What's So Great about Christianity

Today being Christmas Eve it is appropriate that we post a link to Dinesh D'Souza's bestselling book "What's so great about Christianity."  Notice, this is not a question but a statement.  This book is one of the greatest defenders of the Christian faith and explains the logical rational behind the world's largest religion.

D’Souza reveals:

• Why Christianity explains the universe, and our origins, better than atheism does
• Why Christianity and science are not irreconcilable, but science and atheism might be
• Why the alleged sins of Christianity—the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Galileo affair—are vastly overblown
• Why atheism is a demonstrably dangerous creed—and a cowardly one
• Why evolution does not threaten Christian belief
• Why atheists fear the Big Bang theory
• Why Christianity is the ultimate defense of man’s free will
• Why ultimately you can’t have Western civilization—and all we value from it—without the Christianity that gave it birth 
  Thoroughly researched,What's So Great About Christianity "What's So Great About Christianity" is a direct challenge to believers and nonbelievers alike.  While it has a message or atheists (step up and seriously debate Christians in an open-minded and intellectual way) the book's primary message is for Christians.  In the preface, D'Souza reminds Christians that they are called to be "contenders" for their faith, that they should-indeed, must-engage the secular world.  D'Souza insists: "Atheists want to monopolize the public square and expel Christians from it."  Therefore, Christians must equip themselves with the knowledge necessary to defend their faith and values.  D'Souza begins by busting the myth, pushed by so many atheist writers, that Christianity is on the wane in America.  Armed with compelling statistics, D'Souza shreds the secularization narrative by explaining that while liberal church affiliation has plummeted in recent years, there has been significant growth in traditional Christian churches. And though we most often hear of Western Europe's abandonment of Christianity, overall, there is "a global revival of religion," and, contrary to popular opinion, Christianity, not Islam, is the fastest-growing religion in world today.
  

  D'Souza then gets to the business of explaining just what is so great about Christianity.  In a powerful passage, D'Souza highlights how Christianity has changed the world:

  "The sublimity of Christ and his disciples completely reversed the whole classical ideal.  Suddenly aristocratic pride came to be seen as something preening and ridiculous.  Christ produced the transformation of values in which the last became the first, and values once scorned came to represent the loftiest of human ideals." Through Christianity, a new set of values (humility, compassion, charity, etc.) arose that served as the underpinning of the West's most crucial institutions (monogamous marriage, family, basic human rights, etc.) and of American democracy.  It is no accident that history's great movements of conscience-abolition, desegregation, pro-life-have had firm roots in the faithful, who believe that all are equal in the eyes of God.  Many atheists like to claim that man, once freed from the shackles of religion, can actively practice true charity and virtue.  But it seems the atheists would like us to believe this as a matter of faith, because, in reality, atheists are the least charitable.  Study after study highlights the tight empirical link between religiosity and generosity.  Arthur C. Brooks and others have shown that religious people, especially Christians, give more in money and time, and that atheists give least. D'Souza spends the bulk of his time upending the popular atheist refrain that religious faith is incompatible with science and reason, a clash that atheist authors like Sam Harris have referred to as "zero sum" conflict.  But D'Souza, echoing Pope Benedict's recent remarks, demonstrates the reasonableness of faith guided by reason.  In fact, "Even atheist scientists work with Christian assumptions that, due to their ignorance of theology and history, are invisible to them." Indeed, as D'Souza illustrates, it is Christianity that created the impulse to sustain scientific inquiry in the first place, which again underscores why Christians should embrace arguments for a faith rooted in reason and science.
  
  Read the rest of this excellent review here.