Quote by Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith

An atheist is not someone who can prove that there is no Thor. An atheist is simply someone who says, “show me the evidence,” and who is unconvinced by evidence like:

"Here’s a book that was dictated by the creator of the universe, and in it, it describes all kinds of miracles that people claim they witnessed, but these people have been dead for 2,000 years, and in fact none of the authors of the book are the people who claim to have witnessed these events, and they wrote the book a hundred years after the events in question.”

This is not a story that anyone would find plausible except for the fact that it was drummed into them by previous generations of people who were taught not to think critically about it.

The thing to reiterate is that every Christian knows exactly what it’s like to be an atheist with respect to the beliefs of Muslims, for instance.  Muslims have the same reasons for being Muslim as Christians have for being Christian.  They have a book they’re sure was written or dictated by the creator of the universe–because the book says that it was written or dictated by the creator of the universe.  Christians look at Muslim discourse and find it fundamentally unpersuasive.

Christians aren’t lying awake at night worrying about whether they should convert to Islam. Why not?  Because Muslims can’t really back up their claims.  They are clearly engaged in a style of discourse that is just not intellectually honest.  It’s not purposed to genuine inquiry into the nature of the world.  It is a reiteration of dogma, and they are clearly committed to a massive program of self-deception.  Every Christian recognizes this about every religion other than Christianity.  So every Christian knows exactly what it is like to be atheist.  They just don’t turn the same candor and intellectual honesty on to their own faith.