Conversation with an Atheist (Part 1 of ?)

ATHEIST:  "I'm an Atheist."

ME:  "Are you sure?  I mean, are you absolutely confident there is no chance there is a God?"

ATHEIST:  "Yes.  I mean, I was raised Catholic, but it never really made any sense to me.  Stand now, kneel now, now say this memorized thing.  Eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood?  Seems gross ... and ridiculous."

ME:  "I get that.  And I used to think exactly the same things.  I was a non-believer for 38 years, and I thought it was all blind faith, all legend and fairy tails ... I was just like you.  But something changed.  Are you open to talking about it?"

ATHEIST:  "Yeah - I guess.  You're not going to convince me."

ME:  "That's fine.  No one comes to Christ through debate or forced persuasion anyway.  It's got to be your choice to seek Him.  It actually says that in the Bible ... that once you seek Him with all your heart, you will find Him."

ATHEIST:  "M'kay."  Slight roll of the eyes.  "So, let's start with why you guys hate gay people."

ME:  "That's not true, actually.  I know that seems to be the popular sentiment lately, but it's just not true.  I'm not saying there aren't self-professing Christians who show hate, but that is a human flaw, not a Christian belief.  God loves all people, regardless of how people might categorize them by their sin.  That said, God does include homosexuality in the big list of sins.  So, we're called to love - sometimes that means telling the truth about what God says on a given subject.  Not shoving it in their face, but stating truth when lies are being told.  He says things on a subject because He loves us and does not want us to get hurt by things we think may be okay for us.  He knows best, like the good Father He is."

ATHEIST:  "So, why do I need some god to be a good person?  I mean, I can say right now that I'm a better person that a lot of Christians I know."

ME:  "That's a good point.  You don't need a god to be a moral person.  You just don't have any reason to be good."

ATHEIST:  "Not sure I follow."

ME:  "Well, to have an objective view for what's good or bad, you need an objective measuring stick from someone outside the system.  It can't be one of us - Hitler's won't work for obvious reasons, for instance.  Each of us has a slightly different measure for good and bad.  The only one that can provide that objective measuring stick is the Creator of all of this.  If you don't have a Creator, then who's to say what is good or bad?  I mean, who are you to judge?  Where are you getting your measure?  There is no basis - no objective source."

ATHEIST:  "Okay - I guess.  I'm still not buying it.  Why do we need a God who created everything?  I think evolution and natural science takes care of that nicely."

ME:  "Does it?  Let me ask just a few fundamental questions.  First, how did it all start?  I mean, how did something come from absolutely nothing?  Scientists have proven that the universe had an absolute beginning, and before that neither matter nor time existed.  So, how did that happen?  Before you say, Stephen Hawking says because of gravity, we have a universe that can create itself out of necessity, think about that.  That is circular and highly flawed reasoning.  I know he's mega-mind smart, but it still is circular - meaning "the universe created itself because it needed to create itself?"

ATHEIST:  "Outside of that and what I've seen on Cosmos, I guess I don't know.  But that doesn't automatically mean some God created it.  It could have been anything."

ME:  "Okay - let's go with that.  Whatever the anything is, can we agree that it had to have been (1) outside of space and time and (2) highly intelligent to have created this universe, stars, planets, animals, plants and us?  Does all of this have the necessary complexity to necessitate an Intelligent Creator of some kind?  Again, I don't mean to leap ahead and state that this is the Judeo-Christian God or Jesus ... just that it was an Intelligent Creator."

ATHEIST:  "I don't know.  I suppose, but you have a long way to go before we're at 'a dude named Jesus was God and is the only way'."

ME:  "Fair, but we'll get there.  Would you say, though, that there is a possibility that an Intelligent Creator exists?  Is it possible?"

ATHEIST:  "I guess."

ME:  "Okay, then you are not an Atheist, but an Agnostic."

ATHEIST:  "Fine - I'm an Agnostic."

ME:  "Willing to continue?"

ATHEIST:  "Yeah, if I can ask a few questions before we do."

ME:  "Cool.  Shoot."

... To be continued.

Question for the reader:  Are YOU willing to continue? (Continue >>)