is it possible to be christian without believing in god?
i've heard the term 'cultural christian' but that catches a lot of flak.
i've also thought of rationalizing god as a number of things such as the unknowable and whatever but would that even count?
alternatively, can you go to a church regularly and volunteer without even being christian at all?
They say faith, not deeds.
its called lip service
anintroductiontogod.com
all you need my google.
>is it possible to be christian without believing in god?
No
>i've heard the term 'cultural christian' but that catches a lot of flak.
Never heard of it
>i've also thought of rationalizing god as a number of things such as the unknowable and whatever but would that even count?
Confusing
>alternatively, can you go to a church regularly and volunteer without even being christian at all?
Yes
well fuck it
You can, however, be an atheist jew. In the (((jewish))) zeal to label everyone remotely connected to judaism with a jewish religion tag, wikipedia has labeled a few famous people as atheist jews. Neato.
If you don't believe the Nicene creed, you're not christian. You can't be christian without believing. This isn't like judaism where you're still a jew if you're an atheist.
Having said that, I would include myself as a "cultural christian" or "christian LARPer" or what have you. I don't believe in God, but I wish I could. But the mind doesn't work that way; you can't just make yourself believe something consciously. Regardless, I believe that our religion is good for society, and I believe that our current state of irreligion has led to moral decay and degeneration.
So even if I don't actually believe in God, I still go through the song and dance and act as if I did. I go to church, and when I get married and have children, I'll take them to church and raise them as christians and they'll never know I didn't truly believe.
You can just go to most christian churches and participate in their services. The very nature of the religion means they are always open to all.
Your experience will range from nobody talks to you or(more likely) people try to engage you in conversation. Church leaders may try to get your name/contact info and have a chat with you at some time.... most don't even do that.
There isn't like... a membership card or lie detector test or anything if that's what you're worried about.
I feel like I'm in the same place as you user. Intellectually, I resonate a lot with (ironically) reform judaism's understanding of theology, but they're all leftists (((cucks))).
God damn, why can't there be a metaphysics that isn't completely overrun with ignorant fuckwads or corrupt kikes.
>alternatively, can you go to a church regularly and volunteer without even being christian at all?
Absolutely not, its illegal.
Of course you can you fucking retard. I do it. Tons of people do it. I'm christian solely because of the social circle benefits. More loyal friends. Less abhorrent women. Eye candy buffet every sunday because QTs love to get dolled up for church.
Bible study group meetup? No problem. I spend my free time reading random fantasy wikis for the lore anyway. I eat that shit up. Afterwards the adults have a few beers and shoot the shit. Nobody gets retardedly shitfaced, nobody starts any drama.
Camouflage christian is the way to go lads.
Hard to imagine why you would want to do any of those things if you don't believe in God. But I think concluding God is unknowable is partly true. It's just also easy to know God: what would you do if your mother/father was watching?
God's persona is that of One who wants you to do the right thing. And we all know what that is in any given situation, deep down somewhere.
I'm naturally gravitate towards the pragmatic application of Christianity in the form of a kind of offline technocracy.
Some people are too logically minded to make the leap of faith to believing but still recognize all the benefits of having faith if that makes sense.
Also you meet a lot of people in church, make a lot connections that can be helpful in other aspects of life.
My difficulty with this is not that it isn't pragmatic at first, but that over time, you'll be exposed as being less than faith filled.
Though I suppose you could simply cite a kind of 'everyone has their doubts' point of view, and then carry on.
You can be whatever you want when it comes to heresy.
Can you be a real Christian though? No, fundamentally Christianity is about belief in the most important truths that we've been given which are: The Incarnation of Jesus Christ and The Holy Trinity. Belief in this is what defines you as a Christian.
With your free will you can be an atheist cultural "christian" that abides by the moral and social norms and the rituals but what point would there be to that.
It should be the other way around. If you say you're a Christian but just pay lip service and don't actually do anything then you're not a Christian. Whereas if you do good things but aren't a Christian you're still a good person.
Whats so unreasonable about supporting an institution that supports what I support?
Just because we disagree about the exact reasons for why we support those things (such as monogamy, morality, anti-LGBT, anti-muzzy etc.) doesn't mean that we can't join arm in arm with them in community.
Be agnostic and just go to church. No one will bother you. If they do, fuck their wives. tons are closet whores. Trust me.
>is it possible to be christian without believing in god?
Yes, it's called not being a fucking scumbag and being a decent human fucking being
Some people just need a sky deity to remind them instead of just fucking doing it themselves
Pic unrelated
>exposed
Nah... here's what basically happens at just about every christian church I've been to(aside from catholics... they're weird).
