Could I be an atheist and still believe in God?

Question

I tend to agree with atheist's arguments against false gods and imaginary beings but I still believe that there is an intelligent essence or force that formed both the universe and life.

Also, I see where many atheists argue against Christianity (for example) by pointing at people who call themselves Christians but who do not adhere to the teachings of Christ, such as those who perpetrated the Crusades or the Inquisitions.

So, if a person could be considered a Christian even though they do not do as Christ taught (i.e., to love your enemies), could I then be an atheist and still believe in God?

Answer 1

"Atheists who believe in God" makes about as much sense as a Jewish Klansman....

Answer 2

Could I be an atheist and still believe in God?

No,

I must add this correction. Atheism/atheist are not true terms. Atheism is a secular religion, whose "core belief system" is Darwinian Evolution. With that in mind, you are an agnostic then. A religion can be defined as a belief.

If you call yourself an atheist, then you are contradicting yourself in this statement. What false gods and imaginary gods? Some would consider the God of the Christian Bible imaginary. If you believe that there is an intelligent essence/force that created the universe and life within it, then you must be an agnostic. Sounds like you are not sure.

The term "Christian" is used very liberally today, unfortunately. I can understand where you are coming from with that. In the Crusades, the Arabs were just as bad or worse in what they did. There are some great authentic Christians out there.

People may believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, but sometimes we make mistakes. We are all sinners in some way. There is the Grace of Christ for us. Could you be an atheist and still believe in God? Which god? Anything can be made into a god. People have done that with wood, stone etc. In your case it could be evolution.....In that case it would still be a false God.

Keeping the Fire Alive
Joel

Answer 3

If you think there is an intelligent essence or force that formed both the universe and life then you aren't an atheist. An atheist believes that there is nothing except the material world, full stop.

Not being a Christian doesn't make you an atheist. Not belonging to a religion doesn't make you an atheist either. If you believe that there is a spiritual, cosmic element to existence then you are not an atheist. Simple as that. Religion and spirituality are not always the same, although its nice when they go together. One can be religious and not spiritual and spiritual but not religious. I would define myself as the latter. I probably have as firm a belief in the existence of a spiritual/higher dimension to our lives as anyone else but I belong to no religion. I prefer to see all religions as expressions of the same spirit, each expression just using different means to give expression to the ineffable.

Answer 4

I won't speculate on what is in your heart, but I do want to point out some discrepancies. Pope Urban II actually believed Jesus wanted Christians to wipe out an entire race of people. This was the start of the First Crusade. He was a true Christian, and that cannot be disputed. The Pope is always a complete believer, and each one believes he followed god's word. The Inquisition was the same thing. These were leaders who absolutely believed in god, and though we can look back and shake our heads, they still believed. You can be a true Christian and do terrible things. The Bible is full of horrible events perpetrated by god, the angels, or god's followers. Just because we think differently as a society today on what is or is not moral does not mean that these people of Christianity's past were not true believers.

Answer 5

An athiest by definition does not believe in God. What you are searching for possibly is Deism. The basic tenent of a deist is that by simply looking around at all of the amazing things that exist within our universe it is hard to believe that there is not a god. It is also very hard to believe that God only allows those that accept the death of Jesus of Nazareth on a cross 2000 years ago was for your salvation and if you do not believe it you will go to hell. The only difference between religion and mythology is that no one worships the myths anymore. Whatever you would like to use to describe the force that created the universe and continues to make it move, that is God and there is no book required to find it.

Answer 6

Sounds like you could make a good Christian! I also can see what the atheists arguments are, but what they do is take ONE person out of millions and judge the rest of us based on that. If we do that to blacks, it's called racism. If we do that to Christians, it's all okay. People who do not follow Jesus' example aren't Christians; simply put. We are called to follow him allllllll the time.

Go to christianworldviewnetwork.com and look for an article about this topic. They've got GREAT Christian writers who aren't hypocrites.

Answer 7

No, that would be a theist. You're a theist, just not a Christian. There are other options than just Atheism and Christianity you know. Over half of the worlds population are neither.

Try Buddhism. All the teachings of goodness found in Christ, none of the guilt. Lower cholesterol, no sugar added and damnation free.

Answer 8

Okay, wow... Lets take it from the top...

You agree that man created God in his own image, good for you!

You still believe in a supreme being... Not so good.
We live in a world where we are surrounded by religion and even atheists are not immune to the "imprinting" of the core concepts of theism... Maybe I can help you with this problem.

Consider this, we know almost nothing about the nature of life.
Scientists and physicists have collected an astounding mass of information on life, the universe and everything, but every bit of it is subject to correction. In the world of science, this happens all the time when new data is discovered. For all we know, life is a "basic element" of the physical universe and given enough time and proper conditions, carbon based life forms will begin collecting the chemicals neccessary to replicate themseves and begin evolving towards more and more complex forms...

Amazing, right? Incredible, isnt it? This is many learned biologists current assessment of life's origin, but most people have trouble accepting that life can rise and walk forward without intervention from the Hand of God. Why?
The problem with "intelligence" is its just not very smart. As children, many people believe in Santa Clause. Why? Because THEIR PARENTS SAID HE WAS COMING, and children trust thier parents. Humans believe in magic because they see "connections" in seemingly unrelated events, and some people have learned to use experience with people's expectations and statistical trends to fool others into thinking they are psychic...None of this is real, the reason that we believe these things is that OUR BRAINS ARE USING THE INFORMATION AT HAND AND WE NEVER HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION...

"Intelligence" is a survival tool, and it came from the competitive nature of life itself. If there was a "supreme entity", what would it need intellegence for?

I would say that your belief in a supreme intelligence is nothing more than a side effect, stemming from your inescapably human perspective...Our ability to conceptualize is our greatest advantage (along with thumbs and verticality and complex written language...) over other members of the animal kingdom...But this "advantage" means that we are vulnerable to irrational fears and can be duped by flattery and circular logic...

People love to hear how "special" they are. Con men always use that to hide their true intentions...(God loves you all! You are his special creation! He cares about YOU!)

From birth we fear being alone, and thanks to "Jesus" (a "messiah" who's story is a hodgepodge re-run of other pagan religious figures that came before him,) we can cleave to the security that no insurance salesman could offer without getting sued for fraud, (immortality people! Just sign on the dotted line, and and eternal paradise can be yours for just 10% of your gross earnings!)

The human mind is mechanistic, but it works from the emotions of people, not some perfection of logic, so when christians or muslims say,
"God must have created us, because we could not have come from nothing!" they usually fail to realize that they just answered the question of where God comes from with,
"God (a creature much more complex and impossible to spontaneously come into being than us weak and gulible humans,) has always been!"

So you may not be a christian, but you are still laboring under their mass delusion, if you can't shake the feeling that "super-daddy" is watching you, then you should consider putting your cosmetic differences aside and going back to church...They will have more in common with you than atheists and existentialists...

Answer 9

No, you are a believer in god who shares many views with the atheists. Perhaps you could be considered some sort of humanist or deist. I don't know, it's up to you.

Answer 10

There is no such a person, an atheist does not exist, We all believe in something eg an object. Praise God.

Answer 11

i thought that an atheist was someone who believed humans were the greatest force. i guess i would be "other" because i believe that there is a higher force than us, but at the same time i dont neccessarily believe what is taught in any specific religion.