Response to an Atheist Friend (5)

Recently we had 28 people from an atheist group visit our church, then I went to their atheist meeting. One of the guys has written a first draft of a book about atheism. He was trying to get other members of his group to read it and give him feedback, but they weren’t, so I offered to do it. He is intelligent and makes some valid points in his book, including some complaints against Christians. I thought it might be interesting to share a few things he wrote, along with my feedback to him. Here’s one:
 
In arguing for the fallacy of God and religion, my atheist friend writes:

Human societies have developed bureaucracy in tandem with the rise of religion – in fact, “bureaucracy” may be the distinguishing factor between “religion” and “magic”…

The note I put in the margin:

A provocative statement – and one I’m sure will make your fellow atheists smile. But it takes away from the scholarship of your book. You must be aware that some of the most intelligent people in the world – Harvard and Oxford professors, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, etc. – have tried to disprove Jesus and the Bible, only to end up becoming believers because of the evidence. And you’re going to equate believing in Christianity with believing in magic?

I wish there were bigger margins in his book, because I would love to go into detail telling some of the (tons) of stories of historians and archeologists and scientists and lawyers and professors and journalists who have tried to disprove the Bible, the identity of Jesus, the resurrection, only to find the volumes of evidence that led them to the conclusion that it was all true, and to the decision to believe in and follow Jesus.