After viewing some of Sam Harris's videos/articles, I realized that he makes the same observations about religious beliefs -- while I am not too impressed by his oratory, his writing is very lucid, and he is able to state his arguments very clearly. Particularly, I liked his "10 Myths & 10 Truths about atheism" that was published in the LA Times (Link here). This article was also quoted on RichardDawkins.net, eliciting the same old responses from some Christians -- which basically rehash stuff about design vs. "chance", the basis for morality, the relationship between science and atheism, and ultimately the "meaning of life" itself.

Having lived in the US for over five years now, I am struck by the number of people who beleive in the inerrancy of the Bible. True, this is a predominantly Christian country, but one of the aspects that I have always admired is the secular nature of this nation (which, of late has seemed to be pretty shaky). When faced with a crisis, do people always need to turn to religion to get past it? (This brings to mind the "there are no atheists in foxholes" reasoning). Of late, religious commentators seem to have a stronger grip on the minds of people. So when someone beleives in whatever your religion states, take a step back, and look at the various faiths around the world.