Having moral respect for someone shouldn't ever be confused with intellectual respect. A Christian might live their life in an admiral way, but we're not evaluating them on their actions, but their beliefs. The reason why someone does something is often more important than the thing they are doing.
I'm sure your brother is a great guy, and I'm glad he turned his life around, but God had nothing to do with it - the idea of God did. You can argue that the end justifies the means, that even if God isn't real, so what, believing in him has done good things. While that may be true, you can't cherry pick the good without contemplating the bad - Christianity is intellectually narrowing - it teaches obedience and servitude - it condemns homosexuality (I challenge you to tell me why homosexuality is morally wrong without using religion as a source), and it contradicts well known scientific fact.
Personally though I'm with you, I consider myself agnostic. The fact of the matter is we can't know if there is a God or not, so both sides need to stop pretending like they do know. But I will say this, that I think it's painfully obvious that none of the religions, which really should be called mythologies, are true in regards to the super natural.
God can inspire people to do some of the greatest things we've ever seen, like devote their life to helping the poor, but God can also inspire bigotry and murder. What people need to realize is that they don't need God to do either.
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