Response to Virag’s Questions

My Response fo Virag

May 20, 2024

Questions I’d Like To Ask A Christian Pt. 2

Virag Hars

ExCommunications

https://medium.com/excommunications/questions-id-like-to-ask-a-christian-pt-2-75b2bd00b68d

Dear Virag,

Just read your article from 3 days ago, and I’ll take a go at answering your challenges by interspacing your points with my experienced opinions…

• If it turned out that Jesus was never the son of God, how would it affect your faith?

That’s kind of a moot point. It’s like asking if Christopher Columbus never was an explorer, would you still believe America is separate from Europe, and the world is flat? Jesus is an historical figure supported by many eyewitness accounts.

• If it turned out that the God you’ve been following was not the real God, what would you do to find the truth? How would you go about it?

Again for me, a moot point. From my experience: I follow, because God of Biblical fame has changed my life internally and externally in lived out, real life, beyond any possible human assistance. I don’t follow because I want or hope to believe like following a pie in the sky fantasy or pipedream.

• Are there any arguments from the atheist side that you think are “good”? If so, can you list them?

Yes, of course, many have their reasons. I, too, have had serious questions about the existence of God, challenging Him with questions like why war, why hunger and famine, why is He ignoring me, etc. A list? You’re asking me?

• What do you think atheists lack when looking for the truth? What could they change about their approach?

I would refer you to John Lennox, Professor Emeritus at Oxford University, a Mathematician and theist. Yet, as for myself, I would say a mirror would be helpful; openness, perhaps; looking for what is right about theists; using the Scientific Method, including listening to the personal testimonies of twice born Christians; reading the Bible in its entirety and not ripping things out of context, that is reading all, including sentence, paragraph, chapter and Book.

• Who do you think represents your faith the best? (Apologist, Youtuber, etc.)

My wife Patty, for one… but I’m sure you’re looking for my Leader, like E.T. would ask — my favorite “TV evangelist” or whomever. Right? Like some kind of guru? Nope. Can’t say that I have one. Maybe the answer is hidden in the apostle John’s letters…

• What verse in the Bible gives you hope and strength in tough times and why?

Pretty much all the verses, the stories actually, like King David’s with all his faults, all his troubles, all his dependence, trust, and personal relationship with God, and all the results that he gave God credit for doing. The “why” is because God revealed, reveals, and continues to reveal Himself through ordinary people living ordinary lives is very ordinary life and living.

• Do you think atheists can live a happy and fulfilled life? If not, why? If yes, why?

Depending on their standards and expectations whether they are low or high or somewhere in between, yes. Why? Because in the atheists’ worldview and mindset, it seems to me, all is relative to those standards and expectations which can move up or down or sideways depending — again, I assume — on their key philosophical element of situational ethics.

• What’s your go — to argument when it comes to defending your faith? How do you expect your opponent to respond?

My go-to argument is my personal testimony and the Bible itself. However, I expect my “opponent” to respond in the way I have experienced from discussions with atheists so far: changing what I am saying into something I am not saying or ignoring what I am saying completely and regurgitating their same trite arguments which I am trying to discuss with them.

• How important is it to you to convert others?

It is an extremely important matter, that is, it is an eternal destination we are talking about, not some trivial choice of vacation destinations. Unfortunately or not, I cannot “convert” anybody. Convincing others to call on God and turn to Jesus is a matter of eternal destiny. Nevertheless, it is up to the individual to make that important choice. God won’t force them even though He could and neither would I even though I cannot.

• Which secular books have you read (if any) and which did you like most? Why?

I have some sort of ADHD problem and need an audio App to get me through more than reading one or two paragraphs. Still, I used to love to read. My earliest favorite was Old Mother West Wind, later Eric the Red, Snow Dog and the like, and even later the Greek philosophers and the Existentialists of the early 20th Century, like Kierkegaard… Aldous Huxley, Brave New World. Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities…

• Would you be open to a conversation with someone with a different perspective?

I ignorantly joined Medium, because I was looking for conversation — a lost art of intellectual intercourse — however, it quickly became just another war zone, an exercise in futility…