Indeed, another secular author, Nicholas Kristof, puts it this way: gMoreover, for all the slaughters in the name of religion over the centuries, there is another side of the ledger. Every time I travel in the poorest parts of Africa, I see missionary hospitals that are the only source of assistance to desperate people. God may not help amputees sprout new limbs, but churches do galvanize their members to support soup kitchens, homeless shelters and clinics that otherwise would not exist. Religious constituencies have pushed for more action on AIDS, malaria, sex trafficking and Darfurfs genocide, and believers often give large proportions of their incomes to charities that are a lifeline to the neediest.h

I am not aware of any hospitals or charitable works set up by atheists. And never mind that many noted philosophers have pointed out that it was the Christian emphasis on reason that gave rise to modern science.

The work of Christ reconciling mankind to himself is the source. If you cut off the redemptive work of Christ on the cross, you cut off the very basis for love, forgiveness, peace and reonciliation. If you deny the supernatural, in other words, as Singer wants to do, you will simply not achieve the peace on earth bit.

But for billions of human beings, non-material things like truth, beauty, justice, love, and even God are very meaningful realities, which the narrow world of atheism will never fully enjoy nor understand.