Are Atheists Really Just Christians With Weak Faith?

I'm probably going to get a lot of hate all around for this thought crime, but anyway...

If Atheists have heard of Christ... say when they were a small child, and they believed then, Or if they heard of Him later in life and let the possibility cross their mind for just a split second, does that make them stuck as Christians for the rest of their life no matter how hard they try to deny it?

If you are a concious Christian, think about what would happen if all your memories were erased, or you became brain dead on life support. Would you still be a Christian?

Maybe with all the advances in science, especially neurology and evolution, it is just harder to believe in anything supernatural, but maybe deep down they have a very faint belief. A Kind of mental "right brain" impairment, rather than then other way around?

The Bible is pretty clear that you are saved by believing and that it's impossible to lose your salvation.

I will get into whether Muslims are the same later. This should make enough people mad already.

 

Most arguments against God revolve around the theme that God is a jerk. Even if God does exist they reject him anyway.

It's impossible for you to lose your salvation once your name is in the book. That happened before the world even began. What is possible is for an unsaved person to have faith and then ultimately lose it. A saved person will ultimately die in faith even if they are prodigal sons for periods of their life.

It's impossible for us to know who is and isn't saved. We can only know that they are or are not on the right path at this moment. Only God knows if someone will be on or off the path when they die.

 

Short answer... No.

 

This is what I used to be fairly sure of, and it is the common interpretation of the Protestant Religions, but I'm starting to see the Bible and especially the Gospels in what feels to me like a clearer context, and it's really making me wonder if anyone will actually go to hell or not, even though it is clear from the Bible that it exists.

I've checked with the main points of Protestantism and my idea still fits in.

Either way, both of these beliefs negate the need to do any kind of evangelizing, other then to help people feel better and that they have more to look forward to.

 

Atheist are as much Christian as Christians are Muslim and Muslims are Jewish.

 

Well, Muslims and Jews have heard of Christ also, but I think I've evolved my theory a little further...

My point would be that since Christ = God, and the knowledge of God is built into everyone at inception, and knowledge is belief (in a metaphysical sense), even if you later deny it. And even outward belief in Christ is metaphysical because we can't prove to anyone that it's true based on logic.

Peter denied Christ three times, but the common belief is that he was still a Christian, just a spiritually weak one at that time.

 

No, I don't think so...

Atheists have the believe that there is no God so they have nothing to deny...

 

I don't agree.

You are what you are now. I don't believe a criminal who is living as a good man is still a criminal.
Neither is an atheist who once believed and trusted god, a christian.
Nor is a christian who once was an atheist, an atheist.

Otherwise lucifer the fallen angel,who once believed in god is a christian.

There are many atheists who were once religious and vice versa. So your theory creates more problems than it solves. It will create many atheist-christians and christian-atheists.

 

I'm not sure why you're posting this on digitalpoint. But since we're talking programming and logic, I guess it's fair to say that your inability to understand non-Christians may stem from the fact that you believe it as a fact that Christ = G-d. Many don't and they feel no less justified than you do about your opinion. Second, how is it that the knowledge of G-d is "built into everyone at inception?" If that is the case, then perhaps the belief the American Indians and Pagans had it right. Many would say that when humans don't understand they believe that another "higher power" or deity must be at work. How else to explain what fire is, a hurricane, spontaneous generation and others. This is all a matter of "faith" and quoting existentialism isn't going to change the fact that there is no "proof" that would make such an acceptance convenient. I wish you luck in your efforts to understand.

 

Toyota cars are selling better than any other brand, that doesnt mean that Toyota is the best car out there

I dont see how atheism is connected to christianity? My parents are muslim(although not strict ones) and Im an atheist.

 

I'm waiting for a muslim to tell him;
"My point would be that since Allah = God, and the knowledge of God is built into everyone at inception, and knowledge is belief......." to prove that he is in fact a muslim.

Of course, Being a christian he assumes that out of all the thousands of gods ever invented his is the only plausible one.

Your argument holds absolutely no water solutionx.

 

That's exactly the opposite of what "we don't know" implies.

 

Ha just cause you were brainwashed/indoctrinated to believe in your invisible sky friend doesn't mean everyone else was.

As for this thread, of course not.

 

Ok, I can already see a couple of problems, but that's exactly why I posted it on dp.

