For the last few months, I have had the privilege of dialoguing with an atheist. Actually, he is a self-described “aggressive” atheist and after three months of consistent discourse, I would agree with that label.
Furthermore, I will admit that there have been moments of exasperation and fatigue, since we seem to be two warriors of equal skill, searching for a submission hold (to employ an MMA term) and yet always finding a way to regain our upright position in the octagon of debate.
Here are some things to remember:
Pray during and daily
Talking with my atheist friend reminds me of the words of J.I. Packer,
“In evangelism, as we saw, we are impotent; we depend wholly upon God to make our witness effective; only because He is able to give men new hearts can we hope that through our preaching of the gospel sinners will be born again. These facts ought to drive us to prayer.”
How humbling to know that no matter how intelligent or how cogent my argument is, God is the One who drops the scales and allows men to see the light of Jesus Christ. Why would I ever be so arrogant to trust solely in my own powers of persuasion?
Get to know their story.
Every human has a story, because every human lives out their own story. Their story has value because every human has value. Jesus listened to the stories of sinners and then communicated the good news: He is the One they were searching for! He is their food and their water (John 6:35). He is the center of their story.
Chuck Colson states,
“We must enter into the stories of the surrounding culture, which takes real listening. We connect with the literature, music, theater, arts, and issues that express the existing culture’s hopes, dreams, and fears. This builds a bridge by which we can show how the Gospel can enter and transform those stories.”
Ask Questions
All atheists have a worldview or a philosophy that they live by. The best way to find this out is to ask questions. Undeniably, this task is often confusing and complex, because most individuals are pluralistic (i.e. the acceptance of multiple worldviews). Still, questions like, “Where did we come from?”, “What is basis of morality?” or “Is there an afterlife” will peel off the layers of their belief system. Of course, this approach takes time and patience, but genuine love for your neighbor assumes these actions.
Read their literature
Just today, I received from my atheist friend an article titled, Why God won’t heal amputees? I plan on reading this article and responding at my earliest convenience. The benefit of this interaction is finding “common ground” or a “talking point”, which is helpful when emotions rage or stalemates occur. Again, this involves time and mental energy, but is not the souls of the lost worth it?
Avoid ad hominem arguments
What is an ad hominem argument? It is when you attack an opponent’s motives or character rather than the policy or position they maintain. This tactic is not only “bad form” in the classic art of debate, but it rejects Jesus’ command to ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Matt. 5:44).
Present the gospel.
Supernaturalism is rejected by atheism because their obvious denial of a personal (or impersonal) Creator. Yet we must believe the words of Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” In other words, the Christian is called to ‘sow the seed’ and let God work.
Will they mock us? Will they say that we are ignorant, foolish, and asinine? Sure, but we already know this will occur.
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
This is written like you have never talked to an educated atheist. Your pleas here are simplistic and do not begin to touch on the effort that would be required to convert an actual atheist to the point they think a god can exist.
You show no evidence of having ‘read their literature’ or ‘listened to their stories’ at all.
You have not made the mistakes that I see many theists make when giving advice on how to witness etc. but you still assume a very simplistic task of understanding and then converting an atheist. Many atheists know more about your doctrine and dogma than you do. You did not warn your readers to know their own doctrine and dogma nor that they study it and be able to defend it. Your advice, then, is not useful.
Thank you for the comment. May I ask you what theistic argument have you found compelling or at least difficult for the position of atheism to answer? Look forward to your response.
If someone is an atheist, and actually done some research to become so, why would you assume that any theistic argument would have been found compelling?
Thanks for your response. To both of you atheists, what is your response to a Gallup poll taken in 2011 that states that 9 of 10 individuals believe in God? In other words, why are 9 of 10 American people theists?
Obviously, I find none of them compelling. The only statement that a theist can make that I find hard to argue with is a statement that an agnostic will make: We cannot know for certain that there is no being out there that is deity like. One that did not create the universe but is still like a deity yet has no interest in interacting with humanity.
The kind of deity that would leave no evidence for humans to find at all. Some would call this no deity at all anyway but where others would, I cannot argue. It would not be the creator god of monotheism. This idea is difficult to argue against. Such a deity would be essentially useless to monotheism but we cannot say for certain that such a being does not exist as it is not supernatural nor did it create the universe. Every description of gods by monotheism can be refuted fairly quickly, first because they describe that which we have no reason to even begin to believe and every reason to doubt.
“what is your response to a Gallup poll taken in 2011 that states that 9 of 10 individuals believe in God?”
My response is: “so what?”
The amount of people believing a thing doesn’t make that thing true.
You are absolutely right. But with all due respect, I asked for an atheist’s opinion for the reason for this American reality and you have not answered it.
The honest answer is “I don’t know.”
It’s probably multiple reasons. To try and give one reason for all the believers would be arrogant.
I know that when I was a believer I believed for bad reasons: childhood indoctrination, emotion and just not giving it a lot of thought. But that was me.
I appreciate your honesty. Furthermore, other then hard facts given on the study, I don’t know either. Probably your opinion about indoctrination has merit, but here is my question, “Could the answer be that theism answers more of humanity’s innate questions about purpose, eternity and origins than atheism?”
Thanks for spreading the message of trying to engage in a civilised conversation. Not a lot of people are good at that.
Thank you for your kind words.
““Could the answer be that theism answers more of humanity’s innate questions about purpose, eternity and origins than atheism?””
Theism provides many more answers than atheism does. That goes without saying.
There is no indication that those answers are correct, however. Or even that they are answers to questions that makes sense.
But I totally understand the appeal of having an answer to “what’s our purpose” that isn’t “what makes you so certain we have one?”. A lot of times the truth isn’t emotionally appealing.
Hi, Clint. Your question about why nine out of ten Americans are theists is an interesting one. Worldwide and throughout recorded history it’s the same story. How could so many people be so wrong? On the other hand, there are so many different religions and conceptions of God, and these conceptions have changed so dramatically over time that the great majority of people who have ever lived *must* be wrong on matters of major consequence, no matter which view is correct.
As for why so many people believe there’s a god, I’d suggest that religious belief probably developed for reasons similar to those which led to near-universal belief in magic, evil spirits, astrology, divination, and the like, all of which address human fears and emotional needs. We know that as humans, we’re prone to certain systematic errors of thought. For example, we tend to attribute goals and intentions to anything that moves and is complicated.
But as our understanding of the world has advanced, religion (at least in much of the world) has generally grown less overtly magical, more influenced by secular thought, and more humane. I suspect that the current growth of secularism in the US is no anomaly, and that we’re experiencing something similar to what has already happened in much of Europe.
Thank you for the thoughts.
I really appreciated the desire to genuinely understand and care about the other’s position; that is so often missing.
I’m fairly passionate about apologetics, but it is good to receive advice for the heart and spirit, as well as the mind.