The Everyday Club

4/19/10 Abdul? and Kareem, mid-30's
I never realized how diverse my neighborhood is! Every individual walking down the street is unique- everyone has their own story. Today on the sidewalk I stopped two "normal" looking men and found out they moved to our part of Chicago from Algeria. Abdul grew up Muslim. Kareem also lived for a time in France and had a Muslim father and a Catholic mother. Now both have rejected organized religion and take the view that God is the same for all religions, and will take their chances on whatever happens. In my experience, people who are confident of their goodness say this because they don't believe the punishment of hell is even remotely possible, so I began to ask how they would do on judgment day. Kareem, however, used some classic arguments to deflect these questions: "If you were born anywhere else in the world, wouldn't you have different beliefs" and "What about Darwin? Don't you believe in evolution?" I've know good logical answers to these questions and spent a few minutes answering them, but when I brought back talk of sin and judgment Kareem good-naturedly said it is time to go. Before they left, I gave them a booklet comparing Christianity to other religions, and I believe they sincerely want to read it.