You walk in, take your seat in the pews. Someone... a pastor or maybe just a church elder gives an intro. There's some current events discussion. Everyone sings a hymn or two... some churches have their own band. The pastor talks about something from the bible and tries to relate it to something relevant to normal people's lives. There's more singing, a prayer, you have communion.(walk up, drink grape juice and eat a crakcer, sit back down). some more talking... possibly another song. Maybe more current events stuff...... and done. Some people leave right away, others break off into small groups and talk.
What do they talk about? The sermon? Deep issues of faith or how much they love god? No, more like local sports teams, the weather, how mutual acquaintances are doing, and other typical normie smalltalk conversation.
You can be a total atheist and unless you go around telling people nobody knows or cares.
Trips of truth. Praised be Kek.
>is it possible to be christian without believing in god
Kill yourself and find out.
>is it possible to be christian without believing in god?
interesting thought
Jesus spoke in parable about God. Sometimes it's hard to see the picture He was trying to paint. I suppose it's possible that the idea he was trying to convey was beyond our understanding. In such a case what point would it be to BELIEVE in that which you can never hope to understand. Perhaps the idea is to have faith in it.
Dunno. Just throwing ideas around. I totally believe in God.
>Be agnostic and just go to church
>be a literal jew and subvert a church
Kill yourself.
yeah, that'd be pragmatism
honestly it's probably more common than I think
>be a decent person
>there are no moral absolutes, but i will define morality because i am above you people
Clearly you haven't been involved in more small groups/ministry positions. If you want to just be nominally associated with a church, absolutely, you'll be able to have superficial connections with people all you want.
If you really want to be deeply involved in the community however, being a part of leadership positions, volunteering, or even just become better friends with people, you're going to be asked what your faith story is. And believe me, people get reeeeeeeeally uncomfortable if they thought you were a dyed in the wool Christian, only to surprise them with neopaganism.
What people like you and I yearn for is a sense of community, not religiousness. It's positive to the wellbeing of society that like minded people can find good mates, wives, brothers in arms and teachers who share our sense of purpose. This is the ideal environment to raise a family in. A lot of the problems of the West today are due to tearing down the community of religion for the mainstream without replacing it with anything. Now we have the horrible feeling of walking down the street knowing that the people we see are all strangers, not just personally but also ideologically, economically and physically. They don't have the same values as you, they are competing for your job rather than working towards the same goal and they wouldn't step in to help you if you were attacked.
The best you can hope for is joining a fragmentation of what was once part of a whole. That means joining a sports club, a clan in video games, even a fascist political group. We will never have a whole society and sense of community whilst there is ethnic division and nihilism. That will only come back after a great war bursts the bubbles of individualistic nihilism and we must fight for survival.
What else is morality other than trying to do the best thing for your fellow man?
Being unselfish
I never said I was above anyone, so stop projecting
All I'm saying is try to live your life being the best person you can to others and try to be happy yourself, and you don't need religion to remind you, but you can use that too if you want
Who's this semen demon?
And this is why I hesitate to identify as Christian. So many "self-proclaimed" Jesus lovers are complete and utter hypocrites that just want to virtue signal to their friends much like SJW's do to theirs.
the west needs a new ideology that isn't jewish shit
because jews are a race
a distinct ethnic group preserved across generations of selective breeding and isolation
Accepting jesus as the only way to god is what matters in terms of being christian
Science and philosophy point to this being a simulated reality, ie our consciousness exists outside of this space / time prison, ie the concept of a soul is validated, as is the concept of an infinite source, so the idea that there was an attempt at communication with us as simulated biological robots within a 'fake' reality by the 'infinite source of consciousness' via christ is not crazy at all
See - double slit experiment and related probes, leibniz argument
Excuse me while I go back to programming
Its just human nature, people are narcissists
Agreed. When Christianity was the core belief of society and everyone identified as Christian you had a wide range of people in that community, scientists, soldiers, doctors, lawyers etc. All good people who might not believe in god but still have the same moral values. Now that Christianity is just a niche among niches the only people still dedicated to it are hardcore fanatics who seriously believe a 2000 year old story and that something that is unproven exists.
Moral of the story is if you base your culture on religion and then get many of your claims debunked by science and rational thinking those who are left over won't be the cream of the crop. An atheistic community with clearly defined values would be a stronger system but cannot exist whilst all conservatives are still scapegoated as evolution denying mouth breathers.
You're such a waste of space dude. Miserable faggot.
faith is a choice
Why not believe in god withoit any of the bullshit baggage?
Why should I accept Jesus when your only source is written and verbal accounts passed over 2000 years. Do you believe what you hear at the end of a game of chinese whispers is what you heard at the start?
Even if you believe in a simulated universe that doesn't make Jesus anymore a mouthpiece of god than Mohammed or some random cultist. Muslims believe they're following the word of God and yet get into fights with believers of other faiths. If we're just factions fighting each other for a higher powers amusement then atheists are another faction. What makes one more legitimate than another?
Yes. Follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, the man. Practice kindness towards others. I personally do not believe he was the son of god, but he was a wise man.