Do "Christian atheists" go to heaven?

[ribozyme]

I do not know what this term means, but Oriana Fallaci and Luboš Motl are Christian atheists.

For example, Oriana Fallaci writes (phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGY5ZDJkZWQ2MzRjMmNmNzcwNzg5MjQ5NDgyYmU2YWE=):

I am a Christian because I like the discourse which stays at the roots of Christianity. Because it convinces me. It seduces me…I mean the discourse conceived by Jesus of Nazareth…which…concentrates on Man. Which admitting free-will, claiming Man’s conscience, makes us responsible for our actions. Masters of our destiny. I see a hymn to Reason, a revival of clear thinking…choice…the rediscovery of freedom. The redemption of liberty…an idea that nobody had ever had…The idea of a God that becomes Man…Who speaking of a Creator…introduces himself as his Son and explains that all men are brothers of his Son…capable of exercising their own divine essence…by preaching the Goodness which is the fruit of Reason, of Freedom, by spreading Love…Jesus…as a man…tackles the theme of secularism…he stops the cowards who are about to stone the adulteress…he blasts against slavery…he fights…he dies. Without dying because Life does not die. Life always resurrects, Life is eternal. And, together with the discourse on Reason, on Freedom, this is the point that mostly convinces me…the refusal of Death, the apotheosis of Life…its alternative is Nothingness. And let’s face it: such is the principle which leads and feeds our civilization. (pp. 185-189)

In addition to call herself a “Christian”, Oriana Fallaci is also an atheist too; she does not believe in God.

Luboš Motl writes (motls.blogspot.com/2006/09/oriana-fallaci-force-of-reason.html):

Much like Fallaci, I count myself as a Christian atheist.

So do “Christian atheists” have the gift of eternal life, and do they go to heaven? How can one be a Christian and an atheist. If one has to believe that Jesus is God to be a Christian, how can an atheist also be “Christian” since they do not believe in any God, much less the notion that Christ is God.

 

[Syele]

Christian Athiests are just Athiests who like the Bible and think the commandments in it are cool. Such people cannot worship a God they do not believe in and cannot have a relationship with a God they don’t believe in. They would not go to heaven.

 

[Gilbert_Keith]

Anyone who calls himself a Christian atheist is about as sage as anyone who calls himself an atheistic Christian.

Some people will say anything to get attention.

 

[Everyman]

You guys are simplifying this way too much. Or perhaps not enough. A Christian is one who follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. From this point, it is debatable as the whether or not that requires literal belief in God.

 

[Gilbert_Keith]

A Christian is one who follows the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Central to his teaching is that he is God. An atheist who does not think he is God has to think he was a madman.

 

[Everyman]

A Christian is one who follows the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Central to his teaching is that he is God. An atheist who does not think he is God has to think he was a madman.

This is only true if one believes in a real, historic Jesus. And really, that’s not the point. The point is the “living Jesus,” the one which is his teachings. So with that in mind, His saying He is God is Him saying He is Truth. Not that He is the literal Maker of the universe.

 

[Reepicheep]

This is only true if one believes in a real, historic Jesus. And really, that’s not the point. The point is the “living Jesus,” the one which is his teachings. So with that in mind, His saying He is God is Him saying He is Truth. Not that He is the literal Maker of the universe.

A “real, historic Jesus” is the point.
If you don’t believe in a real, historic Jesus, who is in fact the Son of God, then you are not a Christian.

 

[Caesar]

So do “Christian atheists” have the gift of eternal life, and do they go to heaven? How can one be a Christian and an atheist. If one has to believe that Jesus is God to be a Christian, how can an atheist also be “Christian” since they do not believe in any God, much less the notion that Christ is God.

No, they are damned.

 

[Syele]

You guys are simplifying this way too much. Or perhaps not enough. A Christian is one who follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. From this point, it is debatable as the whether or not that requires literal belief in God.

Christian Athiests have claimed the title Christian for themselves. That doesn’t mean the rest of Christianity must agree with them. I could claim I’m a man since man it at the end of the word “human”. It won’t change the fact that I’m female, it’ll just make people think I’m rather stupid.

The Title aside, the question was if these people will go to heaven… how could they go a place that they don’t believe exists?

 

[lak611]

The Title aside, the question was if these people will go to heaven… how could they go a place that they don’t believe exists?

Very good point! And why would they want to go to a place they don’t believe exists?

 

[RobedWithLight]

“Christian” atheists, if there were indeed such people, could be people who like the moral teachings of Christianity but ignore its author.

