AN ATHEIST SHOULD STUDY CHRISTIANITY EVEN MORE | 2005-08-20
Devout Christians want to know the history of the Church. But their interest is largely academic.
Devout, undoubting Christians have no doubt about WHY Christianity succeeded. They are sure that it was inevitable. God made it succeed.
But I am 99% atheist. I'm not uncomfortable about that. Jesus praised faith the size of a mustard seed. If most Christians weren't mostly atheist, Jesus wouldn't have talked about faith so much.
And it is that 99% of me that finds church history fascinating.
A devout Christian believes that Christianity's success is very simple: God made it what it is today.
But an atheist believes that this titanic, powerful, ancient institution is built on NOTHING except a total appeal to human psychology.
If you are a student of human psychology, which every practical politician must be, you would be a real idiot not to study this greatest success in human history.