Perhaps it's time for a little glossary. Feel free to add items in the comments, and as time goes on I'll see if we can keep the list up to date.
God: A human conceptual creation; a notional creator of the universe, or creative principle, and the agent of human salvation from sin. In the CCL, "God" essentially maps to whatever general principle turns out to be behind the universe itself, as well as a cognitive tool for deflecting inappropriate feelings of guilt, or a concept to help us make it through difficult times. We may even "pray" to "God" and seek its "guidance", being aware that what we are really doing is making some use of our unconscious mind to resolve some of our problems. The human brain has evolved to be a funny thing. Thank "God" for that!
Jesus: A man who is said to have lived in the early first century of the common era. Known in his time as "Jesus the Nazarene", he was a Galilean preacher who initially followed the charismatic John the Baptist, but later seems to have set out on his own. After an act of violent disorder in the Temple, he was crucified by Pontius Pilate, and this is where things get very odd. His body seems to have gone missing, and some of his followers suggested that he was risen from the dead, and was indeed the promised Messiah or Christ. There is zero evidence for this resurrection, and the stories that were told after his death are hopelessly contradictory. However, for the Christian Atheist, Jesus serves as an illustration or a secular parable - in that sense, the Jesus Christ of fiction can be as relevant as the real Jesus the Nazarene. The Christian Atheist has the advantage of being able to analyse the stories and reported sayings of Jesus, and recognise which are sensible, and which are a bit silly.
More later!
For the moment, simply, thank you the new comment process, let the games begin!
ReplyDeletePeterM
Good man, Peter! Welcome along.
ReplyDeleteHi Shane.
ReplyDeleteIf the folks over on Premier Christian Radio's forum knew I was posting here, they'd start calling me an Atheist again, though this time they might be deadly serious !
Peteer J H
Hi PeterH, and welcome along; I haven't made it over to PCR yet - maybe that's a good thing. Still, I've found that even among the most solid "theists", you'll frequently find a few folks who realise that they're really atheists - some of the hassle you're getting over there is really people arguing against themselves :-)
ReplyDeleteThe Jesus story presents a non-violent leader who preached love and especially concerned himself with the disadvantaged.
ReplyDeleteThat's a story I can follow.
As an atheist who for various reasons chooses to participate in a religious community, I appreciate this attempt to make sense of the world.
Smith, thanks for that - that is it in a nutshell. We can use the story; furthermore I don't think we should be embarrassed about *fixing* bits of the story that are wrong. For example, we can recognise that the violent episode at the Temple was wrong (if he was that cross in Jerusalem, imagine how he would have freaked out in the Vatican!). That can be part of our conception of "Jesus", but the (artificial) construct of the "Christ" is something we can set up as an ideal to aspire towards.
ReplyDeleteI've been an atheist for years, but I think Jesus is still the historical character I would most like to meet in person. He would have a few tough questions to answer :-)