The Everyday Club

10/13/10     Javier,    about 35
At the park today, a middle aged man (Javier) was walking around looking for his friend when I stopped him to ask some questions about his beliefs. He was willing to talk but needed to keep looking so we agreed to talk while we walked. Javier told me he doesn't believe God exists, or in any sort of life after death. We talked about this for a while, and I could tell he took pride in being open-minded, so I asked if he was willing to consider the possibility that God does, indeed, exist. I was surprised when he said he could not. The main reason he gave was that he couldn't believe in a God who would allow sin and suffering. He also said his sense of logic and reason simply wouldn't let him believe. I asked what it would take for him to believe - would some sort of miracle or sign be enough? No, he said, he thought everything can be explained through reason. He was friendly enough, but seemed to be extremely closed minded even to the possibility of God's existence. I gave him a friendly warning, that if God does exist he can't just get rid of Him by simply refusing to believe. I also gave him Mark Cahill's book "One Second After You....Die" which answers a lot of the questions that skeptics like Javier have and is available in mass quantities at a low price at Cahill's website... By the way, it is written from an Armenian point of view, which angers a lot of Calvinists, but whether through free will, God's sovereign election, or as I believe, maybe it's just not for us to know (John 3:3-8) - people who are lost don't really care about the details, they just need Jesus.