Theism is literally childish

[KevinM1]

I won't lie - I find other people's reliance on a 'greater power' to be, at best, strange.  It doesn't make sense to me at all, on a fundamental level.

I find that interesting.  One of the advantages I find in the religious mindset is precisely their apprehension of an interested and sometimes helpful higher power.  Of course you did say "reliance on" and wherever it amounts to that, what utility there may be otherwise is more than offset by the self abnegation.  But god belief is not required to enjoy this advantage.

My feelings stem from needing an actual chaperone figure in my life in order to live.  Where some find comfort in the idea of a presence watching out for them, I chafe at the idea.  I love the people who help take care of me... they’re family, but even so I still feel confined and restricted in who I can be, what I can do.  It’s not an arrangement I think most people would actually seek if they knew how it actually works in practice.

I’ve also always been a very internalized person.  When something bad happens, I withdraw into myself, and I hate it when others try to pry what I’m feeling out of me.  I always work best alone, whether that’s actual work or life’s various bad rolls of the dice.  Again, I think it’s because I rely on others for my physical needs.  I want to at least be able to handle the other stuff on my own.  And I do a fairly good job of it, IMO.

Moreover, the story of Christ is immoral to many of us.  The sacrifice of another in order to offer us a path to salvation because of something inherent in us (sin) which is woefully defined, and, really, shouldn't be something such a powerful being should be affected by.  If I've done anything wrong, then let me be judged, let me pay restitution.

Yeah, but only if you take it literally.  Just because they do, I don't think it makes sense for us to foist literalism on what is better taken as metaphor.

Except that Christians believe that this was a real person who was really sacrificed on our behalf.  I certainly don’t believe in any of the metaphysical aspects of the story, but since it’s the underpinning of the entire thing, I feel it’s necessary to call a spade a spade.  

Maybe I’m missing something, but even if the story isn’t taken literally, I don’t see much value in it.