6/7/15
Tim
25
The coffee shop at my grocery store makes it convenient to combine Gospel
outreach with my everyday activities, so before shopping I stopped in to talk
with Tim, a young man I saw sitting there.
Like Eric, the last person I wrote about, Tim is a sound technician by
trade and an agnostic spiritually, but unlike Eric he did not have a religious
upbringing to reject.
Tim had no religious background to speak of, but has seen enough videos
and read enough books critical of religious belief to have decided he wants
nothing to do with religion. He believes
his sense of morality comes from his own common sense and said he takes a
rational and scientific approach to moral decisions. He tries to avoid all extreme forms of belief
as destructive, such as the Westboro protesters and Islamic terrorists. He rejects both the absolute atheistic disbelief
in God and religious certainty in God as arrogant, not realizing he makes
absolute statements of his own beliefs as well, like “what we do or believe in
this life won’t matter even if there is life after death, so why bother?”
I asked if he has tried to learn anything about any of the world’s
religions. He has not, so I challenged
him to consider whether his “rational” approach to questions of religion has
really been scientific like he thinks it is.
Has he really considered all the evidence, or has he limited his
evidence to the opinions of atheists and other skeptics? And is
it reasonable to lump all beliefs and religions under the same category,
ethical in moderation but dangerous when taken to the extreme? “If we follow evolution to its logical
conclusions like Nazi Germany did, we will kill the weak so the strong may
survive. Consider the founders of two
religions, Jesus and Mohammed. If we
follow the example of Muhammad to the extreme, we will force our beliefs on
others with the sword, taking the lives of others in the name of religion. If we follow the example and teaching of Jesus,
we will give our lives in service for others.
As agnostics, Tim and Eric had much in common, but a conversational
approach to sharing the Gospel helped me to meet them where they are at
spiritually and speak a reasonable faith into their unbelief.
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