What makes someone christian?

A lot of ignorant people claim that Christianity is defined as following the moral examples of Christ, even if you don't accept his divinity, and don't believe in God. According to this way of thinking, an Atheist could be a Christian.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Simply having an affinity for Jesus as a historical figure with important teachings, but not believing in his divinity, does not make you a Christian. According to Christian doctrine, Jesus was much more than a mere human, he was the savior....the messiah, who died on the cross for man's sins and was resurrected on the 3rd day.

Here is an example: If I say that I believe in what Muhamed taught, and have an affinity for him, but do NOT believe he is God's prophet, and reject the doctrines of Islam, then I cannot call myself a Muslim. I would not be a Muslim just because I thought Muhamed was an awesome guy and thought he had some great things to say.

Well, there are many ideas about what Christianity is, but most are bullhockey. A Christian is simply that. Someone who believes in Jesus Christ and what he is and has done. You cannot be a real Christian (although there are many fakes out there that give Christianity a bad rep) without that knowledge and its profession. You have to say that you believe that, not necessarily out of your mouth, but in prayer works too. The whole offspring idea won't work, because God gives us one determining different gift, His Spirit, known as the Holy Spirit when we profess His name as our Lord. Know that at one point, in the garden, humans were arguably divine, for they knew no wrong, but evil changed that. Also Jesus was both God and Man for 32 years. The difference though, is that He did not sin or do any evil.

(a) Believing Jesus as divine +

(b) Believing every one as divine +

(c) Love of God +

(d) Enlightened self-love & Love of humanity +

(e) A probing mind bent on finding the Truth +

(f) Being open-minded for new thoughts and ideas +

(g) Self-confidence that success is achievable +

(h) Intelligent, purposeful living

add up

to make one a Christian.

* Born a Hindu, I've observed religions as instruments of evil.

* I love Buddha, Jesus, Mohamed, Ramakrishna, Mother Teresa, Karl Marx, Angels, Lenin, Ho-chi-min, Abraham Lincoln, Bernard Shaw, Prof. Radhakrishnan, Bertrand Russel ...

* We need not agree 100% with everyone. We have freedom of thought. So an agnostic can accept everything Jesus said except what he said about God, his own divinity, and the divinity of man.

Acceptance of a supernatural claim tends to promote cooperative social relationships. This communication demonstrates a willingness to accept, without scepticism, the influence of the speaker in a way similar to a child's acceptance of the influence of a parent. By encouraging this kind of behavior where the most intense social relationships occur it facilitates the lack of skeptcism and deters more open minded thinking.

They are christian because they were indoctrinated by their parents as very young children. They will go on to indoctrinate their own children and those will go on to indoctrinate their grandchildren!!

If you are a "Christian" and don't believe Jesus is God you are a heretic. Many claim to be Christian but don't believe Jesus is God, but this seems contradictory to me.