. The Shiites and Sunnis have been at literal war with eachother for ages.
In the central hub of Islam, women are also second class citizens, and are not allowed to walk through the streets in public without covering nearly their entire bodies. On the fringes of the Islamic center of the world, women are treated with even less respect among the Egyptian and Ethiopian Muslims. It is in the outskirts of these countries where you hear about the bodily amputation of women's sexual organs. So some of the prime examples of Islam don't paint the religion in a very good, or civilized light.
"Civilized according to whom?" You may ask. Well, in this case you can go by either the Christian understanding of a decent society, or the majority opinion of the entire world. Many of the ancient cultures, of which modern countries are the offspring of, at one time held women as second class people. In a time when "might makes right", and muscle means authority, when people thought with hormones more than with brains. I think we can all agree we have ascended beyond that as a whole--Islam being the only major exception.
There are also only a few Islamic organizations that denounce terrorism, and have made public statements of such, most likely to appeal to better cultures' way of life in the Western world, these groups are scantly few.
As far as what Muslims do for humanity, needless to say, Islam is not known in any way, shape, or form, for humanitarian causes or philanthropy, feeding the poor and hungry, and visiting downtrodden nations, with fruitbaskets in arms. Islam scores in the single digits of this category.
Moving on to what the holy book of Islam (known as the Koran, or Quran) tells it's followers. It cannot be ignored that, unlike the Bible, Islam teaches violence which never ceased. Islam has no 'New Testament' or 'new covenant', and no man of peace coming to ammend their ways. Several verses point out the "killing of all infidels" and to this, Muslims will object that that was only for that time and place, however, as one verse of the Koran says "Allah commands you to fight until all of the world is Muslim" and says that there will be fighting until there are no more infidels (an infidel is the Islamic word for nonbeliever). The Koran also permits Muslims to lie to infidels in certain situations.
With license to kill and prescription to lie, regardless of whether or not all Muslims follow the Koran 100%, it was not a suitable religion for me. As for the belief that a Muslim who dies in faithful service to Allah will get 72 virgins in the next life...Being an eternal pimp is not my idea of paradise, I need something a little better.
Judaism: While Judaism and Christianity share much of the same book, there are very radical differences between these two religions. Judaism is a very exclusive religion because it is based largely on one's racial heritage, to a lesser or greater extent depending on which sect of Judaism one follows. Non-Jewish (Gentiles/Goyim) are not allowed to mix with Jewish blood, though again, this varies on the conviction of the sect. Like Islam, the center of the Jewish world is also in the Middle East, in the land of Israel, which has been at war with the Arabs for centuries over issues of property rights, in what Israel believes is rightfully theirs, and particularly a plot of land which is currently occupied by an Islamic mosque, the Dome of the Rock. For thousands of years, the Jews believed in animal sacrifice in atoning for their sins, and they still keep this belief, though it's on hold until they're able to rebuild their temple, where the Dome of the Rock is currently preventing construction. Sacrifices will continue once the temple is built.
The idea that they are God's chosen people is pulled right out of the Tanach (Old Testament to the Christians), as similar ideas regarding all non-Jews (Gentiles or Goyim) come from some of these scriptures as well as other Jewish books. Sometimes the views of Gentiles can be abrasive and slanderous, resorting to outright racism in some sects. The Tanach has a very accurate history of the Jewish people that has been largely debated and defended by many scholars, and the story goes back even prior to the existence of Israel, all the way to the creation of the world. All brands of Creation Science are based almost entirely on these scriptures and stories. Even the origin of the conflict between the Jews and the Arabs is traced back to the birthrights of the two sons of Abraham--Isaac and Ishmael.
Based on their scriptures, the Jews feel they have an intrinsic right to the land, and are not hesitant to take their beliefs to a violent extent, nor are the surrounding arabs. They believe in establishing a kingdom with a heiarchy, war is a part of life according to many authors of the Tanach, and barely a generation passed in history without a conflict. Jews reject Jesus as the Messiah because it was understood that the Messiah would establish this Earthly kingdom, as Israel was under Roman occupation at the time.
The number of charities and philanthropic Jewish causes is very limited, primarily due to the Jewish perspective of non-Jews, which is most of the world.
The racism, the rituals, the animal slaughtering, the focus on a 'holy land' and stopping at no means to get such, just to build a temple and lay down authority. All of these reasons and more, are why I reject Judaism from an objective (even secular majority)point of view, absent of the Bible and Christian doctrines. I, being a Gentile by the flesh, am surely not missed by the Jewish community.
