Atheists, tell me, a Roman Catholic: why should I become an atheist?

[pocaracas]

And why should anyone live their lives under an unconfirmable assumption? [1]

And this brings us to the big problem of JC having been what you think he was.
Doesn't it sometimes feel like the religion is just adding layers of padding to keep you away from reality? [2]

Let's say there was a preacher from Galilee who taught people to be loving, under the protection (more like assumption) of the all-mighty-ruler-father Jewish god, Yahweh, El, An... call it what you will.
How do you take the leap from such a person, to ""truth" itself becomes a human being whom we may love."? [3]

What does it take to deify a person?... if accounts from the time are anything to go by, not much - cue in pharaohs! [4]

Why do you accept as trustworthy the tales of a god becoming human, stemming from a time and place where it was common to make the people believe in the godly nature of some humans? [5]

1) What assumption?

The assumption that a being compatible with your definition of god exists.

2) Not really, no.

I know...
That's why they made this:

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I also know you'll disagree with that sentence...

3) Because that same preacher said that he was "the way and the the truth and the life" (Jn 14:6). I believe him. I get that you don't, but if that Catholic claim is true, and Jesus really is truth incarnate, then loving the abstract reality of truth is mediated by loving a human person named Jesus of Nazareth.

And how many preachers have since (and before) claimed similar things, but were ignored?
You believe what has been written that he said. Such an extraordinary claim seems... well... extraordinary. Could have just been a deepity, or something that he never actually said... or something else...

4) If you still think what a Jew or a Christian or a Muslim means when they say the word "god" or "allah" is something comparable to Zeus or the Egyptian gods, then I understand why you would say that. But you have the question reversed. It isn't "what does it take to deify a person", but rather, "what does it take for divinity itself to become human?"

No, I don't have the question reversed.
I'm talking about human beings - people who believe things... things which are not necessarily true.
People who believe in the existence of gods, be them Zeus, or Allah, or El.

5) The only answer here is faith. I believe Jesus is who he says he was, and that isn't the conclusion of a syllogistic argument. The historical evidence of Jesus, his words, his action (especially his resurrection) are not undeniable. It is a historical fact supported by evidence that people reported that Jesus healed people through his own divine power and rose from the dead by that same power, but it is not a historical fact supported by evidence that Jesus actually healed people by divine power or that he rose from the dead. Therefore, to accept that Jesus was god incarnate, healed people through his divine power, and rose from the dead by that same power, is consistent with the historical evidence, but it is not a conclusion that necessarily follows from that evidence. So, what gets me from the evidence to the conclusion is faith.

Faith, another word for belief, another word for "accept as trustworthy". My question remains: why?
Why have faith? Why believe? Why accept as trustworthy?