Christianity is easy (a step to extinction)

[Lek]

Also half the Catholics in France claim to not believe in God...pretty sure a prerequisite to being a Christian is believing in God.

This means that you and I agree: I'm saying that judging a person as "not a christian" based on their actions skips over the fact that belief is a prerequisite. Nobody in their right mind would call an atheist who went to church a christian, which demonstrates that the qualifier for christianity is belief in a god, not strict adherence to the commandments. Whenever a person stoops to the No True Scotsman fallacy, what they really mean to say is that the person in question is bad at being a christian, not that they aren't one due to their actions.

If you'll notice, I did say that I couldn't judge the state of her faith, but if what he said was true, she wasn't exhibiting a christian lifestyle. Of course, christianity is easy if you can live any way you want and still have salvation, but that's not christianity. Like I've stated before, faith includes the desire to do God's will - it's a change of heart. If you have no desire to follow Jesus, then you are not of the christian faith. You can call yourself a christian, but that 's not what yor are. Christians will sin, but overall they're live a life characterized by a commitment to following Christ.

So if I, as an atheist, followed all the commandments that you think are important and performed all the necessary actions, just without believing in god, would that make me a christian?

No. Faith in Christ is a prerequisite to being a christian. A person who does have faith in Christ will be comitted to living a good lifestyle because it is his desire to do Jesus' will. If I don't desire to do his will then I don't have faith. Also, if I live a good lifestyle and deny the existence of God, I am not a christian, even if I call myself one. Faith is what saves you and your lifestyle is evidence of your faith.

To Polaris: Well put.