Christianity: Most of my site is dedicated to Christian doctrine and teachings, making it moot to put it here, so I'll just state the common facts. Even though Islam is now at 17% of the world, it surpasses Catholicism, but not coming even close to Christendom as a whole, which 33% of the world's population holds to, as published by Alessandra Rizzo for AP news on 3-30-08. It would be one thing if Christianity was just the biggest religion in the world, but in this religion, Christians make up the biggest group of charities and acts of philanthropy as well, whether you're thinking of the Amish, Mormons, or your backyard Baptist, Christians donate large sums of money and provide funding for dozens of impovershed nations. Countless Christians have dedicated their lives in missionary work, gone to the deepest, darkest regions of Africa, and South America, and while their are a few blotches in missionary work (as witnessed by the 19th century artist, Paul Gauguin), there is an overwhelming majority of help and hope through selfless dedication to the worst places in the world. Americans alone donate 55% of the charity food to Africa, according to Dr. Milton Tectonidis of Doctors Without Borders in an interview with 60 Minutes on June 20, 2008, and since most of America claims Christianity, you do the math. We are by far the largest group of humanitarians on Earth.
Find me any other religion, or any group of atheists who are willing to sacrifice their lives out of simply believing that you have such a profound 'truth' that you must share with others who may never have hope of hearing it. Believing that there are people who are worth 'saving' and worth loving in some of the harshest, most remote places on Earth, where death is almost certain. Some people go there out of compassion for the 'hellbound', others may go out of obedience to the scriptures or a divine revelation from God. Whether you believe God is a figment of imagination or not, read the autobiographies of people like Harlan Popov, or Arthur Blessitt just to name a few. Tell me of any other type of people who would willingly lay down in front of a firing squad, willingly suffer captivity, and torture, or walk through the Darien jungle, in simple hopes of reaching more people with this divine joy, NOT in military protest, or acts of aggression. I can think of Ghandi, and a few Buddhists who can hold a candle to Christianity's best examples of selflessness. Tell me, for a more well-known example, where is the 'Mother Teresa' of Islam? Judaism? Atheism?
In purview of history, the dark ages were a mere 200 years in one spot of the world where the church was mixed with the government, when ignorance abounded in all things--including scriptures, and a few opportunistic men sought to use it to their advantage. Christianity cannot be held accountable when the actions of this time went directly against countless NT scriptures, and a few men decided to keep the Bible unreadable, to prevent people from ever pointing this out, or questioning them. Jesus in John 16:2-3 foretells of this precise thing happening, that "They [religious folks] will kill people, thinking they do God a favor, and they will do it because they don't really know the Father, nor Jesus." However, when it comes to modern day violence among Christians, the most anger you'll see among the groups I'm closest to (Western Protestants) is who can pull out of the church parking lot the fastest to get down to the local buffet. All joking aside, when it all comes down, nothing can compare to the best and purest examples of Christianity.
Christianity has kept it's place as the largest religion at the world for a very long time, and it has an enormous amount of support behind it, from scholars, historians, and even scientists. It has the best selling book of all time, and has been translated into every written language in the world. China, the largest country in the world (by population) can only keep Christianity's numbers down by regulating it. Dictators have tried to destroy it, early Christians were slaughtered by the thousands, and in spite of all odds, this once tiny little religion has reached the entire planet. It has even survived through it's own dismal period of misuse by an oppressive church-government, you just can't keep it down.
It's quite an accomplishment for one man, even from a historical point of view, considering He was under a foreign government, and hated by many of His own people.
His 12 original followers were mere simpletons, one committed suicide, 10 others were killed. The only scholar among early believers was Paul, who was originally a Zealot, dead set against Christianity. The initial witnesses of His resurrection were women, who didn't hold much status in society in that day. Many Christian authors and theologians have talked at length about all of the odds that were stacked against Christianity and in everything it has thrived in spite of.
Jesus is also responsible for splitting time,(BC and AD) all of our modern day calendars are based on His birth, which is still acknowledged today, even among liberals who prefer to call it BCE and CE.
Christ's teachings (in context) could create a utopic society, world peace, and many of His teachings are not found in any other religion, though a few come close.
I can absolutely say to an atheist that while it's true I grew up a Christian only because I was born one, since the age of 18, I have remained one, because of my own expansive knowledge about my religion, never settling to not have an answer, being able to firmly say after years of debate that it has no contradictions and explaining difficult doctrinal positions on this very site. The evidence points to nothing else.
As a final note to those who are fans of 'The Naked Truth' or 'The 16 Crucified Saviors of the World'. What? Did you really think as open minded and inquisitive as I am, that I would not have seen this material, or would have cowered at it? While it's true that there are parallels in many stories of the world, 3 things must be made clear: The figures who performed miraculous things similar to Christ, had nowhere near the same teachings and sayings as Him (those who had any at all). On the flip side, the few who had close teachings, did not live miraculous lives. There is no perfect emulation of Jesus from any of the religious figures in history. I'm sure you could take any 16 people notoriety and find many common parallels as well. To finish with a verse, Jesus had something interesting to say about this. John 10:8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.