So, yes, religion has to answer for the crusades.  And atheists have Excuse me? Just because the reader has witnessed people with faith drawing strength from that "belief [in their] existential choice" does not mean that people without faith have no strength to draw on. My entire family is atheist. We've weathered the death of my mother and grandfather in car crashes, my father's death from cancer, three divorces, one cousin going blind while caring for three special-needs kids, and my own struggles with infertility -- without once any of us needing to deliberately set aside rationality or reason in order to be comforted by an imaginary friend.

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