Tentatively Christian; looking for a reasonable discussion

[pocaracas]

I am 18 years old, raised as a Christian, and now beginning to ask questions and really figure out what I believe for myself. At the moment, I'm coming from basically a Christian perspective, but I am open to being convinced otherwise and looking to discuss the issues with someone.

Welcome aboard.
That's what the forum is - discussion.
Convincing people is an altogether different subject... I'm not looking to convince anyone that their pet god is very likely manufactured. But I may tell you why I think it is so.

To be honest, I'm a bit intimidated by the environment of the forum here. My fear is that if I try to have a serious, full-scale, in-depth discussion in this medium, I'll quickly be overwhelmed and bombarded.

True.. it has happened before...
People come here, convinced of some things, they put them out there, we correct them and... do it over the course of several pages... and then they don't have a way to sort through them all and either try to reply to all (impossible) or just give a general reply to the overall picture... or run away...

I don't want to be unable to reply adequately simply because of the quantity of messages by people disagreeing with me. I'd rather be able to discuss fairly back-and-forth, without being terrifically outnumbered. (which would make it impractical to adequately respond to everyone)

To that end, I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in starting a 1-on-1 correspondence with me? (hopefully it is not too out of place to request that) I'm looking for someone who is willing to be reasonable and civil, and help talk through the questions and issues I'm wondering about.

That's not what a forum is for.
On a 1-on-1 debate, you get one opinion... On this topic of atheism and atheists... well, we0ve been likened to a herd of cats... ever tried to have such a herd behaving and acting like a single mind?
Doesn't happen.

What I think and how I think about religion doesn't necessarily correlate with what another atheist thinks about religion...

To truly understand atheists, you need to gather a lot of voices to your inputs.
If you can't handle that, then stick with one or two that you resonate better and choose to reply to those. And, if anyone comes along with good points, then you can also address them.
Look at it cumulatively, not as an all-at-once thing.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys!

ditto.