In a recent article political columnist Mike Adams writes about Two Kinds of Atheists. He describes one as being an "unbelieving" atheist. The unbeliever is generally a reasonable person who may have never had any religious influence on his life and has accepted the secular humanist view of life without God, that religion and logic don't mix. He is content in his belief and doesn't worry about what anyone thinks. He is reasonably and logically wrong, of course, but he is one who can discuss his belief, or lack of belief, rationally.
The other kind is the "evangelistic" atheist. This type belongs to the ACLU or any number of other atheist organizations, and is on a warpath to destroy everyone's belief in God. These people write books like The Da Vinci Code to deliberately slander and debunk the Bible. They are irrational in their hatred of God and unable to carry on a logical discussion of the issues. They would rather shout down their opponents than let their opponents have an opportunity to speak.
Interestingly enough, these atheists are not concerned about the gods of Islam, Hinduism, or any other religion. Their vitriol is focused on only one God. Their attempts to disprove what nature itself proves without doubt are only against Jesus Christ, which exposes their intent as being more than just a quest for the truth, but a concerted effort to destroy Christianity.
The unbelieving atheist is sometimes a political conservative. The evangelistic atheist is always a liberal. Adam's concludes that conservative atheists need to wake up, because "a godless conservatism is only one election away from extinction."
What I found even more interesting than the article was a comment in the debate section below by a man claiming to be a Christian atheist. He described himself as a conservative who believed the Bible, but quoted several passages from the prophet Isaiah which he claimed proved there is no God. His belief is in Christ the man, not Christ the Son of God. His denial of the deity of Christ puts him in the category of a Christian cult, much like the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons. By misquoting and misinterpreting Scripture The Jehovah's Witnesses deny that Jesus Christ is God. Likewise, the Mormons, with an exceptionally twisted theology, believe that Christ became God just like you and I can become God. They do not believe in the eternal deity of Christ or the biblical doctrine of the Trinity.
This Christian atheist, however, is a first for me. It's not only a contradiction in terms, but is so illogical that it is hard to believe a reasonable person could hold the view. The man says he believes in the conservative values of family and brotherhood of man. He's for fiscal responsibility, reducing the debt and a free market economy over socialism. He wants to defund the pornographic National Endowment for the Arts because it is evil and bad morality.
But herein lies the problem. Without God there is no morality. There is no foundation for the family. There is no reason to assume there is a better way to live than the NEA's porno view of the world. True atheism seeks to destroy the family and all that is moral, because nothing is evil if there is not a Good Creator.
An atheist cannot be a Christian no matter how much of the Bible he may accept as true. At the heart of Christianity is belief and faith in the God-Man, Jesus Christ. The very name, Christian, means "one who is a follower of Christ." No one who denies His deity can be a true follower, and therefore cannot claim the title of Christian.
Furthermore, a true atheist, no matter how patriotic he may be, will never fully understand the nature of our Constitution or the intent of our Founding Fathers. He will never be able to come to grips with the fact that our American heritage is a Christian heritage, based on the providence of the Christian God. All that is good about America extends from that fact.
President John Adams wrote, "The doctrine of human equality is founded entirely in the Christian doctrine that we are all children of the same Father, all accountable to Him for our conduct to one another, all equally bound to respect each other's self love."
That America is the world's beneficiary nation comes from its faith in the Christian God and the doctrines of the Bible. Everywhere in our founding documents and in the writings of the Founders we find the same thing. On November 22, 1800, Congress convened in joint session in the new, not yet completed, capitol building in the new, not yet completed Washington, D.C. Adams stood to speak for the last time as president of the nation, and his first comment was this:
"It would be unbecoming the representatives of this nation to assemble for the first time in this solemn temple without looking up to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and imploring His blessing."
An unbelieving politically conservative atheist, who thinks reasonably, needs to think his beliefs through logically and come to the understanding that the entire conservative movement is a reflection of the Christian beliefs of our Founders. Without a Christian base and a belief in God, conservatism has no foundation and cannot survive. Neither can there be such a person as a Christian atheist.
I read your interesting article on Christian Atheism. Today, I read several pages on being a Christian Moslem.
ReplyDeleteYou can be any of these if you leave out a lot of the Bible and just choose what you want to believe.
