For a young person starting to be conscious of the larger world around him today, the global picture of Christianity today is both puzzling and confusing. And the same can be said of adults. This confusion and the resulting depression are leading to an increase in suicide rates, drug abuse, and mindless hyper consumerism, among others.
On the one hand, we have the so-called new atheists who have launched an all-out attack on Christianity. This is exemplified in such works as Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, Christopher Hitchens, god is not great, and Sam Harris, The End of Faith.