Should I become an atheist and why?

[Wootah]

Should I become an atheist and why?

What are the benefits, practices, beliefs? Any good conversion stories?

[Wootah]

In fairness to me, following Christ as my God allows me to be far more independent and not reliant on others to tell me what to do.

As soon as you follow anyone or anything you are reliant on them telling you what to do. Religion is a prime example.

Not if they are telling you to be independent and stand alone from the crowd.

[brunumb]

In fairness to me, following Christ as my God allows me to be far more independent and not reliant on others to tell me what to do.

As soon as you follow anyone or anything you are reliant on them telling you what to do. Religion is a prime example.

Not if they are telling you to be independent and stand alone from the crowd.

So if you do what they are telling you to do you are not reliant on them to tell you what to do. Got it.

[Wootah]

In fairness to me, following Christ as my God allows me to be far more independent and not reliant on others to tell me what to do.

As soon as you follow anyone or anything you are reliant on them telling you what to do. Religion is a prime example.

Not if they are telling you to be independent and stand alone from the crowd.

So if you do what they are telling you to do you are not reliant on them to tell you what to do. Got it.

Who is the they? For me the they is God.

[brunumb]

In fairness to me, following Christ as my God allows me to be far more independent and not reliant on others to tell me what to do.

As soon as you follow anyone or anything you are reliant on them telling you what to do. Religion is a prime example.

Not if they are telling you to be independent and stand alone from the crowd.

So if you do what they are telling you to do you are not reliant on them to tell you what to do. Got it.

Who is the they? For me the they is God.

That still doesn't make you self-reliant.

[TRANSPONDER]

In fairness to me, following Christ as my God allows me to be far more independent and not reliant on others to tell me what to do.

As soon as you follow anyone or anything you are reliant on them telling you what to do. Religion is a prime example.

Not if they are telling you to be independent and stand alone from the crowd.

So if you do what they are telling you to do you are not reliant on them to tell you what to do. Got it.

Who is the they? For me the they is God.

For me 'they' is either those who claim to speak for God and want to tell you how to live, think and vote and you DO it because you think it's what God wants, Or you 'stand on your own feet' (which is ok so long as you are willing to consider possibly good advice) which is just what atheists do, but you give the credit to Christianity. No, this is just the fiddled thinking to make it serve the interests of the religion, and not listening to what anyone says if it conflicts with the religion is what you call 'standing on your own feet'. That is one of the benefits of atheism...which is what I thought the topic was. But I suppose it was a sure bet that it soon turned into the supposed benefits of being a God -believer.

[Clownboat]

In fairness to me, following Christ as my God allows me to be far more independent and not reliant on others to tell me what to do.

As soon as you follow anyone or anything you are reliant on them telling you what to do. Religion is a prime example.

Not if they are telling you to be independent and stand alone from the crowd.

Encouraging belief due to faith and being like a sheep is to not encourage independence. There is a reason such things are core teachings in Christianity.

[theophile]

In fairness to me, following Christ as my God allows me to be far more independent and not reliant on others to tell me what to do.

As soon as you follow anyone or anything you are reliant on them telling you what to do. Religion is a prime example.

Not if they are telling you to be independent and stand alone from the crowd.

Encouraging belief due to faith and being like a sheep is to not encourage independence. There is a reason such things are core teachings in Christianity.

Just because shepherd / sheep metaphors are used in the gospels does not mean a core teaching is that we should be mindless sheep. It's more to stress, say, Jesus' role in gathering us together, looking out for us, and giving us a shared direction that's important.

And following that direction is not the same thing as losing independence, freedom, critical thinking, etc. for at least two reasons:

1) There is still a choice involved, and that choice can be just as rational as any choice you make about what direction to go in your life (and we all ultimately need to choose what direction we go, which requires a leap of faith over the alternatives).

2) Arriving at the destination pointed to is not like putting a piece of furniture together (as if there's a clear set of instructions that comes with it). It's more like the direction you may receive, e.g., if you're in the army, something like "we need to cross that river." There is a ton of room for independence, critical thinking, what have you, in seeing that through. And any army that lacks that capacity would be a disaster...

[Clownboat]

Just because shepherd / sheep metaphors are used in the gospels does not mean a core teaching is that we should be mindless sheep. It's more to stress, say, Jesus' role in gathering us together, looking out for us, and giving us a shared direction that's important.

The claim I was addressing was this one: "Not if they are telling you to be independent and stand alone from the crowd."
Which is why I pointed out how it is encouraged to have your followers be like sheep.

From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
like sheep
if people behave like sheep, they do not think independently, but follow what everyone else does or thinks.

Again, this goes directly against the claim I am refuting: "Not if they are telling you to be independent and stand alone from the crowd."

1) There is still a choice involved,

Correct, encouraging your followers to be like sheep does not remove all choice involved. It certainly doesn't encourage independence or to stand alone from the crowd like I'm arguing. Quite the opposite in fact.

[theophile]

Just because shepherd / sheep metaphors are used in the gospels does not mean a core teaching is that we should be mindless sheep. It's more to stress, say, Jesus' role in gathering us together, looking out for us, and giving us a shared direction that's important.

The claim I was addressing was this one: "Not if they are telling you to be independent and stand alone from the crowd."
Which is why I pointed out how it is encouraged to have your followers be like sheep.

From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
like sheep
if people behave like sheep, they do not think independently, but follow what everyone else does or thinks.

Again, this goes directly against the claim I am refuting: "Not if they are telling you to be independent and stand alone from the crowd."

1) There is still a choice involved,

Correct, encouraging your followers to be like sheep does not remove all choice involved. It certainly doesn't encourage independence or to stand alone from the crowd like I'm arguing. Quite the opposite in fact.

Fair enough, but even your dictionary reference suggests that you might also be taking a bit of a potshot at Christians for being mindless, which I vehemently reject.

Further, I would suggest that if we resituated this to our current society, that Jesus or any true follower of Jesus would in fact stand out from the crowd and be deemed extremely independent. They would be like a voice crying out in the wilderness in this world of ours. But that too might be a comment out of context!

[Wootah]

[Replying to Clownboat in post #28]

To be clear. We are meant to be sheep to the truth. If you are a sheep to the truth you won't be a sheep in the derogative sense.