Can you be a Christian but not believe in God?

Really, does anyone actually still go for this nonsense?

Well there is a guy called Buddha who achieved enlightenment and left some instructions as to how you can escape the cycle of life and death and achieve nirvana. You can call it what you want but it is more than a philosophy even if you do consider it to be less than tha a religion as it is about salvation of my eternal soul

I don’t think I am making myself very clear but I also think the understanding of Buddhism on here is of one aspect, probably Tibetan,which has been very influenced by the culture it is from. As I have said the basic philosophy is there but adapted to fit the culture, rather than the other way round as found with some religions.

From the quote above the cycle of life and death does not necessarily mean stopping the cycle of life, death and rebirth, I think this is how you are seeing it. It could mean, moment to moment too. As more understood in Asian countries. Also achieving nirvana could be represented as not suffering during those moments. These views depend on the school of Buddhism as well as the individual. It certainly is not about salvation of an eternal soul as there is no soul or salvation in Buddhism.

Oh no, not another God thread!

YES! AND READING IT (AND COMMENTING ON IT) IS MANDATORY!!

Well as I was checking up on that other thread and Cougar is so insistant

Why do you ask OP?

And Junkyard… did you rip that passage from my post in the other thread…? beacause strangly enough I was thinking of you when I posted it

Altough I’m feeling rough after my run earlier (21mile in 2.47 Not bad) and Paris-roubaix highlights are on ITV4 just about now… so not sure I be that attentive tonight

Really, does anyone actually still go for this nonsense?

Not helpful, and not nice.

Almost wish I hadn’t asked now!

Why do you ask OP?

Was at a classical concert thingy last night, it was in a church, and the only thing that was sung, and in English rather than Latin was a passage from the Bible. Just popped into my head while I was listening!

I meant the obvious trolling.

the concept of ‘hell’ is simply the absence of God, not some eternal fiery furnace

Gutted. I was looking forward to a long period of warm weather…

Might have been said already but wouldn’t that be akin to being a scientist and not believing in the evidence?

For the OP (sorry to bore the other who have heard it all before)

Well I think you can… it’s a journey… the smallest mustard seed and all that… .

I didn’t believe in God 18 months ago and was a church regular (trying to get my little into the church school) but was enjoying what I was hearing. When the chance of doing the confirmation course came up I thought lets give it a go, I don’t have to get confirmed at the end of it if I don’t want to… but I did.

And despite what you may hear on here …. God isn’t a sky wizard (well for me “he” ain’t) … Have an open mind but most importantly listen to your heart

Any way I know who God is and I now at liberty to tell you all….

He’s Fabain Cancellera… 😀

Right bed … knackered after that run.

Peace

“Responsible” in this case meaning ‘the cause of’

That’s a meaning you’re projecting onto what s/he wrote, it’s not what was written. S/he did not say it was the cause of genital mutilation etc.

Whatever helps you sleep at night.
If that involves fairy stories…
Amen

To OP if you “pick and mix” according to your liking then there must be something that triggers you to think that way so it’s either:

1. something does not make sense.

or

2. you have not found the one that explains things to your liking. i.e. still does not make sense.

Put it simply you have not looked / searched hard enough but watch out for the trap of falling into the extremes.

Look carefully you will find this school of thoughts.

1. Eternal soul – soul lives forever.
2. Existence – you turn to carbon.

Sky Wizard….

Lovely! 😀

OP, believing in god is fundamental to the Christian faiths as has been said before.

However, based on your subsequent post, I wonder whether you are asking whether you need to be a Christian to attend church and the answer to that is no, and it is not that uncommon for people to do this because they like the music or the opportunity for quiet contemplation etc.

I note that the Sunday Assembly was mentioned earlier, the “atheist church”, this quote by the one of organisers reminded me of religious threads on here.

Actually, the biggest aggression towards us has probably been from atheists saying that we’re ruining atheism and not not believing in God properly. So that’s quite funny.

OP, believing in god is fundamental to the Christian faiths as has been said before.

Apart from all the examples of atheist christians given in the link I gave on page 1 🙂

I suppose it would have been more precise to say the Christian faiths as represented by the major churches or orthodox (small o) Christianity, but such precision was not particularly germane to my post.