My view and reasons for them. Atheist and Christians welcome here. (short)

[Astreja]

And how do you know that we're not thinking for ourselves, Quick?  It's easy to fling out vague accusations at people who don't share your worldview; it's quite another thing to demonstrate the veracity of those accusations.  Show your work, please.

I am not saying that people don't think for themselves in all aspects of their life. IME, simply living life requires at least some thinking on your own. What I am talking about is where there is when you take a stance, and it is a stance many people have taken before you, you are probably going to use what those other people have said and follow it. In a way, I am saying people are groomed to know the "correct" way. There is a psychological component here of us vs them and in doing so, this leads to a certain correctness which leads to people not thinking on their own.

The very fact that we're here indicates that we want to talk about things.  Sometimes we argue and sometimes we agree.  When we do agree, IMO it's because we've found common ground such as similar experiences, not because we're trying to be "correct."

In any forum there's a tendency for people and their opinions to cluster around whatever theme attracted them to that forum.  My POV would be seen as contrary to the prevailing culture at, say, a Catholic forum -- but I have no desire to hang out there.