Christian Atheism

Archive for the ‘Megan’ 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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Dear readers,

Because of a bereavement in the family we took a break from contributing to our blog. The realities of life can be harsh and can hit hard. It are these times which bring people together and put aside differences and views, just memories and emotions remain.

We shall soon continue contributing to Christianatheism.com and we hope you will continue enjoy reading our blog .

Megan & Bruce

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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We all know Thomas Jefferson to be one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, co-author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the US. He was a man with many talents and many views. Jefferson was a scholar theology, biblical studies and Christian belief. He probably was a Deist and his religious views differed much from his contemporaries.

Thomas Jefferson thought the moral philosophies of Jesus were the best in the world and he decided to write his vision of the “Christian System”. From this came the Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, also known as the “Jefferson Bible”. This book can be found here or, if you prefer to read it online, here.

In his book Jefferson merges together the four canonical gospels in chronological order to describe the life of Jesus Christ. Jefferson’s biggest edit, however, is the removal of any reference to the supernatural found in the gospels and he focuses on the teachings of Jesus. Jefferson wanted the New Testament to be free of the “the corruptions of reason among the ancients”, by which he implied the deliberate additions of supernatural events to Jesus’ life by Evangelists. The story removes the doctrine and becomes a very interesting read for free-thinkers.

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For the more metaphysical among us a good read would be The Gospel of Christian Atheism by Thomas J.J. Altizer. This book gave me an interesting and very different perspective on atheism when I was still a college student. You can see it here if you’re interested.

In the sixties, this somewhat unconventional theologian pioneered a new view on the ‘death of God’ concept first proposed by the famous philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Whereas Nietzsche tried to exemplify a figurative “God” of being “killed” as a metaphor for religion gradually losing to naturalism, Altizer takes the concept to a more literal dogma.

According to Altizer, the God of Christianity committed an act of self-destruction by incarnating himself as Jesus Christ, who we subsequently crucified. This idea is at odds with my own views, but he does proclaim the importance of Jesus as a central figure or a Messiah to humanity.

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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.