Christian Atheist?

[Blake]

I saw that one someones profile on another forum, Christian Atheist.

Do you think that's more or less insane than Christian Theists?

[Riesstiu IV]

Maybe they think Jesus wasn't the son of god but just a stand up guy.

[Blake]

I say it's taking the stance that
"God is compassion, kindness, love, forgiveness and that kind of thing" and that prayer is a form of meditation.

Jesus can then still be someone very in touch with "God", and a man who did worthy and wise teachings, but it's taking all the inherently unprovable faith stuff, with the big grain of salt it deserves.

It actually seems quite intellectually honest.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Christians would tell you that believing in the divinity of Christ is an absolute requirement for calling yourself Christian, so there can be no such thing as a Christian athiest.

If you want to deny the existence of God but follow the teachings of Christ, you're welcome in most Unitarian Universalist congregations. But you're not a Christian.

[Vesayen]

....unless you claim you are?

Who gets to decide who is a Christian and who is not?

Well the Pope gets to decide if your Catholic but other then him, anyone can claim to be a Christian, there is no authority to refute the claim.

[Perfection]

Well, the collective understanding of the term "Christian" determines who is and who isn't, It's kinda messu though because the definition is fuzzy. Often times because of this we defer to the person in question, but that's not the whole story. Certainly, someone who says the bible is a load of trash and Jesus was a total douchebag wouldn't be able to call himself a Christian.

I'd say this is a pretty boarderline case between where one would defer to him and where one would disregard his label.

[onodera]

I'd say this is an atheist whose moral code is similar to the Christian one. Well, except for the God-related commandments.

[Heresson]

Lukashenka, the dictator of Belarus, declared himself "christian-orthodox atheist". I believe it means that while a person does not believe in God, he is attached to some religion and wants to support it.

[Heresson]

but for some it may mean "raised as a christian, now atheist"

[Proteus_MST]

In germany it would mean, that he/she ist still member of the christian (normally catholic or protestant) church and pays chruch taxes, but doens´t really believe in the stuff anymore
(someting not uncommon, as the church taxes are used for social projects, like retirement homes, hospitals and the like and those people who now pay church taxes might, in he near or far future, have use for these facilities themselves )

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by onodera
I'd say this is an atheist whose moral code is similar to the Christian one. Well, except for the God-related commandments.

[BeBMan]

There was an article a while ago on the BBC site where Dawkins called himself a "cultural christian" IIRC.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
Christians would tell you that believing in the divinity of Christ is an absolute requirement for calling yourself Christian, so there can be no such thing as a Christian athiest.

If you want to deny the existence of God but follow the teachings of Christ, you're welcome in most Unitarian Universalist congregations. But you're not a Christian.

A sermon a priest once gave said that living a "Christian" life is all that is needed. He said that what you label yourself and what others label you is unimportant. In the eyes of God a faithless man living a life of righteousness is better than a faithful man living a life of sin.

[Proteus_MST]

Sounds like this priest was definitely no evangelical fundamentalist, because else he would have preached it to be the other way round
(i.e. no matter how good you have been you will be thrown to hell if you don´t believe in christ and no matter how many sins you have commited in your live, you will go to heaven if you accept Jesus as your savior)

[Cort Haus]

Given that the church had historically been primarily interested in its own power, subscription to them (the priests) would always be more important than adherence to the morality.

One of the reasons why I became an atheist at such a young age was because many of the most fervent 'christians' I knew had little in the way of morality, because they thought they didn't need it, as signing up and going through the motions at church was, in their opinion, a ticket to paradise.