Atheists 4 Jesus

[Jagella]

...and I'm an atheist!

I've read the above phrase many times in online forums. The context of this quotation is very often a response to some tough scrutiny I have made of Christianity. For example, years ago I was discussing the reality of death and that nobody, including Christians, can escape it. Another member there reprimanded me saying I must allow Christians to believe what they wish. He finished his tirade with, you guessed it, "...and I'm an atheist!" His response to my criticism of Christianity is a bit off-base considering that I was not forcing anybody to give up their cherished beliefs. I was just telling the truth.

Much more recently I was reading Robert Price's The Christ Myth Theory and its Problems. Price discusses the phenomenon of atheists reacting very negatively to the notion that Jesus did not exist. On page 421 he says:

Atheists, I very much suspect, want to keep a liberal Protestant or a Reform Jewish Jesus, not so much for an icon of their own as a cane to use to whip, at least to twit, orthodox Christians. "You know, your Jesus was more like us than like you."

He writes on page 422:

Atheists must simply reject Jesus as they reject Jehovah, and for the same reasons. Even as the same imaginary entity. There is no Jesus left over for humanists to respect. That's "a bit of a blow" even for many who thought they were over religion...

...A second group of Atheists for whom the Christ Myth is a shocker would be those who, never having closely examined the theory, assume it is a crackpot idea like Holocaust Denial or disbelief in the moon landing. They don't want to associate the Atheist or Humanist cause with hare-brained schemes of this kind, as its apparent lack of credibility will then be seen to bleed over into Atheism per se, and Atheism's detractors will be happy to dismiss the one along with the other, though in fact they are quite different.

I think Price might be right. I'd add that many atheists might find a "real" Jesus to be very useful for other reasons. Accepting a Jesus divested of his divinity and magical powers allows one to fit in with the consensus. In so doing, one's ideas about Jesus may be more readily accepted than completely rejecting his hoped-for reality. (It appears to be a case of group think.) After all, it's tough enough from a social perspective to reject the god of Christianity. To reject even the hope of a real Jesus makes acceptance that much tougher.

So what are some other reasons that atheists might want Jesus?

[JoeyKnothead]

From Post 29:

Many of those commandments demand the execution of innocent people like homosexuals. There's nothing loving about that.

Unless it is, you love to kill you them homosexuals.

[Jagella]

From Post 29:

Many of those commandments demand the execution of innocent people like homosexuals. There's nothing loving about that.

Unless it is, you love to kill you them homosexuals.

I think it's repulsive how some Christians say "God hates fags." It does reveal the dark side of the Bible and how it affects many people.

[Jagella]

So what are some other reasons that atheists might want Jesus?

In the context of Biblical scholarship, some atheists who work as Biblical scholars may be forced to adhere to some of the apologetic leanings of the Christian organizations who control Biblical scholarship. Hector Avalos, a Bible scholar and a critic of his own profession, writes on page 15 of The End of Biblical Studies:

Most standard histories will grant that Biblical studies began as an apologetic enterprise. Few Biblical scholars will admit that it is still just that.

It's sad that so many people including some atheists have been misled by Biblical scholarship thinking that it's a sound source of information about the Bible. I suppose that's why we have some Atheists-4-Jesus. They hope to be seen as credible by siding with what Bible scholars say not realizing that that "information" is largely misinformation.

[Jagella]

[Replying to post 6 by Furrowed Brow]

I suspect a lot of us atheists are moralists. We have a sense of right and wrong and good and bad and maybe for the most part we tend towards the liberal end of the spectrum. So when in these kinds of debates we focus on what the Christian Jesus means we often give Christianity the benefit of the doubt and project a liberal Jesus. On this view a loving, kind, and easy going, don't throw the first stone and love thy neighbour liberalness is what counts as good and rejected are what we see as bronze age overtones found in some interpretations of the NT we reject for moral reasons.

Yes, Jesus has been toned down and sugar coated in the last two centuries or so to make him more palatable to modern sensibilities. Some atheists might be "4" this modern version of Jesus .

[Jagella]

[Replying to post 23 by Tired of the Nonsense]

That has never seemed to work. Pushing Jesus in the face of Jesus worshipers is ineffective because they believe they own Jesus, and he represents whatever THEY say he represents.

I have experienced the same situation. I try to put Christians to the test to see if they practice what Jesus preached, and in many cases they disobey what Jesus taught. How do they get away with it? They often twist the passage in question into something they need not follow. For example, Matthew 5:42 has Jesus teaching" "Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you." I quote this passage asking for all their money to see if Jesus is truly their "Lord." Of course, not one Christian has ever complied. They have a million excuses they use to squirm out of it.

So what's the moral of this story? As I see it, we're all atheists in a sense. We only have gods in an abstract way. When it comes to the real world, we toss the gods out because we have more important matters to attend to like money.

[Jagella]

[Replying to post 1 by Jagella]

Atheists might want Jesus as a club to bash Christians with, "WWJD?"

Unfortunately, clubbing Christians with Jesus almost never works, at least for me. Christians think they own Jesus, and they will "soften that club" so they take no damage. In other words, the only sinners that Jesus will punish are the unbelievers.