Owen Merton

Can you be a Christian, and not believe that Christ rose from the dead? I have stopped believing many years ago; that Christ was born from a “Virgin” mother, and that he rose from the dead on the third day. But I never stopped believing in the most fundamental Christian values; do unto others as you would have them do unto you, turn the other cheek, forgive people for the evil they posses…and all of the things that would make one a more redeeming person. I believe that Jesus Christ was a great human being, that had a powerful message about morality that spawned one of the great religions of the world…but I also feel that Man enhanced his story to make it more sensational, for purely marketing reasons. Why is it that we have to believe that Christ is the Son of God…if we believe that there is only one God? Why not believe that Christ was divine in the sense of possessing great deal of goodness. I know a lot of non-Christians have debated this point – the Koran considers Christ to be a prophet, and not the Son of God. I think that if modern Christians accepted the probable fact that Christ was a regular human being with a very strong moral compass, that his mother’s pregnancy was the same kind of miracle that every of woman experiences when she delivers the miracle of life, and that the idea of Christ rising from the dead is a metaphor for the idea that one’s soul separates, or rises from the body after death was really what Christ was teaching his disciples in his preaching. If Christians adopted this small change to their ideology, and started preaching the fundamentals Christianity – like loving thy neighbor, and use the Bible the way most fairy tales are used – as lessons in morality – they may find a surge in their popularity from people that don’t believe in Christianity because they don’t believe in the resurrection. I know that the Roman Catholic Church would have to own up to a lie that they have been propagating for the past 1700 years since Constantine created the Roman Catholic Church. But I think that we could forgive them.

Always trying to provoke some creating thinking, Owen.

Ungood

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Mike C

I think it's quite feasible to embrace Christian values without a belief in either the resurrection or in god, which is about where I see myself, loosely.

Basic Christian values - be nice to eachother, practice forgiveness, be tolerant - are good guidelines for life regardless of belief or lack of.

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CroZ

Better idea. How about every non-Abraham based religion abandon their beliefs and go with the bible. It'd be easier to organize.

This is tough to argue since you don't make any points.

Nope. This would disregard everything the messiah accomplished.

Why have you stopped believing?

Actually the most essential Christian values would be stuff like: one path to god through Jesus, atonement for sin, follow my laws, Satan appears as an angel of light .etc.

The laws don't end at what suits you.

You seem better suited as a New Ager than a Christian, which is pretty much Satanism under a different name.
You believe that do you? Where's your proof? What part of all powerful God don't you understand?

Jesus and God are one in the same. Jesus acts as the doorway of communication with God, without which there is none.

That's not a small change. You pretty much asked Christianity to commit suicide.
Why the hell do you care what everyone else thinks? No Christian should.
I've no doubt the Roman Catholic church will be removing Christ from their teaching soon. Hope you like Mary.

JosephB

Not again.

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smilinghelps

Joe, I'll race you to the driving range.

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Tiamat10

Oh dear Christ...

I have an idea. What more, I know people will argue with this idea, but here you go:

Believe what appeals to you, what gives you comfort, purpose, hope, peace. Believe that, stick with what you believe, and don't bother arguing with people that don't agree.

It's very simple. No one should be in charge of your religion but you anyways--it's your soul, isn't it?

Thank you.

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Non Serviam

A Christian's someone who loves Jesus Christ. That's the whole definition.

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Shawn

I never really got the crucifixion, and it's probably one of the big things that made me leave religion behind.

I mean, I get it... Jesus dies for our sins, etc. But what about Judas? Really... the one man who sets in motion a series of events that fulfills the prophecy that saves us all, and he gets sent to eternal torture and his name stigmatized for all time?

Geesh. I'd rather just take my ball and go home.

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Shawn

Secretly, you're thinking, "oh, goody, what are they going to say now?"

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seigfried007

Technicaly, a Christian is someone who follows Christ's example. However, it should be noted that if one belives he did not come about or leave as he stated, that would make him one of the greatest liars and, therefore, biggest hypocrites of all time.

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Non Serviam

Fails to follow, I should think. Tries, but fails (sins), and is subsequently forgiven.

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Ungood

I would like to say that most of you have been fed a painful delusion about Christianity which might explain the many issues that arise regarding what is means to be a Christian.

In the hope to enlighten I am going to say this, but I expect to receive some serious backlash by those that might disagree.

May modern churches in European/Anglo-Saxon cultures focus on following Christ or obedience to laws and things like that because that is what the people of those countries understand. It is how their life and culture is defined.

Follow rules = Good.

Break Rules = Bad.

Very primitive mind set, running on the principal as long as you can get away with it, no wrong has been done.

But that was never the objective of being a Christian. In every essence that is against the very foundation of what being a Christian is about.

In it's purest form a Christian is someone that has accepted Jesus the Christ as their Lord and Savior.

If you have not done that you are not a Christian, End of story.

No matter how you act or what other rules you may follow you can't be a Christian unless you accept the Christ as your savior.

Oh and Shawn, Judas was just a greedy bastard that sold his friends out for money nothing more then that.

Jesus was nailed to the cross because of a bunch of religious hypocrites influencing the government, Hummm, some lessons we never learn.

Ungood.

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Shawn

As a writer, I would take exception to that.

People tend to have far more bits of motivation than money, even if they do seem greedy.

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