Can you be a "Christian" without believing in God?

I understand where you are coming from and I completely agree that, by following the principles that the man, Jesus, taught, you have some similarities with [some of] those who call themselves "Christians". I would respectfully offer a couple of objections to your proposal that you could call yourself a "Christian", however. The first, and main one, is that, if you don't believe in the God of the Jews and 'Christians', then you cannot believe that Jesus was 'the Anointed One' because there would, in your belief system, be no One to anoint him. It follows that Jesus could not (by definition) be Christ and therefore the use of the term "Christian" would be illogical. Secondly, if you agree that the term "Christian" is, by common usage, downgraded to a mere label, then you only have to look at the way it is applied - and where it is not applied. You would not call a Sikh or Ba'ahai a 'Christian' because they are not (and nor would they call themselves Christian, even though the core principles they follow are very much those that were taught by Jesus). I happen to believe that there is a God - but that word, itself, is a label which implies a being as described in the Bible and the Koran and many other religious texts and I see the nature of the Being who it is convenient to call God as being rather different from what is taught there. One of the central teachings of Jesus was that God is our Father (when referring to Him he is several times quoted as using the colloquial equivalent of 'Daddy' as opposed to the word 'Father', which is how it is generally rendered in English.) If your belief differs from that of Jesus in so fundamental respect, even if you follow His principles of loving your neighbour as yourself and so on then you are merely following principles which, as you point out, are fairly universally accepted. Although I was brought up in the Christian tradition (my mother was Church of England and my father was a Baptist who later turned to the Quakers), I am reluctant to call myself a Christian because at that critical turning point of my life when I came to be certain of the existence of God, I cannot accept that I came to know Him through Christ. The correct and real meaning of the word 'worship' as a transitive verb is 'to accord value (worth) to something' and, in that sense, I worship Jesus as I worship God. I would say that, if you want to call yourself a Christian, by all means do - but you are applying the wrong label and will find your parcel delivered by most intelligent postmen to the wrong house!

I get what u are saying. I absolutely believe that a person can be a good moral person without believing in God or any god, any religion. I am very spiritual and I believe I am a good person and I claim no religion. I dont really like organized religion. It causes so many fights about who's right and who's wrong. Yes all religions are based on ethics and morality. They all teach love and peace and yet thousands of wars are faught because of religious differences. If they'd just do what they say, then there'd be no problem. I dont really see any need to belong to a particular religion. Most people who go to church go for all the wrong reasons. Because of social reasons mostly. And a lot of leaders of churchs and stuff have been convicted of some pretty nasty crimes. So if you can be a bad person and believe in god and go to church and such, it only makes sense that there can be good people who dont believe in or do those sort of things.

believe that one can live according to Christ's (or Mohammed's or Moses' or Buddha's etc) ethical and moral structures, in effect being a good Christian/Moslem/Jew/Buudhist/Hindu/etc. without needing to have any belief in a God I think one can be Christian - like but not a full blown Christian if they dont believe in God...Then again it REALLY is up to each of us individually ya know..So if someone sees themselves as a Christian but DOESNT believe in god then the answer for them would be Yes..make sense?

Hi grandpa-lash! great post, yes the value sytems of christianity do resonate with me and I try to be a 'Humanist' although I would classify myself as an Agnostic but disagree with its literal term of being 'without knowledge'. I dont think anyone needs to beleive in any diety to live a 'good' life with a good value system or morality.. but the word 'good' is so subjective.

That's a challenging proposition. Each person is ultimately responsible for setting their own moral compass. Most choose to let someone else set it for them, but that is still the individual's responsibility. But, more central to the question is the fact that many of the words we have as attributed to Christ make reference to the Father. "The way to the Father is through me..." and so on. Belief in, love of, and surrender to this Father were core tenets of Christ's own moral system and compass. Just as each person is responsible for their own compass, one is certainly free to pick and choose the components of a moral system that suit one's own disposition. Nothing wrong with that. But, I would be very hesitant to call a person a Christian who was only accepting some of what Christ taught. Same for Buddhists, Taoists, Jews, Hindus, Muslims and Discordians. People are free, of course, to label themselves however they want. By the same token I am free to label them in a way that makes sense in my own brain. I would not feel correct calling someone who did not believe in God a Christian. Of course that brings up the whole issue with defining God. There are numerous definitions within the context of Christianity alone. Also, just because a person who is doing evil claims to be doing so for love of, or at the command of a symbol does not make the symbol itself evil. If someone started a movement to slaughter all blond people in the name of the color red it would seem silly to say that red is evil.

In my opinion you don't have to be a God believer to be a Christian/Hindu/Buddhist etc. Till you maintain peace, love and harmony in your neighborhood and follow the path of truth you automatically become a true child of God, it doesn't matters if you believe in him or not. You must have seen, read or heard about people who pretend to be true Christian, but the inside story is different, in fact some of them have committed such serious crimes like rape, physical abuse of children etc. It has nowadays become very common. In such cases an atheists is better than a bad Christian!!!!!! And for your kind information church also supports this fact.

There is a saying I love, " You can be a Jew for G-d and a Jew against G-d, but you can't be a Jew without G-d." I believe the essence of any religion is the deity not the dogma. So you can't be deemed a Christian without Christ.It is like trying to have a cheesesteak without the steak. But I do believe and I just know there are many agnostics and atheists that are just as kind and giving than most Christians or any other religious person.You don't need to be religious to be a great, moral, giving person.

