Athiests: Were you raised in a Christian home?

Question

I would guess you were.

Statistically, there are 2.1 billion "Christians"

Tell me this:

If 12 MEN COULD CHANGE THE WORLD 2000 YEARS AGO, WHY CAN'T 2.1 BILLION DO IT TODAY?!

hehe.

Not everyone who calls himself a Christian is one.

Define for me what you think a 'Christian' is.

Answer 1

Grasshopper, you ask a lot of divergent questions.

Yes, I was.

What is a christian: one who follows the teachings of Christ and considers him divine. (Not going to split hairs over the "must have a born again experience," believe in the trinity, be post-tribulation rapturist and all that)

Answer 2

Your guess was way of dude. I have been an Atheist my whole life There has never been a time in my life I believed there is a god, I have never been baptized & I have only been to church a few times in my life When I was young my father took me to church after a couple times I told him I did not want to go anymore & I have been enjoying worship free Sundays ever since. Do not assume everyone is what you think, that just makes you look like a retard. I do not agree it took only 12 men to change the world How many people were killed so you can have the joy of being one of the 2.1 billion? You are obviously one who seems to think you are a Christian, someone who thinks only one person can change the world yet never really seems to make an attempt

Answer 3

Yes, I was raised in a Christian home. I think there are more people willing to say they are atheists today then there were in the recent past. I think this is a positive development.

As for what a Christian is I guess the simple answer is someone who accepts the basic premises of the Bible. That there is a God, Jesus was real, rose from the dead, heaven,etc... Although I find that Christianity is very divergent in what they believe across denominations. Some are very tolerant, some emphasize the more judgemental aspects of the Bible, some believe in evolution, some think those that believe in evolution aren't really Christian and will go to hell, and so on. When someone says they are Christian in my life I actually hold off on a lot of assumptions until I get to know them. Some are more culturally Christian than anything else.

The weirdest to me these days are those who tell you they aren't religious and then start witnessing and quoting scripture. They are trying to elevate their beliefs beyond the status of relgion although they clearly are in fact religious through belief in a holy text and religious doctrines.

Answer 4

I was raised in a "social Christian" home. It was what people did, as tradition, as routine: where the social life of the village was. It wasn't too difficult to see this was largely just tradition and social convention. Something I'm seriously not into.

It was at university I met a different Christianity.
In my own words it would go (I used this recently, somewhere else):
< Jesus of Nazareth was not just a human teacher, but also divine. He has a unique role in healing a historic divide between the human race and the creator God of the universe. This required his sacrificial death.

(His specific teachings are thus, however important, still secondary, and the arguments of exactly in what way his death achieved that reconcilation are many, and can get heated.)

The first requirement to becoming a Christian is to trust and accept that this is what Jesus is and has done, and that no other means or method, act or intent, was or is sufficient to achieve this.

What follows after that, having accepted that Jesus is divine, is the gradual process of trying to see the world his way, and act as he would have done. >>

It was some 19 years after believing this, and doing my best to put it into practice, that I became an atheist.
My studies, trying to teach what was true and not what was myth, led me to the conviction that Christianity is not, at core, what it proclaims itself to be.

Answer 5

No. I was raised by people who had been brought up as Catholics but no longer had anything to do with the church from a time long before I was born. I was not baptized or ever taken into a church for anything other than a couple of weddings. I was briefly told about God, Mary, Jesus and the Adam and Eve story and I promptly decided the Adam and Eve story was not true. That was the end of it and we never spoke of it again. Jesus was never mentioned at Christmas or Easter. As far as I know, my mother still believes in the religious stories she was taught as a child but I don't ask her about it.

I don't know what the correct definition of a Christian is other than someone who honestly believes that Jesus died for our sins and whatever goes along with that. you don't have to be perfect to be a Christian. As long as you are striving to do things the way God/Jesus wants you to than I think you have the right to call yourself a 'true Christian'.

Answer 6

You say, 'Not everyone who calls himself a Christian is one.'

I say, Not everyone who calls himself an Atheist is one...

I was raised in what I would call a morally sound, but essentially non-religious home, and was not baptised as a child.

Five years ago I was an Atheist.

Four years ago I was an Atheist Pagan.

Three years ago I became a Theist.

I ended up on a journey of faith which saw me embracing Christian and then Roman Catholic Ideas...

I have now been a baptised and confirmed Catholic since Easter last year.

Don't assume your beliefs will never change.

Answer 7

i wasn't raised in a christian home, you'd be wrong if you guessed i was.

the 12 men that changed the world had a much, much, smaller, more ignorant, and more superstitious world to change.

"if you can't say something nice...."

Answer 8

well i'm agnostic and i used to go to the catholic church as i was a catholic and then my mom switched over to the protestant side and i tried that as well i read the qu'ran three times and i still have the qu'ran with the arabic wording and english translations and commentary and studied islam none of those are it for me now i'm studying different religions anyway a christian is one who follows the teachings of christ who has accepted him as their savior and the sacrifice he made for them a christian also is not supposed to pass judgment on others unless they want others to pass judgement on them also a christian is supposed to spread the gospel of christ's life and nothing more or nothing less

Answer 9

You guessed wrong because im atheist and wasn't raised in a christian home.

As for defining what a christian is, i would expect them to behave in a "christ-like" manner and be caring and compassionate towards their fellow human beings. If not they should not really be calling themselves christian.

Answer 10

13 men. I was a church going Jesus crazy little whelp. Sure, I wasn't a christian because I'm not one now. That is a cop out wrapped in semantics though.