Christian Atheism

Archive for the ‘Christian Atheism’ Category

What is sin?

We can answer this question by subdividing sin into two broad categories: that which is evil and that which is wrong. These two concepts are interconnected, but sin is not always considered evil.

Evil is sometimes difficult to define in humanistic terms. It’s terribly contextual and often very personal. The moral philosophies of an individual or a society often dictate what’s evil and what’s not. Evil is often a denomination given to people who disagree strongly with one or many morals, or even merely ideas of another individual or group. It is therefore often thrown around quite trivially and in a generalising manner. The famous philosopher Socrates states that which we call evil is merely ignorance.

On the other hand, evil can also be defined as wilful harm to others, no matter what reason. The psychologist Philip Zimbardo (you might know him from the Stanford Prison Experiment) defines evil as:

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The Historical Jesus by John Crossan (find it here) is a remarkably good read and much more academic than many other atheist books on the history of Jesus of Nazareth. The Historical Jesus is an attempt to reconstruct the life of Jesus using all the evidence and all the available tools.

Crossan uses three types of study to reconstruct who Jesus probably was, what he did and what he said. He uses a social anthropological approach, a historical approach and textual research. He uses these approaches to visualize a world and the time in which Jesus lived and narrows the story down to the person himself. The final chapter contains “stratum sources”, being events and sayings which have multiple direct references.

The book starts with a reconstruction of first century Mediterranean life to give the reader a backdrop in which the events around Jesus can be contextually placed. Crossan also details the society and traditions of the Roman Empire, specifically that of slavery. He covers the Cynical movement, a philosophical group advocating withdrawal from the world.

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Ok, now for a more theological post.

Many have either read or at least heard of The Selfish Gene by the famously vocal atheist, Richard Dawkins (if you have not, you can find it here. I really recommend it!). This hugely popular book stipulated genes to be the central players in evolution and that any entity beyond the level of genes (such as insects or humans). Organisms are merely evolving tools to ensure the success of these genes in terms of global copy number. In other words: to maximise the inclusive fitness of genes globally.

This elegant theory has been studied and continued since The Selfish Gene was published more than thirty years ago. However, besides the biological side of gene-centred inclusive fitness, Dawkins made a very important anthropological contribution by applying this theory to so-called ‘cultural evolution’.

In The Selfish Gene, Dawkins uses the concept of a ‘meme’ (the cultural version of a gene) to explain that cultural ideas such as melodies, catch-phrases or beliefs can be transferred to or imitated by a larger population. More popular (more fit) ideas propagate successfully. The less culturally fit ideas lose the Darwinian race and cease to exist. ‘Memetics’ is now a widely studied theory and can be applied not only to human culture, but also to e.g. tool-making by great apes.

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In a previous post I argued that many Americans have a Christian atheist (or atheist Christian) mentality. Nonetheless, you might be wondering: Is Christian Atheism actually a wide spread phenomenon?

Although not as wide spread as many other forms of atheism or indeed Christianity, Christian atheists are in numbers. They often identify themselves as Christian atheist in one way or another and some are quite open about their lifestyle and their views on society. I’ll give a few examples:

Atheists For Jesus are a noble organization who are trying to ‘save’ Jesus from the Religious Right in America. Ken Schei, the group’s founder and president, has been reinterpreting the New Testament without its references to the supernatural. Just like I do, he refers to the Jefferson Bible as a source of inspiration. Schei believes that the (self-appointed) Apostle, Paul and his followers have polluted the word of Jesus for their own motives. For years he has been on a venerable quest to clarify Jesus’ true word from the distortions of the Religious Right. Schei has even published a book on the topic.

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Recently I gave my views on what Christian Atheism actually entitles. Now I would like to discuss what its moral philosophies mean to our society today.

In the US we live in what I see as a period of Christian atheism or agnosticism. In the previous article I described Christian atheists to be Christians who reject the existence of God. Some folks are indeed active, or theoretical, atheists and they can be quite outspoken about their views. However, many of us practice a form of passive atheism, also called apatheism.

Many Christian families have few specific views and opinions on their religion. They do adhere to many of the traditions and moral principles of Christianity such as celebrating Christmas and going to church. My own family participates in similar things and I realize we do this for the same traditional reasons many Americans do and I like it this way.

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Christian Atheism is a belief in the word and existence of Jesus without the acceptance of the Christian God. Christian atheists (or Atheist Christians) are hard to define. Like in traditional religion, such as the different denominations of the Christian belief, much diversity exists among views. However, a recurring conviction among Christian atheists is:

The acceptance of the teachings of Jesus in the absence of a belief in God.

We can therefore call Christian atheism a brand of atheism, which lies closer to theism in a more traditional and moral sense than spiritual sense (although there are plenty of Christian atheists who lean more towards agnosticism).

Many Christian atheists hold a contemporary vision of a modern society without God, but include the importance of Judeo-Christian values and the moral philosophies of Jesus. Others (e.g. Megan and me) try to actively bring the teachings of Jesus and those from the Bible into our daily lives. Christian atheists generally support a secular society and don’t often adhere to a particular Christian denomination such as Catholicism. I personally prefer to study the word of Jesus from as many different sources as I can find and try to make up my own mind about which ones I believe are closest to original Christian philosophy.

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An introduction to Megan:

I was born and bred in San Jose and have lived all my life on the West Coast. Although my father is Jewish, I grew up in a Catholic family and had a very moderate Catholic education. We did not go to church much and prayer was not an everyday thing. We did, however, have a traditional ‘moment of silence’ before dinner as always insisted by my mother, although this was mostly spent on inspecting our food. Nonetheless, we did enjoy a stable and loving upbringing and the Christian belief did help me when the times were tough.

In my college years I lost what little religious belief I had and focused on atheism. I was a regular contributor to atheist forums and blogs and munched through many atheists books. I enjoyed the discussions on moral philosophies of atheism and secularism I had with my sorority.

It was only after I met Bruce when we started talking about the values of Christian Atheism. When our first child was born, we, as uncertain parents, had trouble deciding what values we should teach her. We decided to bring Sandra up on the same, solid moral values we were taught ourselves, with the absence of an omnipotent entity. Our family are happy and we would like to share this with others.

I would be excited to talk with you about our experiences and I hope you will contribute no matter what denomination or life philosophy.

A brief introduction to Bruce:

I grew up in a Presbyterian family and my parents educated my 3 brothers and 2 sisters with a strict moral code based on the Bible and the Christian belief. I’ll be honest in saying that my parents weren’t very deep about their religion. We were told to believe first, do not ask questions later. These, among other moral philosophies were taught not only by my parents, but also by other members in our community and congregation. My parents are very loving people and I owe the world to them for being raised with a proper set of values which I try every day to pass on to my family.

My conversion to Christian atheism was, looking back, a long time coming. Despite my fundamental upbringing, I realized from an early age that I was repeatedly questioning the contradictions of my faith. When I moved to California (where I met Megan), this doubt ballooned to a larger dispute of the tenets of religion and a higher power. I started reading atheist books and joining discussions on atheist forums. The whole atheism vs Christianity debate I found enthralling. When I started dating Megan I found a person who had a very similar mind.

Both of us, however, had a religious background and felt that this certainly had given us a moral baggage we would like to continue carrying and pass on to our children. I believe that the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, not as the son of God, but as a philosopher are valuable instructions for a happy and fulfilling life. I think much of Christian philosophy stems not from a single religious belief system, but from more intrinsic humanistic needs. Christian atheism has given us a way to still learn and follow that of the Christian faith which is good and to what I believe Jesus intended on teaching.