No doubt the genocides ordered and executed by Moses and his troops are a good example of the Judaic ethic of justice.

Good point, nwick. The childishness of religious belief leads to all manner of evil being done to appease some mythical father figure.
What about the importance of personal ethics and responsibility?
W.E.Henley raised it in his poem "Inviticus", part of which states:

"Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;

I am the captain of my soul."

Interesting and thoughtful article Greg.

"...that a concept of God is intellectually justifiable, even necessary, to make sense of the world"

From an atheist's point of view the idea of making sense of the world via the supernatural is to make less sense of it. But of course to the devoutly religious it must serve a spiritual function and give meaning to their lives.

"Even if a society wants to “outgrow Christianity” it will struggle to know where to go next."

I think society is slowly outgrowing or evolving away from Christianity in the West. More and more you hear Church leaders lament on lack of numbers in the congregations or the lack of young people wishing to enter the priesthood.

It would be interesting to know if the dominant religions in the East are experiencing the same and if so, why?

As an atheist I don't look for meaning via a God but simply 'am'. There is joy and beauty all around us - in nature, in people and in doing good. Religion is not essential for altruism as some might offer.

Is religion childish? One can no more blame an adult than a child for an entrenched belief bestowed by parents. As society becomes more educated it tends to move away from religion which is why many sects denounce education, especially of women.

For me, religion does more to divide than to include. It concentrates more on allegiance and obeyance to a God and ignores real connections between flesh and blood humans.

There are thousands of different religions and thousands of variations on those religions, all claiming to be the one and only truth. This is the part which is childish and narrow minded and only serves to create bigotry and hate.

While I welcome anything that opposes the drivel published by the new atheists the writer of this the writer makes a fundamental mistake. He draws a picture of secularisation as the transformation of Judeo/Christian ideas into a modern equivalent. Thus Christian eschatology becomes our obsession with progress, Old Testament justice becomes human rights, New testament love becomes equalitarianism etc. The problem is that the biblical concepts are totally transformed in the process to become for us more of a problem than a blessing. Take for instance the way the concept of justice has been transformed into human rights. In the OT the ways of justice were established by God and was directed towards the wellbeing of the community. Human rights on the other hand are simply invented and then attached to the individual who must protect them. So community is shattered by the competing claims of individuals who must demand their rights.

Likewise individual human freedom is said to have its origin in Christianity. However, the Christian idea of freedom is that true freedom only flows from bondage to Christ. It is a far cry from the empty freedom of modernity in which the individual can do whatever they want.

Of course the culture of the West has its origin in Christianity but modernity has so distorted that culture that it is virtually unrecognisable. It is therefore little comfort to argue that modern secular values are inherently Christian in origin because they are so estranged from that origin as to be false.

These ideas are teased out in Blumenberg’s “The legitimacy of the modern age”, first two chapters.

Peter Sellick

Oh dear! Peter Sellick sees joy in a 'fundies' view of the world for us all. Back to the OT and stoning the women sinners who lead men astray. Quite right too Peter... good on yers.

Yes, we need to fill all our state schools, those moral vacuums Julie Bishop warned us of, with Christian mentors, like Tim Costello is currently doing, and push a little auld-time religion down those kiddies necks.

Only when we look to the OT for approval for everything that is done today, will we end the environmental and economic vandalism we see about us today.

Of course, let's end the evils of money lending and the miracle of compound interest too shall we Pete, in line with the Bible.

I can see that going down well on Wall Street, not to mention Hillsong and the AOG types of Christians who so worship wealth.

Back to the drawing board Peter.

Of course adherence to religion per se is childish - the need for an imaginary friend is something that sane and secular adults outgrow as they mature. As to whether Christianity is any more childish than other religions, that could be the subject of an interesting debate.

With respect to Habermas, it's also interesting how many otherwise sane and mature individuals suddenly find religion as they approach their twilight years. It's probably a form of psychological insurance.

And it's rather ironic that Peter Sellick accuses atheists of writing "drivel", given his regular contributions of same in this forum.