What does the term "Christian" mean to you? What reactions / responses come to mind?

Nothing. I don’t treat other people based on their religion,culture,etc. I treat them as human with human.

Christian, unless I missed something, means that you believe that a person called Jesus, an emissary from God, walked the earth as a man, was killed and rose from the dead before returning to the homeland. I am atheist, but Christians don’t bother me until they take elements of their altruistic philosophy to Washington and turn it into the law of the land. Other than that, to each his own.

@Josie well said! As long as those who self-identify as Christian refrain from imposing their faith on others by proselytizing or defining and seeking to model society in terms of their beliefs, I am pleased to have them as friends and neighbours.

Live whatever religion you want, believe whatever you want, just don’t harm or impugn anyone else for what they believe and DO NOT proselytize around me.

The earliest form of Christianity was known as “The Way”.
The term Christianity is not in the bible. Neither is the word Rapture. Christ NEVER wanted or expected anything like Christianity.

(Acts 9:2)
...and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.”

(Acts 19:9)
“But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.”

(Acts 19:23)
“About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way.”

(Acts 22:4)
“I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison,”

(Acts 24:14)
“However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets,”

(Acts 24:22)
“Then Felix, who was well acquainted with the Way, adjourned the proceedings. “When Lysias the commander comes,” he said, “I will decide your case.”

What do I think when I hear the word Christian? I think of people who have at least some ties to the teachings of any of the various Christian churches. It is neither a positive nor a negative term for me; just a lifestyle other people lead.

What is my attitude towards Christians? It depends on the person. I know some huge assholes who are Christians, I know some relatively decent/neutral people that claim the title, and I know some great people that are Christians. I don’t let a title like that alter or define my perception of someone (same goes for terms like “Republican,” “feminist,” “Wiccan,” or any other label that people apply to themselves to define their lifestyle or views).

It refers to people who believe that Jesus was born on earth, was crucified on the cross, rose from the dead to ascend to heaven, and who try follow his Biblical teachings. It does not refer to all people who are members of Churches or who simply aspire to follow his teachings.

I am a Christian. I find most people who say they are Christian to fail at following the teachings of Christ to the point of being hippocrites. It is difficult, and we all fail at it at times, and the forgiveness we are given is humbling.

Christian to me is someone who calls themselves a Christian.

It brings to mind the term : never ending psychosis…

I agree with @Rarebear

You’re Christian if that’s how you identify yourself. All the rest is just endlessly arguable details that no one really wants to hear about.

It doesn’t mean much to me. I don’t care how an individual identifies themselves – if they’re decent, lovely. If they’re not, it says everything about the individual and nothing about the religion they identify with

It usually means I’ve got more questions for you, if I feel like opening that can of worms.

Christian. Someone who believes and actually follows the teachings of Christ. (not just lip service)

“Early usage of the term Christian “was a term of derision [contemptuous ridicule or mockery], a term placed upon Christ’s followers by their critics”” I liked your definition.

A person who doesn’t hate other people and who asks for forgiveness for his or her trespasses, as he or she will forgive other that trespass against us.

@Pandora @Rarebear @mattbrowne This brings to mind something that came up in another question/thread. It is my understanding that in order to actually be a Christian, you have to believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead. Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. Without the resurrection Jesus was just another nice guy with ideas about how people in civilized society should behave towards one another. But, heck, there are lots of those guys, including Dr. Phil, Mr. Rogers, and Barney. So has something changed since the tombstone was rolled back?

I refer to anyone who includes Jesus in their religion as Christian, maybe it’s not that way though, I don’t know.

I agree with josie here. In order to be a true christian you have to believe in the literal interpretation of the bible. You have to believe Jesus/Yeshua was god incarnated as a man who was “born in the flesh” who died for all of mankinds sins and all those who accept him as their savior shall go to heaven after death, all unbelievers will go to hell. Being a good or bad person has no bearing here because you can never be good enough in the eyes of the lord. This is at least what I was taught growing up combined with reading the bible myself (I don’t have alot of the bible memorised however).

I still agree with realeyes and mattbrowne here however. This is why I gave up Christianity and became a Universal Unitarian Deist. I do not think any religion has any authority over the other.

@josie and @Jabe73 – Yes, I believe that Jesus is the son of God and that he died and rose from the dead, but not in a biological way. God is not his biological father. God incarnated does not involve gene splicing using some of God’s DNA. Jesus did not rise from the dead in a physical sense. No one was watching him leave his grave in a physical sense and take off like a rocket headed for heaven.

