Why aren't atheists horrified by the anger and hatred you find in this book?
Why aren't christians horrified by the anger and hatred spread far and wide by the fundamentalists in their midst?
Why aren't christians horrified when members of their religion call for the cold blooded murder of muslims, gays, atheists, and countless others for no reason other than the fact that they hold different beliefs and/or live different lifestyles?
Why aren't christians horrified when their co-religionists who call for such attrocities claim to be speaking on behalf of all christians?
If you want critisize the state of your neighbors backyard then you should clean out your own backyard first. In words you should be quite familiar with... "Judge not, lest ye be judged."
Do they all just not notice it because they are that way themselves?
There is no dogma to atheism, there is no worldview inherent in atheism, there are as many views in atheism as there are atheists. We aren't sheep, nor do we have a flock, and it is the height of ignorance to think that all atheist share, or even agree with the views of Hithchens, Dawkins, Dennet, or anyone else. So go ahead, paint all atheists with your own predjudices, just don't start bitching when they don't act how you say they do.
Christians give more to charity, help others more, commit adultery less, cheat on their taxes less, and, in thousands of other studies
They are also a much larger percentage of the population than non-christians but on a per capita basis that is simply not true. Their are no definitive studies that show that christians are in any way inherently better people than non-christians or atheists.
(go ahead and look it up)
No. You want to make that claim then you need to back it up yourself. It's not anybody else's place to do your research for you. If these "thousands of studies" existed and you were familiar with them then you would have cited them yourself, the fact you didn't speaks towards your dishonesty. If you christians are so inherently better than non-christians then why is it that you people constantly violate the 9th and 10th of your supposedly "sacred" commandments?
prove that Christianity has made a difference in their lives
Good for them, that still doesn't make them inherently superior to non-christians. Atheism has made just as much a difference in the lives of atheists, many of whom come to discared the hatreds and predjudices against gays, muslims, atheists, and others that christianity had indoctrinated in them.
Surely they make good citizens?
That depends largely on the context. Those who wish to impose their religion on non-believers with the force of law, and in direct opposition to the founding priciples of this country are not very good citizens, nor are the fanatics that that murder or advocate the murder of other citizens that they percieve as enemies of christianity. Whether or not someone makes a "good citizen" can only be determined on a case by case basis.
Not to Hitchens, lost as he is in spite and hatred for God.
Hitchens doesn't speak for the atheist community as a whole, no one does. Atheists are far to diverse a group and not at all likely to line up behind a single spokesperson. As I said before, we are not sheep, we will not be herded into a single worldview or ideology. I'm sorry if that's not convinent for your propaganda, but it's the truth and not amount of pretending you don't hear that will change the facts as they stand. Christopher Hitchens speaks on his own behalf and no one else's, as it is his right to do so.
This is not surprising. If there is no God, then life is pointless and happiness momentary
You might think so, but that is not the opinion of most atheists. Most atheists do not believe there is any form of life after death, no ultimate reward, and that makes the one life they do have that much more precious. As for life being "pointless", that simply isn't the case, life is it's own point and not everybody feels they have to slavishly worship a deity to enjoy a fulfilling and happy life.
Atheists, for the most part, are not nihilists and they do not see life as bleak and pointless, and they certainly don't sit around hoping and praying for the end of the world to come and snuff out all those who don't agree with them. Unfortunetly the same cannot be said about many christians as a glance at Rapture Ready will show.
There isn't any right or wrong.
Atheism is not synonomous with moral relativism. Also it's not as if there are no blurring of the lines between right and wriong in christianity.
For example, there are commandments in christianity against Lying, false witness, and murder, but not a day goes by when I don't encounter a "good christian" who is more than willing to violate the first two if it will put him in a better light or discredit his opponent and then justify, excuse, or even advocate that last so long as it's being applied to someone who they see a inferior to themselves.
And Hitchens simply ignores the consequences of atheism.
Because there aren't any. Atheism is simply a lack of belief in a god or gods and any "consequences" that issue from it are entirely personal. Atheism isn't a movement, it has neither tenets, dogma, or worldview and therefore does not haves "consequences" to society at large anymore than a lack of belief in mermaids or leprachauns does.
There can only be an ultimate right and wrong in this world if there is a God
If the christian "god" provides an ultimate right or wrong then one would have to conclude that slavery is right as the bible endorses rather than condemns slavery. Social consensus recognizes that slavery is inherently wrong so therefore society itself must be acting in opposition to "god" by outlawing slavery. Either that or "god" changed his mind about slavery, in which case there is no ultimate "right" or "wrong", just the divine fiat of a capricious "god".
Where do unalienable rights come from without a Creator?
They come from the consensus of society, just as the always have.
Aren't they just the currently agreed upon myths soon to be changed by the next culture?
No. Societal consensus will change as a society becomes more or less advanced, again just as they always have.
Without God there is no ultimate truth
Why? Why can't there be ultimate truth without a "god"? Why does there have to be an ultimate truth? Why can't there be ultimate truth to be found in scientific understanding?
no purpose to life.
What is the purpose of life if there is a "god"? Why does life have to have a greater purpose? Why can't life be it's own purpose? Why do you sell short humanity as little more than the playthings of a capricious and demonstrably malevolent "god", unable or unwilling to forge their own path and purpose in life?
The fact remains that you can only claim that there is no purpose without a "god", in particular the christian "god", so please tell me, why is it that non-christians and especially non-believers don't sink into an apathetic depression over their alleged "lack of purpose"? How is it that their lives remains full of happiness and purpose without paying fealty to your mythos and it's capricious "god"?
Cultures will rise and fall and men will live and die, and it will all be sound and fury and as utterly pointless as whether or not it's windy today.
As it has always been. Culture rise and fall, as do religions, their "gods" rise and inevitebly fall and are consigned to myth. Of the thousands of "gods" worshiped in the past, and even by humanity today it's always the same, each thinks that they, and they alone, have the monopoly on truth, that their "god" is the true "god" and all others are mistaken, mislead, or defiant servants of whatever it is that the religion considers "evil". Your religion is little differant than all the cookie-cutter religions that preceded it.
God found Abraham in a desert land, in a place of horror, in the howling wilderness. And this is Hitches' real problem: that howling wilderness is life without God.
There's a slight problem with your analogy, That problem being that you don't get to decide what someones opinion of their own life is, I know it makes things easier on you, being able to dictate how people feel about things, but the world doesn't work that way, life doesn't work that way. And you can no more describe someone else life without "god" than I get to describe yours as "slavish devotion to a quite possibly fictional tyrant".
PS. To find God you need to repent first
Most of the people you are lilely addressing will find the notion of "sin" to be ridiculous, also, IIRC in the bible your "god" revealed himself to many New Testament luminaries before they repented. You make an assumption that atheists just wrote of religion without so much as a second thought, In many cases that is not true. Many atheists have come to their conclusions after a long struggle to reconcile their questions with their faith, or in some cases attempts to strengthen their faith are met with deafening silence and more questions than before.
You misrepresent these people with your shallow and uninformed dissmisals of what sincerity they mave have had towards the religion they put behind them when came to the conclusion that their faith in it was misplaced and no longer tenable in the face of fallacies, unanswerable questions, and unresolvable conflicts. Ant yet you do not attack these people of their conclusions but simply because they no longer agree with you and you find that intolerable, it speaks volumes on just how shaky your "faith" really is, that it cannot abide dissent or challenge.
