Found this quote and it sums it up perfectly:
The number one cause of atheism is Christians. Those who proclaim Him with their mouths and deny Him with their actions is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable.
Read through your own forums without your 'goggles of righteousness' on. Please explain to me why any sane or intelligent person who lives a good and compassionate life, who has been blessed with everything they need and more would choose the path of Christians? Seems to me that all it brings is stupidity, an incredible and false sense of self importance, a excuse to sin and a life filled with problems and issues?
Christ said the same thing, bro. He hates hypocrites as much - if not more - than your average atheist. Christ was also a "man against the machine" - He hated organized religion. He preached the Body of Christ, as each human being being living temples of God - no need for a Church, and most certainly no need for
dogma and
religion, as it were. The only thing needed is Truth.
A sane and intelligent person who lives a "good," and compassionate life, who has been
blessed with everything they need and more would become Christian because of exactly what you said. If this person recognizes that those things s/he is
blessed with - including compassion, sanity and intelligence, did not come on his/her own accord, but came because s/he was
blessed with these things, then that is the first step to recognizing that there is something beyond the individual that is working
for the person. The next step is assessing and discerning Truth. Knowing that Christianity (and even Hebrew) is unique in that it recognizes that humans are
not good in a holy (perfect spiritual) sense, but can be
atoned for by the Most High God - because He claims to love the person - is a huge deal, and something worth meditating upon.
Most other religions rely on one's own power for "enlightenment," which is somewhat problematic if we already acknowledge that forces greater than us influence our lives on an grand scale. For example, no human (save Christ - as per my belief) created a star. Yet, the sun has the power to utterly destroy life, or sustain it - no matter how much "enlightenment" a person has. The very fact that a star has this power greater than me is enough for me to seek outside relationship with that something greater than me. (In many cases, people in history and in the contemporary have done this very thing: hence, sun-worship, as well as moon-worship.) That is the least one can do.
Now, as far as the "good" thing, I don't think any human is "good." Why not? Well, let's see: do you give all of your money to the poor without worry of where you will get your blessings? Do you help
every old lady cross the street? Do you encourage
every person - even your enemies - in daily life? Do you call out evil every time you see it? Do you protest for the good of humanity on
all occasions? Do you take care of your body all of the time? Do you console
every human you see in tears, pain, or in trouble? Do you love
everyone? Being "good" would mean meeting these - and many other minimum qualifications that
all humans should do all of the time. It is only when you do these things all of the time, and consistently can anyone be called
good. Some people may call it divine, but being divine is much more than the basic humane and compassionate things I listed. That was the point Christ was making to the man that called Him a "good master": "Why are you calling me good? There is none good but God." It is because 1) He was testing the guy to see if he knew who he was talking to (since Christ did do those minimum basic humane things, and much more, and 2) so that the guy recognize God does these things for everyone - evil and good, and also blesses His people spiritually.
I used to be agnostic; I knew there was something, and I didn't want to just follow my family's beliefs just because. Then I became Christian (a very sloppy one i.e. belief I had a free pass to sin as long as I believed,) then I became a scientist, then I became a stereotypical "self-flogging" Christian ("punishing myself for every sin,") to now where I am just beginning to understand faith and love God has for us, and reconciling my relationship with Him. That took decades. I do think you are asking a question (or at least are in the direction) with which all people should start . I would advise you to never say never; God tends to make it a point to prove to you how fleeting "never" really is (especially if you are coming from an honest heart.)
