How Do I Answer?

Has an atheist ever asked you a question that you weren’t sure how to answer? Thankfully, this hasn’t ever happened to me directly, but it has happened to people around me. Something that people tend to say is that Bible excuses are weak. Even if what we are saying is true, if we don’t tell them our answers with confidence, then they will likely not listen as much as they would have otherwise. In order to prevent this, we need to know how to answer these questions confidently. Below there are three things atheists commonly say, and how to respond to them. Even if you already know how to answer a lot of these questions, it might be a good idea to review the ways that other people respond. If you have a different way to respond to these questions, please drop them in the comments below. I value hearing all of your opinions, so we can grow together. 

1.The Attention to Faith Rather Than Reason

Sometimes people's reference to "Blind faith" throws atheists off of God. How can we have blind faith? Well, I would argue that our faith isn't blind. Mine isn't. I've seen God working in my life, and I know exactly whom I am trusting my future to. The reason why they could think my faith is blind is because they don't know the God I am trusting. It would be like someone asking me to trust a complete stranger with my life. I would certainly be very skeptical. If I were asked this, I would challenge the person who said this to try and get to know God better. Then suddenly our faith isn't so blind anymore.

2.Personal Experience

You could take this in a few different ways, but here are two versions of this I see commonly used. 1) God wasn't there for them. I strongly believe this is not true.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31.

I have seen God care for people just like He says He does. I think that it is whether they choose to notice it or not. Every time something good happens to them, they attribute it to luck or circumstances. Why shouldn't it be attributed to God? The only way someone could think God doesn't care about them, is if they truly blind themselves to His good.

2) Living without God gives them freedom. This is possibly the greatest dissolution evil can bring. On earth, having their own rules might feel like they are free... but how free are they really when they will live forever in hell? And why are their rules that hurt others, ruin relationships, and cause destruction better than the Bible's rules that bring, peace, love, and everlasting life?

3.Science and Religion Disagree With Each Other

I don't believe this at all. God created everything we study, and the definition of science is: "the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained." Science helps us learn more about the God we serve, and that is a good thing. But if science says things like evolution is true, is that really science? After all, the definition of science states that there needs to be evidence. But there is no evidence in evolution. Have you ever seen a half-man, half-ape walking around? In short, if used as it is supposed to, with evidence backing it up, science should always solidify what we know of God's word.

Wrap Up

Some people try and come up with excuses on why God doesn’t exist because they want to be in control of their own lives. At the end of the day, even if they walk away rejecting God, God can use your conversation to lead them back to Him later in their life. All we can do is plant the seed in their heart and pray for them. God will take care of the rest. 

One last thing that you can ask someone who isn’t listening to your attempts to share the gospel is this: Why would they not want to believe they can have eternal life? Don’t they want that? Belief certainly can't hurt the quality of someone's life, but unbelief could be the scariest decision anyone can make. Then why try so hard to reject it?

Thank you for reading! Photo credit is to Adrian Swancar from Unsplash. Click the button below to see the Weekly Challenge. If you have any questions, you can ask them here:

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