Not so long ago, at least by historical standards, science appeared and achieved unimaginable progress almost in an instant. Science got rid of diseases that plagued humanity since the dawn of time, gave us electricity, planes, automobiles, etc.
Seeing those wonders we adopted the scientific world view as the one and only correct way to interpret things, dismissing other views as nonsensical superstition. We had built all our culture, language and concepts around this view... which was a huge mistake.
While science can give brilliant answers to how things work and how to apply this knowledge to get things done, it will never tell you what things you should do. How should you live your life, what should you strive for, what is good or evil, how to treat other people, etc. Basically as Hume pointed out – “you cannot derive an ought from an is”, meaning you cannot make a moral judgement out of a scientific observation.
So what is really driving our lives? I would introduce a new concept, calling it a “guiding story” – a set of answers to questions of “who am I, what is my relation with other people, what is life, what happens after death?”, usually packed into a compelling story with a hero, who lives out those values, be it Jesus, Buddha or Allah, for example.
The problem with scientifically minded atheists is that they assume “if those stories are not factually accurate, they are useless superstition”. Same a scientifically minded theist would think “I feel this story is of a great importance, therefor it has to be factually accurate”.
In my opinion such stories should be evaluated on how they influence the society, not on whether the depicted events actually took place or are completely imaginary.
Therefor Christianity should be evaluated on how it betters lives of its followers, not on whether Jesus actually rose from the dead or even existed at all for that matter.
In our culture “to believe” usually means to make a skeptical inquiry, evaluate the evidence, accept the proposition, but still questioning it from time to time, still looking for more confirmatory evidence.
In Arab culture, for example, it means more “to make a statement” – a person states with his willpower that such and such axiom is true and he will live his life in accordance with it. From a scientific point of view it is nonsense, yet from evolutionary one seems rather beneficial.

At this point a skeptic usually might say
- “Believes in supernatural have developed evolutionary”, assuming that therefor they might be dismissed.
To which I would reply so – did hunger or the need to breath, but we shouldn’t dismiss those, should we? Therefor if such need has developed, maybe it is of a crucial importance for our existence?
- If God exists, why do children die of bone cancer?
Such statement shows that one is a believer in a benevolent God which does not permit suffering. Therefor, in his mind, if suffering exists, God does not.
Yet why God should be against suffering? If God and afterlife exist, than this life is just a thrill ride for the soul.
Imagine a man living inside an enclosed roller coaster. All he sees are people popping in, strapped to a trolley, they scream in terror as they are tumbled around, finally they go down a steel hill, doors flung open and they disappear into a bright light, never to be seen again. From his perspective the world is a very dark place, filled with anguish and terror. Yet if he would be able to look outside, he would see long lines of people queuing up for the ride.