Yes, a practical compromise. Because otherwise, it would reduce the pool of believers to handful dozens, or less.
I think if Atheists really, truly believed in their own atheist ideals, they would set up totalitarian regimes to crush religious belief and criminalise dissent.
Oh wait, my bad, they did that already.
Have you noticed that for 2000+ years there have been believers? How is that possible?
How profound, God sent His own Son to be born of a woman and to live on earth for 30+ years. This is the merging of God and man. That Son was not sent as royalty - He was born in a manger, was a carpenter and only preached for 3 years. He also was treated cruelly and hung on the cross when God could have saved Him from that.
He then is buried and in 3 days arose from the dead. If this is not true, then no part of Christianity is true and there is no afterlife.
Why was that necessary? What are we to learn from that?
That God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die for us so that we could be made pure enough to live with God forever. No other sacrifices needed.
That something is required from man because man is not good enough to be in the presence of God.
All man has to do is do what God told him to do - repent of your sins, confess your belief that Jesus is the Son of God, be baptised for the remission of those sins, and you are given the gift of the Holy Spirit to reside in you and you then start your walk through life with Jesus.
Simple. Why would baptism cleanse you, why are you required to confess your faith? Because it shows you are doing what God said to do and that is what does the saving.
Same as all through the Bible when God gave instructions. It was not the duty - it was the willingness to do what He said to do.
So, how could one that does not believe ever see the comfort, the joy, the purpose of a Christian? The unbelief cuts one off from the Holy Spirit and a relationship with Jesus.
The seed did not grow in those of unbelief. But, that seed may be watered in the future by others.