Conversations about God.

 

The other day I was watching an episode of After Life and was intrigued by some dialogue between two characters on the subject of God. If you haven't watched this show yet, although it's got some pretty explicit language and subject matter, it's actually pretty good if you can get past that. The show is created by Ricky Gervais, and much like himself in real life, his character Tony is a fairly strong atheist. In this scene I referenced, Tony is talking with his co-worker Kath and they end up on the subject of God, with Kath vocalizing her belief that God created everything and Tony challenging her in the end by asking her where God came from. Kath responds by saying that, "He's always been around," to which Tony dismisses her by saying, "There you go, easy isn't it?"

I found this interaction interesting for a few different reasons. I felt like this scene unfortunately exposed an uncomfortable truth about a lot of modern Christians, and that is that often we are unprepared for the questions of skeptics and tragically fail to engage with them in a way that lovingly challenges them in return. A possible reason for this could be because as believers, we haven't often engaged with our own intellect or analyzed the reasons for why we believe what we believe. I think that generally speaking many modern churches have done a poor job of teaching apologetics to believers, or how to defend their faith, which can result in faith without much substance. If we aren't willing to engage with people when they ask honest questions about why we believe what we believe, it can be an opportunity lost to lovingly show them who Jesus is. If we are unable to do that, we may experience shame at being to defend our faith, and it has the potential to undermine our own faith in Christ if we aren't sure why we believe.

1 Peter 3:15-16 (NIV) tells the Christ-follower to "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." This is how we share Jesus with people, by telling them what he has done in our lives, and what we have learned about God's role in creation, and his purpose for it. I think that often believers try to do this, but are unprepared to deal with the follow-up questions, and are left looking like a deer in headlights. One problem people face is that they incorrectly think that if they don't have a well articulated answer on the spot, that they have failed in that moment and lose courage and give up. This just simply isn't true at all. Every Christ-follower is fully qualified to share their own story, so don't be afraid to do that. If you get a question you don't know the answer to yet, be honest about what you know, and never be afraid to say something to the effect of, "I don't know the answer to that question right now, but I am going to do some research and get back to you." I have used this response many times, and I can then use it as an opportunity to do research which will benefit and strengthen my own faith, and which will lead to more follow-up conversations with that person. Don't walk away from an opportunity to engage with people about Jesus, because you never know where the conversation might lead.

I think most often all that is required from us in those conversations is honesty, and a willingness to listen and to stay engaged. Let's go back to the example from the show After Life, what if Kath had engaged with Tony instead of just shrugging her shoulders and letting the conversation die there? What if she asked him questions in return, like, "What do you mean by easy? If you mean, can I can accept God's existence and have it satisfy every question my brain could ever think of about him and the universe, well no. The Bible doesn't even say that's how it should be. In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite. We read in Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV that "...He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end," and there are so many other examples in the Bible of people who are in awe and wonder at what he has done, as they survey the world and all that it contains. So, no Tony, believing in God doesn't make for an "easy" view of the world, but it does provide answers, and I see more evidence that it is true than I see of it not being true, and that is why I have faith in what the Bible teaches, not because it is "easy." Tell me Tony, do you find it "easy" to reject God and to believe that life just randomly happened, against the absolutely impossible odds? Is it "easy" to accept result of that belief, that if the world exists by chance, then it is completely devoid of any meaning? There you go, easy isn't it?"

The reality of this scene though, and I think that is true for many who find themselves questioning God's existence like this, is that Tony was fighting grief and depression after losing his wife to cancer. Pain and suffering are a force to be reckoned with, whether you believe in God or not. Often, when someone who is walking through pain like this questions God's existence, the question they ask isn't the real question they are asking. With some digging and willingness to engage with emotions and where they lead, we may find that the real question is probably closer to one that questions God's integrity or character, wondering how if he is supposedly loving and good, how could he allow evil, pain, and suffering in the world. That question is hard for anyone, and people have lost their faith over it, but people have also come to faith because of it. The Bible does provide answers and a framework through which we can address these incredibly hard questions, but often our heart is unwilling to believe the truth because we believe lies about our identity that are in conflict with what the Bible teaches. In order to demonstrate what this could look like, allow me to build a hypothetical scenario for Tony's character. Maybe Tony had things happen in his childhood that caused him to internalize a belief that he is all alone or not loved, because he had people abandon him early in life. Maybe then when he married his wife, he felt like he finally found the one person in this world that loved him, and now she's gone. If there was any shred of belief or knowledge of God before that, then it's probably in complete contradiction with what he was feeling in that season of grief and sorrow. I think that we often let these core lies decide what we believe about God, rather basing belief on actual evidence or intellectual exercises we have worked through. Emotion creates bias, and bias shapes the way we view the world. If we can expose the emotions, we can follow those back to the core beliefs and lies that we have. If we can do that, we can get to a place where we face a choice to either let our defense mechanisms continue to decide what we believe and embrace the lies, or we can ask God to show us his truth and let him direct us. The choice is always up to us though as to how we handle our emotions and beliefs once we have exposed them.

In summary, my encouragement would be that if you find yourself in a conversation like this one between Kath and Tony, where you feel that you don't have the "right answers" to the question, just keep going and do your best to take the conversation as far as you can. Pray that God would help you find a way to honor him with your words, and to provide the responses needed in that moment. Instead of trying to think of a proper theological response to a "challenge to God's existence," ask questions instead to try and find the underlying motives for why they believe what they believe. Atheism and disbelief in God is almost always (in my opinion) rooted in a moral resistance or an emotionally based desire to reject him, rather than well developed intellectual arguments. I would be more interested in trying to identify the reasons for their disbelief, rather than focusing on trying to "prove" to them that God exists. Lastly, and most importantly, share your own story. One of the most powerful things we can share is what God has done in our own lives, because it's actual evidence that God is real. People can argue against the Bible all day long if they don't see it as authoritative or know why it's credible, but they can't deny what has been true in your life. If you hit a dead-end in the conversation because you don't have the right information, tell them that you'll do some research to clarify your thoughts and will get back to them. Then, most importantly, follow up with them and keep the conversation going. You will be blessed in the process, as it will build up your own faith as well as you go back and remember what the Lord has done in your life.