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non reilgous christian?

Mon, 2008-08-04 23:02 — baloo
Question:: 
In my local paper,on the "faith" page a local pastor of a flashy show church has written statements like"don't let religion get in the way of having a relationship with god " in another article,"you don't have to read the bible to begin your relationship with god" Recently on utube I've noticed comments like "I believe in jesus christ but I don't believe in religion .WTF!! Is it possable to have a non religious christian that gos too church? or have they finally realized there product (the bible) in unsellable to th masses?
Atheist Answer: 

Christians remain tireless in selling the Bible to the masses, hence the continued hotel-room deposits by the Gideons. They just realise that some people might not accept the whole thing at once.

Believing in a god counts as religion all right, but what they're really talking about is organised religion.

Many people with Christian backgrounds maintain a core belief in God and sometimes Jesus while rejecting the majority of church dogma and no longer attending services. The pastor you mention is targeting these people with his statement, doing his best to reach them where they are and encourage them to be more devout. His hope is that they will eventually find their way back to church, preferably his church.

On the flip side, there are also those who no longer believe at all and yet go to church regularly, out of loyalty or tradition or sense of community or what have you. Perhaps they just enjoy the ceremony and the music. Some call themselves "cultural Christians".

- SmartLX

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Wed, 2008-07-30 07:22 — jackpeggs

My 2 cents

I think the term philosophers use to describe the logic you cited is "tautology". Any system of beliefs, including a belief in the traditional Jesus is, by definition, religion.

For example, I cannot have a relationship with my mother unless I believed that the woman I was sending flowers to on mothers day was actually my mother. I cannot, therefore, believe in a person whose substance is contained in a wafer, who rose from the dead and whose reputed teachings transend this life without also believing in a set of doctrines which we commonly refer to as religion.