The most important reason I'm xtian

[Whateverist]

whether I decide to follow a moral code from the bible or one I make up myself

So, how do you know when it is OK with 'God' to not follow his moral edicts, and make up your own? What heuristic do you apply to Biblical morality in order to discern this?

What's clear to me is that Jacob both takes responsibility for his beliefs and doesn't foist them on others. Pretty golden.

To my mind, to preemptively eliminate any belief which can't be vouchsafed as true in a third-person, impersonal way is going way overboard. There is a first-person reality which no third-person account can ever adequately take the measure of. To deny it is a kind of self-abnegation as heinous as we so often see fundamentalists impose on themselves. I find it revolting when one of them speaks of giving it all over to the lord. Anyone who attempts to do the same in regard to science is also engaging in a kind of suicide of one's identity.

Understand the distinction which is being made: empirical beliefs, reason should prevail; personal beliefs about one's self, purpose, values .. these are not derivable through third-person means. All you'd be left with is some watered down, cipher like existence. But most people seem to be afraid to be themselves and find out what that may be. Most choose to play it safe. Pass as normal. Don't make any waves. When you consider that it is we, who don't expect any kind of afterlife, who have the most need of living an authentic life the first (and only) time, you'd expect that we would be less conformist.