"It has become increasingly clear that there is nothing supernatural about the church. It is just people doing what people do when they get together to talk about how good they are and how bad everyone else is. What goes on in churches and in the lives of christians can best be explained by sociology, psychology and economics. If people's lives change in their religious contexts it is because the right combination of social, psychological and even economic circumstances came together to bring about change. If people stagnate or slip back into less conformist behaviors, that too is because of a host of factors that have nothing to do with an invisible god who dwells inside of people. The truth is there are many points in peoples lives, Christian, non-christian, atheist, agnostic where they grow for the better. Their behavior becomes more mature or self-disciplined, or dedicated. It looks a lot like the "holy" behavior of christianity or the "Changed life" of conversion or discipleship. Those change points in life might be described in christian theological terms as the filling of the Holy Spirit, but it seems that such improvements are more universal than merely the "Holy Spirit" indwelling believers in a special way from which non-Christians are excluded. If the "Holy Spirit" actually indwelled believers in a way that which non-Christians and atheists did not have access to in their belief systems, then we should be able to see a marked and profound difference. But we don't. And the reasons why have to be dealt with honestly."

-oddbird1963