I say absolutely one can be atheist, secular and still follow the basic principals found in the teachings of Jesus, thus considering themselves a Christian. More fundamental Chrstians would certainly disagree due to their belief in a Supernatural God and the designation of Jesus having been his son, but for those who do not believe in a deity, it fits together quite logically. I have read the Jefferson Bible and found it to be a relevant piece of work in encouraging that there is no need for a God in order to be a 'good human'. Whether or not Jesus actually existed, the teachings abscribed to him are rather unarguably a good set of precepts to follow if one seeks to be a kind, compassionate, forgiving human that has a positive and mindful impact on his fellow earth dwellars. One can simply view him among many wise teachers that came before our time and provided a guide to what is now more along the lines of a humanistic view on life, once all the dogma inherent in a belief in a God is removed. Simply because we have morphed those teachings into the supernatural and diety driven force of moralism that we now see in most religions, doesn't necessarily make the wisdom itself irrelevant.

I learned a lot more about being moral from seeing what the adults around me did for others - regardless of religious affiliations - than what I ever saw/heard in a church.

Frankly I think we can find far better ways of 'being' in present times without believing in the make believe (we have no proof Jesus actually existed and wasn't actually an amalgam of prior gods).

[thesatanictemple.com]

TST has some lovely tenets without being religious in the least (they're an atheist organization):
(BTW - These tenets require zero magical thinking - and not a lot of memorization to figure out what might lead to a better life for everyone).

There are The Seven
FUNDAMENTAL TENETS

I One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason

II The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.

III One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.

IV The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.

V Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.

VI People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.

VII Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

Secular is defined as values which are without any religious basis. Calling someone a secular Christian is like calling someone an ethical bank robber.

The universal value of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you is present in almost every known religion. I still remember and Episcopal friend of mine that we helped clean up her yard after a bad ice storm telling everyone that Kenneth and I were the best christians she had ever known and she knew I was an atheist. She meant it as a compliment but you cannot be a secular Christian. You can be and ethical atheist though.

I think if you had non-Christian parents they would have found other stories and phrases to instill the same values that you have now, you know, like the billions of families that aren't Christian that find a way to do it anyway. The idea that the Bible is a way of teaching morals and ethics or how to treat other people can only be assumed by a cursory reading of the book. Which explains why most Christians use it as such.

Since there are so many different forms of Christianity, it is a virtually meaningless term and can therefore be anything you want it to be. So that if someone, like everyone else, wanted to cherry pick out the bits they like and then call that Christianity, then they are no different from anyone else, and are perfectly entitled to call themselves a Christian if they wish. Personally if they believed in "love your enemies", "turn the other cheek", and "take care of others outside your tribe (good Samaritan) " I would probably call them simply a, good person instead, because I think that they are better than that religion. Or even better than Jesus who if we take the New Testament as half true, also said some really horrible things.

No, there is no such thing as a secular xian.
Firstly, you don't need the (supposed) words of jesus to be a moral person.
Secondly, when you do that (taking passages that you like) you're simply doing the same thing as the scamgelicals- picking-and-choosing what sayings suit youy.
Thirdly, according to paul, you have to believe in the resurrection to be a xian.
Fourthly, to be a xian, you have to accept the old testament. Do you really want to do that?

The person in question would have to remain ignorant of the preceding 2,500 years or so of recorded history. He or she could just as easily be a proud Confucianist or Taoist or Hammurabist or Hindi or Zoroastrian as all or most of the doctrines attributed to Jesus were already codified in older texts and/or passed down through oral traditions. I suspect that most proud Christians are ignorant of the history of the ideas they believe originated with Jesus. In the end, being a proud any kind of Christian looks like little more than brand loyalty - like being a proud Tide laundry detergent user vs. a proud Cheer laundry detergent user

A Christian is atheist about the other 4,999 or so gods that are floating around.

Can a Turkey proudly celebrate Thanksgiving?

I voted yes.. The way Jefferson did this with the bible is very interesting...

I have voted no...because the morality and the examples shown by Jesus Christ did not originate with him, he in fact adopted an empathy and morality towards others that was already inherent in humans. It is an admirable philosophy of philanthropy and compassion, and an ethos of caring for others than I wish more people, whether Christian or not, would adopt, but it did not originate with him. Unfortunately, it is impossible to single out the teachings of Christ and leave the rest of the baggage being a Christian comes with, and for that reason I cannot agree with the premise that it’s possible to be both an atheist and a secular Christian.

I vote no, Christianity is nothing but lies.

They may not use that label, but I think most of the people on this site fit that category: Having ditched the theological/“god” part of Christianity, they still often uncritically embrace the moral/ethical ideas for which the Jesus character is the front man.

Morals have nothing to do with Christianity. There are many different reasons, some choose religions, others karma or energies, and there are still other ideas that demonstrate or explain our need for morality. Pick whichever you choose as long as you pick something to motivate your morals!

That's why I use "spiritual not religious". I get crap for saying that, but whatever. I am an electronics nut. Energy can only be converted, not created or destroyed. So to me god is electricity. We know it exists. We can't see it either. The only reason why we know it does is because of the after effects of something else. So I guess both are believeing in something you can't see?

Good write up! Also was it cut with razors? Did they exist at the time? We do know he wrote that book, that's not my point, I'm just curious.

Please use another photo other then this demented creep. It's surreal and offensive.

It doesn't work that way.... Jefferson was a believer he just didn't think of Jesus as the son of a god his beliefs were more in line with Muslims who speak of that imaginary being as a Prophet instead.

Click bait

An atheist can not be a proud secular Christian as these are mutually exclusive. One can try to be a good person (be a good Christian in the colloquial sense) but that is a cultural nuance. Just because a particular belief system claims to have moral standards does not make the standards moral nor does it make a particular belief system the origin of morality.

I understand the cultural equivocation but that cultural equivocation is not objective.

Just another note. President Jefferson did believe in the separation of state and government as he put it.
His idea was almost the opposite of what it is understood to be today. He believed that government should not interfere with religion. He never said that religion should be banned IN the government. I am however very glad that we have it wrong!

In this video I go into further detail about the subject.

Any atheist called Christian ?

I heard that Hitler was a stickler for dining etiquette and table manners, so since many learned those habits in that context, I suppose we should call them polite or dignified Nazis.

You can use shorthand like this, but you're going to waste more time on all the invited questions than it's worth.

Give up on being a Christian and move on.

Why, in the name of all things logical and reasoning, would they wish to be so since We have shed the shackles of religion, thrown of the chains, etc, of superstition and embraced with open arms all things REAL and True?

Two out of three ain’t bad.

What about a proud secular Muslam, Jew, Hindu, Shinto, Buddhist, etc. If you grew up with religion whether it be Christianity, Islam, Judism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Taoism, Unitarian Universalism, or whatever, it's part of who you are. Yes you grew up, moved out and decided not to practice religion anymore but you still did it as a kid (not that you wanted to of course ) and that's what makes you a secular ___.