The Everyday Club

3/04/12     Jeremy,     30
Following a discipleship meeting at a Subway restaurant with Tian, a new believer, we asked another customer who was just finishing his meal if he would answer a few questions about his beliefs. He was Jeremy, a reporter for a major Chicago newspaper, and he grew up in a non-practicing Jewish household. His religious experiences have mainly been the influence of friends growing up who were practicing Jews, and now his coworkers who are of mostly Catholic backgrounds. Jeremy feels that any religious belief he has felt at times is simply due to social pressure to conform rather than any real spiritual experience. Like many unbelievers, he sees himself as a good person who doesn't need the reward of heaven or the punishment of hell to do good things in life. He also believes that if God does exist He really shouldn't have the right to tell us what to do, though he also felt bad people should be punished. Jeremy clearly had not thought through many of the implications of his thoughts about religion, and much of our conversation consisted of my using simple logic to help him see the inconsistencies of his beliefs. I think this is the sort of thing that Paul did in Athens, when he reasoned "in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there". (Acts 17:17)