Can Atheists Be Christians?

Allow me to expand. Buddhists believe in and follow the teachings of the Lord Buddha but don't believe in any prime deity, so technically Buddhists are Atheists.

Can someone believe in and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ but not believe in God be a Christian?

 

There are various sects of Buddhism and in some of them Buddha is treated like a god. Buddha himself never claimed to be a deity in difference to Jesus who did.
Atheists do not follow "teachings" of any self proclaimed god .

 

I seem to recall English Bishops who questioned the virgin birth. Many evangelicals would label these senior churchmen atheist.
Then there's Dara O'Briain, who insists he's still a Catholic despite being an atheist, because there's no get-out clause, and it's the stickiest religion known to man. If he went off and joined the Taliban, he'd just be a "bad" Catholic...

 

Uh, the prefix a- means not or without. theism is the belief in a god(s). So, not believing in any god would seem to prevent a person from believing that Jesus Christ is the messiah.

 

Is a messiah and a god one and the same?

 

Messiah = chosen one, christ, savior. In the case of Jesus and christianity, they are one in the same. But it doesn't have to be. And the Jewish folks disagree with christianity, I think. They don't think the messiah was to be God.

And one could follow the teachings of christ, but to be christian you have to believe jesus and God are the same.

 

I guess they could be, and in Christianity I suppose it could be viewed that way because of the holy trinity.

 

If you interpret Christianity as someone who follows the teachings of the bible, then an athiest can also be a christian.If you think of the bible more as a story rather than a rule book then you can follow christianity as a philosophy rather than a religion. If anyone can think of an instance where the bible teaches an unethical moral, I would appreciate it.

 

Morality is subjective, so what's moral to someone may be amoral to someone else... with that being said though:

[h=3]Leviticus 25:44[/h]New International Version (NIV)

44 “‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.


[h=3]Leviticus 20:9[/h]New International Version (NIV)

9 “‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. Because they have cursed their father or mother, their blood will be on their own head.


http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2025:44,45

 

Even Christians have to be existentialists.

 

Have you actually read the thing?

 

Perhaps. I think they would be following the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth rather than Jesus Christ if they were to do so. It's semantics, and maybe I'm wrong on that point, but it would seem to claim to follow Jesus Christ has deeper meaning than to the follow the teachings of the man named Jesus.

I also think following the teachings for their moral and life value while not believing there was a higher power behind them would still lend to an enriched person by virtue of understanding the moral value in the lessons. Not all of the Bible is peaceful and loving, but I sense from your wording you meant the focus on positive stories with morals behind them to teach how we should act, how we should treat others, etc.

I'm going with yes on this one. We could believe in the teachings of others, such as Ghandi, and not have to believe in God so I don't see why this would be different from the point of view of an Atheist.

Edit: After re-reading your subject and question I may have missed something. You asked if they could be "Christian" which suggests a belief so if that was your intent, then no they cannot.

Chris·tian (krschn)
adj.
1. Professing belief in Jesus as Christ or following the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.
2. Relating to or derived from Jesus or Jesus's teachings.
3. Manifesting the qualities or spirit of Jesus; Christlike.
4. Relating to or characteristic of Christianity or its adherents.
5. Showing a loving concern for others; humane.
n.
1. One who professes belief in Jesus as Christ or follows the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.
2. One who lives according to the teachings of Jesus

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Christian

If it didn't require a believe in Jesus AS Christ, then my statements in the beginning are what I'd believe to be true, but in the context of the definition of them having to be a Christian as part of following the teachings, then I don't think so.

 

No.

The most basic precept in Christianity is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you don't accept that, then Christianity is no more than a philosophy.

 

Atheists cannot be christian because atheists do not believe in God's existence and therefore reject the religious dogma at the core of the religion.

This lack of belief has absolutely NOTHING to do with morality.

 

Sure. I believe Jesusism is the part of Jesus's teachings that are not linked to his proposed divinity.

Wiki says:
Jesuism (Jesusism or Jesuanism) is the philosophy or teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and adherence to those teachings.[1] Jesuism is distinct from and sometimes opposed to mainstream Christianity.[2] In particular, the term is often contrasted with the theology attributed to Paul of Tarsus and mainstream Church dogma.[3][4]

 

and one of the reasons Jesuits have been treated with such suspicion by mainstream churches for such a long time. not incidentally, a couple of the most moral and delightful human beings I've ever met happened to be Jesuits.

 

No......

 

no. the late 60's saw a rise in Jesus Freakery, and much of that wave discounted entirely the supernatural elements of xtian mythology. it was a wonderful time for xtianity (as it was for just about everything else in the western world), and it's a damn shame that variety has now been replaced by the nuttier brand.

 

I guess you could pull a Thomas Jefferson and ignore the supernatural parts of the Jesus story. But in my experience most atheists who call themselves Christians because they agree with some of Jesus' teachings are just trying to avoid the stigma of being called an atheist.

 

Yes it's possible for atheists to live by the teachings of Christ, though they'd view him as a 'good teacher' rather than God's son I'd assume

 

there's a stigma associated with being an atheist? really?

and here I was thinking it was the other way around. I see more folk claiming atheism who aren't, for fear of the same thing.

 

Not really because it's a spiritual world Buddhists believe in. I could for example say "nirvana is what we can say about heaven" or I could say "nirvana was the paradise of the world before or/and after god created the world". I doubt about wether an atheist is able to have such ideas: To compare the "garden eden" with "nothing" and to have the feeling there could be a bridge or even an identity between such ideas and to be able to see a positive light in such ideas and not a destructive element.

Not really - but - a big fat "but": it's a gift of god to believe in him. Maybe someone doesn't need this gift - or this gift could have a bad result for this person or others or ... If someone is not believing in god then he can believe that god gave him not the believe in him. An interesting situation was maybe the situation of the nobel price winner sister Theresa. I heard she was sometimes nearly depressive - (but this could be also a lie too, I don't know really ) - because god spoke not any longer with her as she was used to hear god in her younger years. But indeed there's no need to be desperated in such a situation, as long as someone is convinced that god is doing everything in the best of all possible ways. Oh by the way: I heard even from Jews who are so respectful in case of g_d, so they try do make absoluttely not any imagination of g_d - what's very similiar with the situation to see g_d like an atheist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u0nUU126Hc

 

Yes....they can be a Christian.....But other Christians will say they are not.

Of course....most Christians say most other Christians are not Christians anyway.

 

Are you sure? What about if I would be an intelligent Octopus now? Would this really make a big difference between me and me? And if I would remember what they had done 2000 years ago with the eight tentacles of Jesus Christ - would this really be a difference? Is our form really defining what we are, what we think and what happens? Would the unalienable octopus rights not be as important as the unalienable human rights in case we all would be octopuses?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tmzxM_XvQA