"I'm a Christian but I don't believe in religion."

[swata224]

"I'm a Christian and I have a relationship with Christ but I don't believe in religion."

This is a direct quote from one of the RA's in my residential college today.
I think by religion she's talking about the rules and regulations of religion, yet she follows those rules ie. goes to church every Sunday, says Grace before every meal etc.
I'm just wanting a bit of help deciphering what motive would be behind this oxymoronic statement, and maybe a bit of insight into why someone would believe this?

Thanks everyone!
T

[Mystical]

She's an atheist, she's just doing the movements

[swata224]

She's an atheist, she's just doing the movements

See I'm not so sure.
The second I said I was an anti-theist atheist she clammed up and stopped talking to me.
Could it be that being an atheist scares her?

[Psykhronic]

She probably disbelieves parts of the bible/Christianity that go against how she perceives the world, and may add beliefs from other religions to her own. But it seems as though she truly has faith that there's a deity and is likely just used to worshiping him/her/it by traditional means.

[Anomalocaris]

"I'm a Christian and I have a relationship with Christ but I don't believe in religion."

This is a direct quote from one of the RA's in my residential college today.
I think by religion she's talking about the rules and regulations of religion, yet she follows those rules ie. goes to church every Sunday, says Grace before every meal etc.
I'm just wanting a bit of help deciphering what motive would be behind this oxymoronic statement, and maybe a bit of insight into why someone would believe this?

Thanks everyone!
T

Because they want to have their cake and eat it too?

Because they want to benefit from being disreputable without being called for being disreputable? Sort of like stealing without being called a thief.

[Rev. Rye]

Fun fact: I've heard no less a religious figure than Jack Chick claim this.



I've heard this from other people, but under no circumstances did any of them actually define religion. Although, given that they usually define "relationship with Christ" as being in opposition to "religion," I should probably mention that, when I took world religion courses, they defined religion as "one's relationship with one's understanding of the divine."

[Angrboda]

It tickles me no end to see the enormity of effort Christians put into distancing themselves from Christianity.

It would seem obvious to a person of reasonable intelligence that if you have an Albatross tied round your neck, running away isn't going to accomplish much of anything; you must cast off the foul thing altogether.

(Geek point: "Way I remember it, albatross was a ship's good luck... til some idiot killed it.")

[Minimalist]

She could just be a jackass, too.

[iameatingjam]

My girlfriend said something similar "Christianity isn't a religion, its a relationship with god." So ridiculous...

also reminds me of this

[Sal]

Same shit, different package.

It's about redefining terms while still having the same content, basically. The reason is obvious: religion has this nomenclature of being, well, fucking evil, and they want to distance themselves from that by just re-packaging religion as, in the case of the religion of Christianity to "personal relationship with Jesus/God/The Holy Spook" - same fucking difference.