 

[RobedWithLight]

This is only true if one believes in a real, historic Jesus. And really, that’s not the point. The point is the “living Jesus,” the one which is his teachings. So with that in mind, His saying He is God is Him saying He is Truth. Not that He is the literal Maker of the universe.

You seem to be reducing Jesus to the level of an abstract principle, a mere collection of moral ideas and pronouncements inscribed in ancient parchment, rather than a real, historical person who walked among us, which certainly contradicts the whole body of orthodox Christian teaching. Even the worst heretics in the history of Christianity never denied that Jesus really existed.

 

[RobedWithLight]

Very good point! And why would they want to go to a place they don’t believe exists?

Belief in a blessed afterlife logically implies an existing God, so the question is meaningless.

 

[curious35]

Most of us agree with Caesar here. Either you have repented of your sins and called upon Jesus Christ to forgive you, or you haven’t. No one that has done so would call herself an atheist unless she were a complete high-society flake.

How’s that for a Baptist?

 

[Everyman]

how could they go a place that they don’t believe exists?

I know of no Christian teaching that requires belief in Heaven in order to go there. What I’m saying is, even the Church teaches that there is potential for salvation to those in other religions, just as there is potential for those in the Church. So in other words, some who do not believe in heaven may get there, and those who do beleive in heaven may not.

 

[ribozyme]

No, they are damned.

Why are “Christian atheists” damned then?

 

[Gilbert_Keith]

Everyman

I know of no Christian teaching that requires belief in Heaven in order to go there.

Are you serious or just pulling our leg? The whole point of Christianity is to get us to heaven. If you reject heaven, you reject Christ.

**“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father." **Matthew 10:32-33

“If we have died with him we shall also live with him;
if we persevere we shall also reign with him.
**But if we deny him he will deny us." **2nd Timothy Chapter 2:11-13

Atheists need not apply … and won’t.

 

[Everyman]

Everyman

Are you serious or just pulling our leg? The whole point of Christianity is to get us to heaven. If you reject heaven, you reject Christ.

Well, I’m dead serious. Did you not read the whole of my post? Some who do not believe may go, some who do may not. I don’t think I’m getting too heterodox yet.

 

[Syele]

I know of no Christian teaching that requires belief in Heaven in order to go there. What I’m saying is, even the Church teaches that there is potential for salvation to those in other religions, just as there is potential for those in the Church. So in other words, some who do not believe in heaven may get there, and those who do beleive in heaven may not.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.” (John 14:6-7a)

How can they know someone they don’t believe in? They can’t.

I’m not Catholic, I do not believe there is potential for salvation outside of Christianity except for situations so drastic that the person NEVER heard of Christianity. “Christian Athiests” HAVE heard the Gospel, they have complete access to the Bible and to real Christians and yet they have rejected God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God will say He never knew them. They will go to hell. Their belief in doing good works would never be enough. One cannot work their way to heaven.

 

[Everyman]

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.” (John 14:6-7a)

How can they know someone they don’t believe in? They can’t.

I’m not Catholic, I do not believe there is potential for salvation outside of Christianity except for situations so drastic that the person NEVER heard of Christianity. “Christian Athiests” HAVE heard the Gospel, they have complete access to the Bible and to real Christians and yet they have rejected God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God will say He never knew them. They will go to hell. Their belief in doing good works would never be enough. One cannot work their way to heaven.

I wonder then what we do with folks like Percy Bysshe Shelley, Leo Tolstoy, and Ghandi. These guys were deep students of the Sermon on the Mount, but they weren’t Christians. Shelley was an atheist, Tolstoy a excommunicated Orthodox Christian anarchist, and Ghandi a Hindu. Yet they all followed Christ’s teachings so soundly that they all became anarchists, pacifists, and vegetarians.

Let’s stick just with the pacifist part: reading Jesus’ teachings make clear that he taught a doctrine of pacifism, nonviolence, and nonresistence. However, many Christians come to differing opinions based on other biblical teachings, especially the Old Testament. The Catholic Worker Amman Hennacy–who was also an anarchist, pacifist, and vegetarian–at some time in his life even rejected Pauline Christianity as antithetical to the teachings of Christ.

These folks were Jesus Radicals. Sure, they may have rejected the teachings of the OT, Paul, and Aquinas; but they took seriously the words spoken on the Mount of Olives. That’s more than I can say for most Christians. In fact, seeing this dichotomy between the OT and Jesus, makes it hard to see the Bible as internally consistent.