I strongly disagree that Christians have to believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible. Sorry to be so blunt, but this condition is total nonsense and comes from people who cannot grasp the concepts of myths, symbolism, rituals, spiritual truths and metaphysical frameworks. Some aggressive atheists use it deliberately sometimes to insult or mock educated, modern Christians. Their insults don’t have much effect on me. But I have to be very clear about the fact that biblical literalists do not have a global authority for the definition of Christianity or religion in general. I know that these zealous, vociferous people create a lot of media hype in the US. These people have no authority over Christians in the rest of the world such as Protestants in Europe or the Catholic Church which support the big bang theory and evolution.

@mattbrowne. My point being that there have been lots of prophets, and in the time that Jesus may have lived, he was not the only one. So thing that distinguished him from the others was the resurrection. That is the event that sealed the deal for the people who came to be called Christians.

@josie – Muslims do not think that Jesus is the son of God, even in a non-biological sense. There’s the difference. Yes, there are many prophets and different religions have different beliefs, different myths, different symbols, different rituals, different spiritual truths and different metaphysical frameworks. I see no problem with that. There’s only one truth in first order logic, but there might be more than one spiritual truth. We don’t have a formal method to determine their validity. Scientific method applies to the realm of science. Therefore beliefs and believers need to coexist and respect each other. I would never say that Muslims are wrong, or that atheists are wrong. My belief is my belief and that’s it.

@mattbrowne Have we digressed from the comments in the thread that tried to define a Christian as something other than a person who believes in the Resurrection?

@mattbrowne I agree with your answer except for the part where you lump athiests in with the believer. Belief rests solely within a religion, outsiders are not obligated to believe anything about them. Atheists are the ultimate outsiders because they do not share a common belief system because they have no belief system.

There was someone else, in another thread that tried to contrast atheism as the opposite of religion. Athiesm is a lack of religion and, in itself, not a belief system. It reminds me of the old days when they tried to describe Secular Humanism as a religion.

Court rules atheism a religion

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies that story shows what happens when an inmate has too much time on his hand and judges are too ignorant to read a dictionary. The inmate had as much right to a study group as the religous groups and the judge could have ended it at that.

Either the judge didn’t understand what religion is or he was plain stupid. Ignorance can be cured, stupidity is permanent.

And opinions are like…

@mattbrowne I have alot of respect for your beliefs and I agree with you. I was going by my own experience with most other Christians that I personally know who try to shove their fundamentalism down my throat. I know quite a bit of people who became “born again Christians” who critised my beliefs as well. I am just relaying a message from most Evangelicals that I know (not all of them) that to be considered a true Christian you have to believe Jesus died for your sins. The only way to heaven is through believing Jesus died for our sins and accepting him as our Saviour. Those are not my own opinions or beliefs.

@josie What I should of said is I agree partly with what you said. Yes belief in the resurrection is important (most Christians I know of believed this to be a physical not spiritual resurrection) but the biggest thing to being considered a true Christian is believing that the only way to heaven is through the belief that we are all sinners and Jesus paid the price for us through his crucifixion and accepting him as our Saviour. We can never get to heaven through “works” because we all fall short of the glory of god.

@Ron C You said atheism is not the opposite of religion but the “lack of religion”. I have a problem with this because many atheists I know of are self-described *materialists. If you are willing to go as far as describing yourself as a materialist (I am not saying you personally) doesn’t that in itself suggest a belief system?

@Jabe73 first, materialism is more associated with averice, and social statue which is no way associated with a religious view (maybe scientology but I don’t know for sure).

Second look at the TV perachers and leaders of the mega-churches and tell me that they aren’t materialists.

Unfortunately, I’m not much of a materialist and the only use I have for money is to keep me confortable, my one extragance is my bike. I hate dealing with money. Again, that is not a religious affiliation.

Third, I believe that I am a moral person but not because some preachers tells me to be. I am moral because I believe and the practice of fairness and justice makes everybody happier and if they are happy, my life is better. Again, no god required.

As an additional answer to your question, I notice that all of the TV preachers have an 800 number “prayer line” so that you know where to send your donations. My impression of the Christian message is similar to George Carlin’s, “God loves you but needs your money”.

Mine is kind of like the Iron Maiden song “Holy Smoke”

“Jimmy Reptile and all his friends
Say their gonna be with you at the end
Burning records burning books
Holy soldiers, Nazi looks
Crocodile smiles, just wait a while
Till the TV queen gets her make-up clean
I’ve lived in filth, I’ve lived in sin
And I still smell cleaner than the shit you’re in”

@Ron_C “My impression of the Christian message is similar to George Carlin’s, “God loves you but needs your money”. This may be true for many churches and religious zealots but according to the bible there will be many false prophets. The way many people use religion for their own means does not justify condemning the entire religion itself.

I see nothing wrong with atheists having beliefs too. Atheism and science do overlap but they do not refer to exactly the same thing. If they did, one term would be superfluous. There are many things people can believe in.