Timeconsumer
Raven
Joined: May 05, 2012
Posts: 110
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 Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 6:55 pm Post subject: Is it possible to be christian without being religious? |
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Well this is the thing. Growing up, like a lot of western aspies, i got exposed to Christianity and rather than taking the attitude that many aspies do, the attitude that one small part of Christianity is nonsense so i'll ignore the whole lot, i took the attitude that i as long as i was going to be forced to listen to what they were talking about i may as well get something from the experience.
But i just realised though, doesn't that mean that by taking on the moral lessons of Christianity, even though i don't actually identify with Christianity, doesn't that kinda make me a Christian regardless? I'm a follower of Christs teachings, that means im a Christian right? I find myself in the position of essentially being a Christian without the actual religious belief.
Does this make me a better Christian? The fact that i follow the rules because i believe in them rather than looking forward to some kind of reward? I don't believe that something bad will happen to me if i'm not nice, but i'm nice anyway. Isn't that in fact even more Christian than what most people would usually term Christian? |
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Tequila
Trust the people!
Joined: Feb 26, 2006
Posts: 26031
Location: Lancashire, UK
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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| No, it makes you an agnostic. You don't need religion for morals. |
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TM
Phoenix
Joined: Feb 04, 2012
Posts: 2122
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Culturally Christian maybe, but then again, I always viewed going to the Bible for morals is like going to Bernie Madoff for business ethics. |
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blauSamstag
Phoenix
Joined: Apr 06, 2011
Posts: 1880
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Why would you want to self-apply that term? Just look at what people have associated with it. |
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Vigilans
Orgasm Donor
Joined: Jun 20, 2008
Age: 24
Posts: 12091
Location: La belle province
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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Just tell people you're "Down with the Man Jesus, bro" or "Bro, its cool bro, I'm down with the Christ, bro" if they ask
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Opportunities multiply as they are seized. -Sun Tzu
Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many -Machiavelli
You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do |
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bobbythebluesman
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: May 12, 2012
Age: 55
Posts: 40
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 8:12 pm Post subject: |
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Christianity is a religion. There are many religions.
They are all based on the set of doctrines that they have issued to define the moral position, ritual practicecs, and ethical expectations of that religion.
I am not an expert. However I see religion sorta like a fraternity. (and don't have much use for them)
Many wars have been fought over religion and many religions encourage activity that you may not find appropriate, as you indicated.
Religion, in my opinion is man's justification for his faith. (In a creator of man, or supreme being). I personally don't feel a need to justify my faith so I don't feel the need to belong to a religion.(fraternity)
Christianity subscribes to the existance of Jesus as the son of God and that his death was the absolution of all man's sin's.
So see you can believe in God, and think that your a Christian, but if you don't agree with the Jesus story, technically you are not a Christian. Maybe your beliefs are more in line with Judaism, or some other fraternity.
In my opinion, either you believe in a benevolent spirit or you don't. beyond that its all a matter of whether or not you feel the need to justify that belief thru association with a religion and following their criteria for gaining acceptance into heaven. Although not all religions have a heaven and hell. lol
Faith is pretty simple really. Its the religion that makes it complicated.
Hope that helps. |
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shrox
Phoenix
Joined: Aug 12, 2011
Posts: 3254
Location: OK let's go.
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 8:26 pm Post subject: |
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"Is it possible to be christian without being religious?"
Yes.
