A Christian Atheist?

Impossible? Let's explore. The true history of the man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, is sketchy. There is little record of his existence other than in the writings of His followers. But then, any recorded history from that era is sketchy. There were no printing presses, no paper or pen as we know it. Recording information on lambskin or papyrus with some kind of quill pen and plant dyes was tedious.

But, there is no denying that Christ was the most influential man in the history we know. His teachings are guidelines for many persons who have no affiliation with any organized church. That is not to say that Christ was the first to advocate principles of love, but certainly those principles are most closely associated with Christ's teachings.

People call themselves a Liberal or a Conservative, simply because they believe in most of the tenets attributed to those labels.

Many hold that to be a Christian, one must believe in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Some liberal Christians, however, do not accept a literal bodily resurrection, seeing the story as a richly symbolic and spiritually nourishing myth. Still, they consider themselves Christians.

An atheist, on the other hand, is a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings. While it is common to define atheists as persons who want to ban Christmas trees, nativity scenes or even the phrase 'Merry Christmas', many Americans who claim to be atheists do enjoy Christmas. They observe it as a National Holiday celebrating love, charity, and the joy of giving. And they are okay with calling it Christ's birthday. Why not? Those are the things He taught.

Some well educated, well read, critical thinking Americans believe strongly in the principles taught by Christ. They believe in equality, in fairness, justice, honesty, and truth in all cases.  They try to instill these principles in their children. But they do not belong to, or attend services of any organized church. Can they not still be called Christians?

They do not believe in a Supreme Being. They believe in Christ as a man, a Rabbi, a teacher but do not believe in the virgin birth, the resurrection, or that Christ is the Son of God - unless we are all "Sons of God".

And they do not believe in an afterlife, believing instead in Moses' recounting of God's sentence to Adam in Genesis 3:19, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

Are they not atheists? Christian atheists?