Christianity is a religion based on morality and creed. The Church through its official Councils has made its position clear on various matters whenever there is controversy. The Church does not just proclaim it, but come together for debates and discussion. Its creed is jealously, so to speak, guarded by the Christian community. It's more like the scientific community jealously guarding the scientific truth. There is close parallelism between what theologian Lesslie Newbegin said about religious truth, and what scientist-philosopher Michael Polanyi said about scientific truth; that the truth is guarded by the community. So for the Christian creedal adherence is profoundly important. If anyone disagrees with the interpretation of the Bible by the global Christian community, the person is 'sent' out. Unless it does that its religious truth can never be preserved. And the global Christian community has from the beginning till now believe it God. And to be faithful to that Christianity which Jesus started, so to speak, and which Paul and Peter and others passed on down to the Church Fathers till the present Christian community believing in God is a creedal necessity. That does not mean there is no difference between Christians on issues, but there are some which are foundation. So I think it's not possible to be a Christian, as in the sense of being faithful to that historic Christian faith, without believing in God. Good day!

People will say "no" but the answer would be "yes." Some would argue that man needs some big mean daddy figure with a stick ready to punish them before they will toe the line. However, I think a lot of people would just choose to live an ethical life because that is the kind of person they want to be. I think people can, and should, learn to live with a certain respect and tolerance of their fellow man so we can move forward to a sustainable and peaceful future. Peace means not getting everything your way and accepting that. I think religion makes it hard for that to happen as the participants become too inflexible to just let differences be and to be ok with that.

Interesting discussion. I believe that one can follow the instructions and commands of Christ without being a Christian. But I think it's generally accepted that calling oneself a Christian means that one believes in God. When using the definition: of, pertaining to, believing in, or belonging to the religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ - most people probably think that if one is a Christian, he/she believes in Christ and believing in Christ normally means that one believes what Christ said - that he was the Son of God and that by believing in Him we will get our ticket to Heaven, where we'll all live with God. That being said, I'll be the first to admit that many who are not followers of Christ are some of the kindest, honest, and trustworthy persons. And some who claim to be Christians are some of the most judgemental, negative, unloving people on the planet. I am definitely a Christian. I believe in Christ, and I try to be Christlike. I believe that I will go to Heaven when I die and that's where God is. And as a Christian, I try to remember that the most important things I can do are to love God and love my neighbor and even my enemies. And I try to remember that if I love people, I will also respect them, honor them and hold them in high regard. If I do judge, I know that I will also be judged in the same manner. And I try to remember that one kind word to a person who is hurting can help undo a lifetime of sorrow...and one unkind word can wreck a life.

Grandpa_lash, I don't believe that one can be a christian and not believe in God because the meaning of Christian - is to be Christ Like. Well what is happening in the world today did not spring up over time. Remember from beginning there were different religion. Lies and Murders has been committing from the beginning so it is best to me that we don't watch what others are doing and do the things that the book as ask us to do. You see God words can never change nor alter and if you want to have a good relationship with him it is for us to just seek him and everything will be added until us.

The whole idea of being a Christian is believing in Christ. If you don't believe that Christ is your savior then no you are not a Christian. Being a Christian doesn't automatically mean you are a good person or anything like that. God understands that we are not perfect and gives us the ability to choose how to live our lives. The rules are made for our own protection and not following them does not mean we automatically are sent to hell. With the old testament, that was before God send Jesus down the Earth. Before that, God didn't completely understand how bad temptation was and therefore reacted that way (flooding the world, destroying cities, etc.) Anything that we don't understand is simply explained that we will never be able to fully understand God because we are not God is God is great. I do believe in God but there is some things that just throw me off. It's better to read a study Bible then the actual Bible because you can't always take things word for word. Back to the question, can toy be a good Christian,Jew etc. without believing in God, no. Those are religions and you have to believe in the the religion to be good at it. That's what religion is all about. It doesn't mean you aren't a good person or anything like that.

you cannot be a christian if dont believe God at all..Where did the Christian term came of?from Christ..He is the Son Of God..

Your question makes no sense. How can you separate Christ from God. To do so means you do not understand who God is.

To me the term "Christian" just denotes that you are a believer and follower in Jesus Christ and the term was coined by man. I believe that there is a higher power who has many names. I choose to be called a Christian because in today's society you have be classified as something and so far I have never seen a sect just called God Believers. Sorry for rambling I know what I am trying to say but somehow am not finding the right way to say it. Oh well perhaps you can get my drift.

Well, folks may be fine, upstanding, ethical, moral and wonderful people but taht doesn't make them Christian - it just makes them lovely people to be around. To be a Christian indicates a belief in Jesus Christ, and also a belief in God. The quick answer, therefore, is that by definition one cannot be a Christin without belief in Christ.

since Jesus is the son of God how can one believe in one without belif in the other?

Well first and formost I am a beleiver of god he is the CREATOR, he created all of us and christ beleives in god, he is the son of god actually, he is god in the fleash. and for those corrupt religious leaders, I belevieve it's the devil that tries to infiltrate some of the religious leaders to be curropt to bring down the church and to keep ppl from ever visiting the church of god. So I DO BELEIVE IN GOD not any bang bang or some noncence like that. God is good and may he bless you.

Is this blog closed? Can I ask if there is a continuing discussion anywhere about human values, that does not require religious belief? I like Jesus' view of the human condition but do not believe in a god. I like Buddhist and Tao thinking. I imagine there is much in Hindu and Muslim thinking that is attractive. But I would never constrain my thinking within a belief. I know there is no god but why should I accept an atheist label that is essentially negative - because it tries to define me by what I am not. Or agnostic - because it tries to define me by what I do not know. My views about the human condition are essentially positive and I would like to explore them freely with others. But where?

The word Christianity is really implies to believing in God. If there is a different sect, then they will call you with other tag names. Good day!