Religion can be rocks thrown in a circle drawn in the dirt. |
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Smigiloo
Emu Egg
Joined: Aug 07, 2011
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 2:35 am Post subject: Re: Is it possible to be christian without being religious? |
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| Timeconsumer wrote: | | I'm a follower of Christs teachings, that means im a Christian right? I find myself in the position of essentially being a Christian without the actual religious belief. |
I'm curious as to what you mean by the term "religious belief." And also, are there parts of Christ's teachings you consider religious, or is it the aspects outside of Christ's direct teaching that you consider religious? |
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donnie_darko
Phoenix
Joined: Nov 27, 2009
Age: 23
Posts: 1794
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| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 4:12 am Post subject: |
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| Is it possible to be rich and not have money? |
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Declension
Phoenix
Joined: Jan 21, 2012
Posts: 1652
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| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 5:14 am Post subject: |
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| I'm a bit like that. I don't think that Jesus performed miracles and rose from the dead, and I'm not even sure that there was a single person that we could call "Jesus". But some of the sayings and deeds attributed to Jesus are among my favourite in all of literature. I especially love "let he who is without sin cast the first stone", and "everybody loves their friends, the really praiseworthy thing is to love your enemies" (paraphrasing). Powerful stuff. |
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piroflip
Deinonychus
Joined: Aug 21, 2008
Age: 40
Posts: 352
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| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 6:33 am Post subject: |
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Religion is at best a ridiculous, silly, fairytale, nonesense and at worst an excuse to torture, murder, and wage war.
You don't believe me?
Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, well then look in your history books. |
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Mummy_of_Peanut
Countess de Noir
Joined: Feb 21, 2011
Age: 40
Posts: 3474
Location: Bonnie Scotland
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| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 6:55 am Post subject: |
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| Declension wrote: | | I'm a bit like that. I don't think that Jesus performed miracles and rose from the dead, and I'm not even sure that there was a single person that we could call "Jesus". But some of the sayings and deeds attributed to Jesus are among my favourite in all of literature. I especially love "let he who is without sin cast the first stone", and "everybody loves their friends, the really praiseworthy thing is to love your enemies" (paraphrasing). Powerful stuff. |
True. Even many atheists will agree that Jesus was a great guy (no matter whether he was real or fictional). I went to a comedy show and found there were protesters outside, because the comedian was atheist and they thought he was going to ridicule Jesus. If the protesters had gone to the show, they would have found that the comedian had nothing but good things to say about Jesus (although he did poke fun at some of the passages in the bible).
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"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiatic about." Charles Kingsley |
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NeueZiel
Seņorita Gamera
Joined: Apr 29, 2012
Posts: 1246
Location: Kapustin Yar
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| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 7:58 am Post subject: |
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| You can follow the philosophy of Jesus Christ in the new testament, though I think most of the stuff he says is pretty universal and reflected in different belief systems. Really, just do what feels right to you. Do what thou wilt . |
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CSBurks
Phoenix
Joined: Apr 30, 2012
Posts: 652
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| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 8:55 am Post subject: |
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| No. You have to believe that Christ died, was buried and rose again in order to be a Christian. |
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minotaurheadcheese
Velociraptor
Joined: Apr 21, 2012
Posts: 412
Location: the lone lands
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| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 2:29 pm Post subject: |
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Religious identification is very subjective and I think it should be up to each individual person if and how he or she wishes to be classified.
Sure, here are certain labels like various denominations-- "Catholic," "Jehovah's Witness," etc.-- which have more specific connotations because they involve a certain institution and a definition of orthodoxy and orthopraxis which, while it may have some leniency, generally rules out more than it rules in. To give a silly example, I think it would be a contradiction in terms to say that you are Catholic but you believe that Al Gore is the head of the church and the embodiment of God on earth. Sort of like saying that you're a cat except that you walk on two legs, don't have hair, speak English and are descended from human beings... the word just loses all meaning 
But a broader terms like "Christian" (or for that matter "Pagan," "Buddhist," etc.) has so many different definitions varying through time and space that I think it's fair to say that if you feel like the label fits you, then it probably does. Many people base their religious ideas off of the Bible but have completely different interpretations, ranging from the fundamentalist to the entirely metaphorical. I don't see that anyone has a right to tell you that because you appreciate the message of Jesus but not the more literal Bible stories, you have the "wrong" way of relating to the Bible, you can't call yourself Christian.
If you don't already know about it you might consider looking into Unity church if you're interested in finding other people with similar ideas. They use Christian terminology but seem to focus on the moral philosophy and allow for a great deal of personal differences and subjective interpretations among their members. I am not anything like Christian myself, but the Unity people are interesting and usually very kind and open minded. |
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