The phone rings the other night and it's a young fellow on the other end. He is having some trouble with belief in God and he heard that I am the foremost authority in the world on the subject. After laughing myself silly, I could hardly resist giving him some of my time. Even with my brain shouting that this categorization is absurd, my ego held me back from denying it with the requisite firmness.
"I was brought up Jewish but I rejected that and became an atheist," he begins. "This friend of mine is very positive about her religion and now I am beginning to wonder who is right."
"Well, were your parents knowledgeable about religion?" I asked.
"No, not at all."
"Did you attend religious school?"
"No."
"So you never really rebelled against Judaism. You rebelled against your parents' attempt to saddle you with a religion without an explanation."
"I guess you're right."
"What it amounts to is that you need to get enough information about the claims of the religion so you can make an informed judgment. The problem is that it's hard for you to find the time to essentially go back to college and study a new discipline."
"You're right. I'm 27 years old and running a successful business. But it would help if you can convince me why I should want to go back to college, as you put it."
"Well, I start with the assumption that whatever the Biblical life system is it must be smart and its texts must be intellectually engaging. After all, the Jews were locked in their ghettos for centuries and limited to studying their own materials. As soon as the universities admitted them, they went straight to the top in a whole range of academic disciplines."
"So therefore"¦?"
"Therefore intellectual curiosity makes a lot of people want to open those books. Once they do, many recognize their genius and invest a lot of energy in that study."
"But why should I believe those books came from God?"
"A combination of reasons. Some people find the wisdom so powerful they are convinced of its Divine provenance. Then the fact that the entire Jewish nation testified to the world and protected the contents carefully. The fact that the Bible of a tiny nation was so compelling the other major religions accepted its truth as the basis for their systems. The fact that its major predictions have been fulfilled. The fact that its grasp of human nature is so on target."
Letter to the Editor
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he performs his original composition, "Buy You (Bayou) a Drink".
I would just tell the average atheist that since all the materials necessary to create a three bedroom, two bath house with attached garage are contained in the large Home Depot down the street, to go and stand there and call me the minute such a house spontaneously appears.
I laughed out loud at this example. I've never heard it before, but it sure gets the point across.
Read "The Case for Christ" and "The Case for Faith" by Lee Strobel. He's an investigate journalist who set out to prove Jesus didn't exist, the Bible was false, and so forth. He found he was wrong.
For those who say you can't prove God exists, I ask to prove the existance of thought. Use only measurable, scientific means. You can prove the RESULT of thought, but not the EXISTANCE of thought. Even if you show brain activity, there's no way to prove the activity you are viewing is thought. Therefore, thought does not exist.
The Case for Christ is particularly good; I heartily recommend it as well.
Dobson's "Answers that Demand a Verdict" isn't bad, and it came from a similar background - a disbeliever looking for proofs against.
I think you mean Josh McDowell...."Evidence that demands a Verdict"
Braingoof. Yeah, that's it.
The chance of MAN randomly appearing on the scene as a result of some cosmic exposion is the same as the Bible having been ramdonly created by an explosion at a printing plant.
I have found that many many people have "found" God by simply asking Him to allow them to rejoin Him in fellowship, Creator to creature. "Man's Search For Meaning" by Victor Frankl is a wonderful aid.
I have friends who have told me their conversion stories. All of them hit rock bottom, before they cried out for God's help.
Not necessarily so. I knew that I had to return to God, but kept putting off the commitment until one day He convinced me to get in on, so I did. It was very easy and I am very happy with the decision. I had been happy before also, but I was lucky maybe. I never came close to the bottom.
As a Probation & Parole Agent and Social Worker I had to do with many alcoholics. The long-term "recovering alcoholics" often maintained that it ws necessary to "hit bottom" before recovery to sanity could begin. Parallels?
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