Christians follow the Bible because they believe it is the word of God. They believe in God largely because of the Bible. It's a closed loop, logically speaking. The only way on that little merry-go-round of faith is to simply start believing -- something that many of you did as a result of some kind of personal revelation or epiphany.
That's fine with me. You had a magical experience that convinced you to start believing in the Bible, that's your business. I don't doubt the reality of your experience - I cannot, for it is yours alone - though of course I do doubt your interpretation of it.
There's a popular conception of atheists as being spiritually apathetic or lazy; they haven't found God because they don't even care to try. That may be true for some, but for many of us the journey was as long and rewarding as any conversion. I was raised Christian, and for years said my prayers every night like a dutiful son, hiding the fact that I never heard a thing in my head at night but the echoes of my own mind rattling around in my brain. I assumed I was "doing it wrong", like there was a secret knock I just had never figured out. For years I lived with that guilt -- why could everyone else hear something that I could not? When I started questioning, as many do, it was again with guilt and trepidation. It's tough to be the black sheep of the family. Some born-again atheists - for we are all born atheist!
- report feeling lost and scared when they first let go of their superstition and rituals. For me it was the opposite. I felt clear-eyed and awake for the very first time. I seek truth. I always have. I couldn't be happier to have finally let go of that which kept me from finding it.
You ask about morality, and whether it can exist without a mighty god inscribing laws on tablets. But I ask the opposite. How can you consider anything you do to be good if it is done under the threat of punishment? Which is more impressive: the Christian who helps his neighbor because God told him to, always believing in an eventual and eternal reward in heaven, or the atheist who gives of what he has without being told, expecting no reward whatsoever?
You may answer this by saying that actions are meaningless -- only the love of Jesus matters. But at that point we have left the discussion of morality, and are back on the merry-go-round. You believe that Jesus is the answer because it says so in the Bible. And you follow the Bible because Jesus is the answer... Wheeeee!
