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This is an interesting point from Ross Douthat:
Consider, for instance, the way in which the dominance of the Christian story has actually sharpened one of the best arrows in the anti-theist's quiver. In Western society, especially, the oft-heard claim that the world is too cruel a place for a good omnipotence to have created derives a great deal of its power, whether implicitly or explicitly, from the person of Christ himself. The God of the New Testament seems more immediate, more personal, and more invested in his creation than He had heretofore revealed Himself to be. But this arguably makes Him seem more culpable for the world's suffering as well. Paradoxically, the God who addresses Job out of the whirlwind is far less vulnerable to complaints about the world's injustice than the God who suffers on the Cross - or the human God who cries in the manger. For many Christians, Christ's suffering provides a partial answer to the problem of theodicy. But for many atheists and agnostics, it only sharpens the question: How can a God who loves mankind enough to die for us allow us to suffer as much as we do?To put it sightly differently, the God of the Christian Gospels offers more "testable" claims than the God of the Torah. It's not terribly hard to believe that the God who ended Saul's Kingship because he decided not to kill the wives, children, and livestock of the Amalakites wouldn't much concern himself with childhood leukemia. It's harder to say the same of Christ. What makes Christianity so emotionally appealing to some is also what makes it so intellectually vulnerable to others.
