Agree to Differ

With Atheists?

An atheist is one who says there is no God. God is an anachronism from past, un-enlightened ages who is still used as an emotional crutch by those who profess to believe otherwise than their own limited atheistic parameters. I have rarely heard an atheist say that he or she does not believe in God. To say such a thing one surely has to believe in God in order to reject the claim. One of my own sons, sadly says he doesn’t believe in God so I tell him he is agnostic. The other son is an ‘all paths lead to heaven’ believer who also rejects any claim for God – yet who sends my grandson to a church school. Go figure - as they say.

Let’s lay one claim about atheists to rest straight away, shall we? An atheist can be just as loving, just as compassionate, and just as morally upright as the next man. He just believes something different to me – that’s all. Many who claim to be atheistic may well, like my boys, be much closer to agnostic – but then, they won’t be the ones haranguing you. True atheists are probably smarter than average because they will usually have used their deductive powers to sift some of the available information in order to arrive at their decision that God doesn’t exist.

I begin to question their claims when I see their different reactions to “Father God”, and “Father Christmas”. Both ‘Fathers’ are, to them, nonsense. Yet their reaction to the mention of either is totally polarised. They almost certainly encourage children to believe in Father Christmas, yet they tend, for the most part, to vent their spleen and their bile upon those who talk about a Father God. Why do they do this, I wonder? I have a pet theory about it – they are scared witless of being wrong and the Christians being right. I mean, if I arrive at death’s door and there is nothing then that’s all it amounts to – nothing. However, if they arrive at death’s door and there is life after death – whoops, where do they go from there? Therefore they would have every right to be afraid of getting it wrong – wouldn’t they?

Please don’t get me wrong here – I would love for all the atheists in the world to come to a belief in the Lord before they die and not afterwards. They are, after all, simply some of ‘the lost’ for whom Jesus died. As 1 Cor 15:19 puts it, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” However if Christianity is all that it claims to be then, for them, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)

So the next time you write or say something about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and someone starts to rant at you, it will probably be an atheist or at least one who claims to be an atheist. Treat them with love and respect and, if you have to, agree to differ with them. Don’t get into a slanging match with them as that will only add grist to their mill or wood to their fire.

By the way, if you are an atheist reading all of this, and you disagree with my views, I accept that, and I will not try to dissuade you against your wishes. You can only argue from your logic and knowledge whereas I can only describe my experience of my loving Father God. Therefore, I will not argue with you at all and you will have to accept that we hold differing views on God.