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"Which is more arrogant of man? "

Atheism, that claims that man's creator doesn't exist. That it's not the Creator who was self-existant, but rather man himself who is self-existant, if only by random chance.

Or Christianity, that recognizes that man does owe his existence to the Creator. That the Creator does have rights to demand a certain level of responsibility and caring from His creation. That we as the creation have failed to live up to that standard that the Creator sets for us, but not because we were created imperfectly but rather because we were given free choice and chose to rebel. And that we are incapable of saving ourselves and need a savior.

Which indeed?

PS not all religions claim that God takes a personal interest in YOUR life. Many, probably most, teach that God is impersonal. Christianity teaches that God is very personal.

And while that might sound arrogant to believe that the creator of the universe takes a personal interest in you. Imagine the affront of having Your creation decide that You don't even exist, that they don't need You, that You're not relevant, that You didn't do all the things history records that You did, rather other parts of Your creation just made them up.

Ironically, Atheists can be very *religious* when you debate their ideas with them.

And they can be as indoctrinated as those in a religious cult.

Many reject religion because, lets face it, religion has done a lot of bad throughout history. However, it is the human and the human's interpretation of religion that has done bad not the ideal itself.

Most religions teach a way of life that will improve the chances of the survival of the human species. Implementation and interpretation are the tricky parts and where fallible humans have difficulty.

Atheism, that claims that man's creator doesn't exist. That it's not the Creator who was self-existant, but rather man himself who is self-existant, if only by random chance.

Denying the existence of your creator is arrogant only if you know your creator exists!

There's the rub.

If emperical proof were present of God's existence, I would agree that a person would need to be amazingly arrogant to be an atheist.

The lack of such evidence suggests that the opposite be true.

And yes, Christianity certainly teaches that man should be humble before God. However it sometimes comes across like mankind is an only child. Self-centered and expecting to be center of all of God's attention.

Great point about other religions. We tend to stay Judeo-Christian centric in our thinking, but you're correct, not all religions claim God takes a personal interest in Man.

Still though, most of those religions do take the position that man is at or near the center of the reason for all creation.