Problem #1: That verse about how God will say to many that they never knew him, and I think I need to look into that before I can assume my theory is true.

Problem #2: In order for anyone to even consider believing this, they arleady have to be some sort of Protestant variation of a Christian, but at the same time, by my own theory, you may have believed my theory for a split second as you were formulating your counter argument, but since believing this theory isn't what gets you into Heaven, it's a moot point.

Problem #3: It's a purely metaphysical theory.

All hope isn't lost though, and about the fallen angels (demons) being Christians by this theory--that's a whole different story, because angels are not humans and Christ did not die for them. Also, I would still say it's pretty clear from the Bible that there is a hell, and I remember somewhere reading where it refers to satan and the demons being cast into hell. So, with my theory, satan and demons would still go to hell, just no humans.

If I'm right it does.

 

I still don't see the connection to DP, which is what makes this all the more fun. There is a simpler solution to all your problems. If G-d = Jesus = Jewish, then why not just follow Judaism and bedone with the turmoil? Jesus did before he died. The ten commandments and all that stuff that Jesus followed from the Old Testament evidently is what led to Jesus (although he had a free pass obviously) and other Jews getting into Heaven. Don't need to worry about the Angels (and those that predated Jesus who were evidently Jewish Angels) and the rest, just the goal of being a good person and getting into Heaven. Evidently I was thinking that the latter gives you a free pass, no matter what you believe in...

 

When I was a small child, I heard about, and believed in, Santa Clause. It doesn't mean I still believe even a tiny bit somewhere (even if it "crosses my mind" now when I tell holiday stories to other children in the family). We all ponder possibilities of what may or may not be true or "right" from time to time, from different gods and other religious beliefs to political values to changing science to urban myths and superstitions.

We're all told something as children, and we tend to believe what our parents tell us when we're young. When we're older we all have the ability to choose our own beliefs based on educating ourselves and deciding where we want to place our faith (sometimes they hold strong from childhood, and sometimes they change). Believing something in the past doesn't mean you're at all in that frame of thought now. Thinking about something's possibility also isn't enough to make you a part of any particular group, religious or otherwise (you could ponder the possibility of multiple religions... certainly doesn't make you a member of each).

 

You lost me, but I think you're saying that it wouldn't change anything. I would agree, but at the same time, if my theory were true and could be proven to neocons and missionaries, it could save the missionaries some time to do more good works rather then spreading the Gospel since there wouldn't be any need to. And it could calm the neocons a little.

I think you have to look beyond black & white belief and think of it as a matter of degrees of belief (some people believe in things more strongly then others), and I don't mean being a member of an organization, I just mean it in a spiritual way. But belief in anything that is outside the realm of our logic is by definition metaphysical.

A good example (I think) to show what kind of theory I meant, is to think about the brain and how it defines our perception of reality. Say you lose all your memories--you still have the same name. Or if somebody takes lsd and sees something move, that is in reality, stationary, it doesn't mean that the thing actually moved.

If you ask any Christian whether they will still be a Christian if they lost all memory of being a Christian through some horrible accident, and I think they would say yes.

In a way I was comparing losing your faith in God to losing your memory in that way, but retaining the spiritual part that has nothing to do with the brain.

I know it isn't politically correct, but I rarely am.

 

Very well said. Are you a writer or something?

 

If a christian ever doubted the existence of G-d, would that make him an atheist for life just pretending to be a christian?

 

This has nothing to do with being politically correct. You have just confused yourself resulting in faulty logic that is lost in a torrent of philosophical indulgences.

Faith means "trust or faith in a belief" or "belief that is not based on proof." If someone lost their memory and didn't remember what they believed in, then by definition they have no "faith." Whether or not G-d would hold that against a person is another question and logically one might reason the same conclusion with any religion.

What I was saying was that your assumptions are missing a huge because you are assuming everything begins and ends with Jesus. In fact, Jesus was Jewish and before Jesus there was Judaism. Perhaps more that you haven't fully reconciled. jhmattern put it very best. The challenge is that what you were taught - even the faith part which has no basis in fact - is absolutely fact. Christianity is no more fact and just as much faith as any other religion and its each our choice whether or not to believe it. It seems that this point has been made now and I leave it to you and the rest of the DP membership...