There is an ecumenical type movement about today trying to blend Christianity and Islam by saying we all worship the same God, just through different means. That is as illogical a position as being a Christian atheist. The two religions both claim a heritage back to Abraham, but there the similarity stops. One has a consistent, traceable history through time since Abraham, and although there have been abuses, at its core is the doctrine that God is love. The other appears suddenly in the seventh century A.D. and has at its core a doctrine of hatred and brute conquest. The two cannot be blended.
ReplyDeleteRight! Christianity is a religion of love. What about the CRUSADES??? What about those cruel, murderous campaigns against innocent women and children? What about the blood on the hands of Christians? Millions have died thanks to Christianity.
ReplyDeleteWake up dangerboy. The numbers of people killed in the Crusades is paltry compared to the multiple millions killed in the name of Islam. Who do you think the suicide bombers all over the place belong to? Who preaches hate and who preaches love in the world today?
ReplyDeleteWho murders innocent women and children today? Muslim missionaries carry hidden bombs strapped to their bodies on their missions. Christian missionaries carry Bibles, schoolbooks, food, clothing and medicine on their missions. Muslim missionaries blow up buildings and tear down society. Christian missionaries build churches, schools, hospitals and medical clinics and build up society. It is obvious to any rationally thinking person which one is preferable to the other.
ReplyDeleteThe argument about the Crusades is as weak as it is illogical. It comes from a misunderstanding of Christian history and what the true Christian church is. The world understands Catholicism to be Christianity. What it does not understand is that there are two lineages of Christian history, one through Rome, and one through independent movements that have been around since the New Testament church in the first century. These are Anabaptist and Baptist in nature and include the Waldenses who claim their beginning as a movement from the Council of Nicea, which was also the true founding of the Catholic Church. These movements existed long before the Reformation Protestant churches came into being and claim to be the true Christian church.
ReplyDeleteThe Crusades were initiated not by the Baptists, but by the Catholic Church. They were corrupt and led by wicked, ungodly soldiers with more desire for personal gain than the protection of Jerusalem for the sake of Christianity. There were abuses and murders. There was the foolishness of the papal leadership that authorized the so-called Children's Crusade, in which 20,000 children were sent to Jerusalem and were taken captive and sold into slavery by the Muslims. It must be remembered, however, that the Crusades were a Catholic reaction to invading Muslim forces that were threatening to conquer Europe, and which were just as guilty of corruption, abuses and murder as the Crusaders were.
History is full of wars that were fought in the name of religion. The 30 Years War of the 17th century, for example, was a Protestant-Catholic conflict. At its core, the War on Terror today, in spite of what Bush or anyone else has said to the contrary, is a Muslim vs. Christians and Jews conflict. But to anyone who is trying to make the argument that Christianity is responsible for most of the wars and death in the world, let's put it into perspective.
The most brutal wars the world has ever seen were fought in the 20th century, and not one of them was a religious war. Over 20 million died in World War I. Nearly 60 million died in World War II. More people died in World War II than in all the previous wars in history combined. These wars were not started by Christians, but by godless, anti-Christian imperialists, Nazis, and Fascists, They were ended by the intervention of Christian America. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was fought in places like Korea, Vietnam, Granada and Nicaragua, to stop the spread of godless, anti-Christian communism and make the world free. It was the strategy of President Ronald Reagan, a Christian, that brought an end to the godless oppression of the Soviet empire.
The truth is, in spite of the abuses along the way from the Catholic Church and even the Reformers, the world in general is a much better place because of Christianity and its influence, than it would be without it.
Let's not forget the murder of millions of Christians by Mao-Tse Tung and Chou En-Lai when the communists took over China in 1949.
ReplyDeletekudos, I can't add anything that hasn't already been expressed, and extremely eloquently I might say.
ReplyDeleteGood definitions on your part. I learned a lot. I never realized we had such a thing as a Christian atheist. The discussion is interesting. I'm not articulate enough to add anything. The discussions will help with ready answers for what I believe.
ReplyDeleteToday you can be a Christian and anything else you want to be at the same time - as long as you don't read the Bible.
ReplyDeleteNope, never heard of such a thing, and don't think the two words can be put together to describe the same person. Good article though. . . :-)
ReplyDeleteSatan’s advice is welcomed by the flesh. It’s amazing how people can come so very close to Truth, but are willing to believe anything excluding the absolute Truth.
ReplyDeletegood article and commentary
you know you’re saying something sharp when the knuckleheads want to debate your points