Three things you could you say to a friend who is not interested in faith
René Breuel. Photo Canva.com
Christian Life
Indifference. Apathy. Lack of interest. Don’t these adjectives describe how many Europeans approach religious questions today? Whereas the New Atheism drew headlines a decade or so ago, today it is more common to meet people who don’t even consider –instead of actively oppose– religious faith.
How can you spark engaging conversations with these friends and neighbours? Here are three possible entryways.
Everybody believes
The first way is to point out that it’s impossible not to believe. Even the proposition “better not to believe in anything because it will lead to difference and conflict” is a statement of faith. It presupposes, for example, that God doesn’t exist or that it isn’t essential to know Him. In other words, we all hold certain beliefs that we consider essential and true.
“Everyone believes. The only choice we have is what to worship.”
The American novelist David Foster Wallace put it this way:
In the daily trench of adult existence, there is no place for something like atheism. It is not possible not to worship something. Everyone believes. The only choice we have is what to worship.
And perhaps the most compelling reason to choose some sort of god or spiritual type thing to worship ... is that pretty much anything else you believe in will end up eating you alive. If you worship money or things, if you entrust the true meaning of life to those things, then you will feel like you can never have enough of them. That is the truth. Worship your body, beauty and sexual attraction, and you will always feel ugly... Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need to have more and more power over others to make you insensitive to your own fears. Adore your intellect, try to be considered clever, and you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.
Humans are intrinsically religious, even if our modern faiths appear to follow apparently secular routes. False gods make great, compelling promises, but they leave us feeling empty, ugly, stupid, and powerless. God created us for Himself. If we worship anything other than God, it won’t work out well for us.
You desire too little
When I hear someone dismiss the Christian faith, I feel like saying, You have no idea what you are losing. You settle for too little. You are like a child who is happy to play in a tub because she does not know the sea. Or like a man who is content with a black-and-white TV because he has never heard that there are Ultra HD TVs.
Don't stay in the tub when you can swim in the sea.
Imagine seeing life in Ultra HD: discovering a love greater than the most intense human love, healing for your wounds, forgiveness for your faults, help for your difficulties, meaning for your days, wisdom for your decisions, a joy that does not depend on circumstances, and hope for eternity.
When I visited the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, the air was so pure that it felt like looking at the sky in Ultra HD. I could see millions of stars, the spirals of the Milky Way, countless other galaxies, and meteorites entering the atmosphere every minute or so.
Don't stay in the tub when you can swim in the sea. Don’t settle for an old TV. There is more!
Your greatest cravings are divine clues
If we all believe, then the real question is: Which perspective best corresponds to what this world is? What beliefs will motivate us to work for the flourishing of all humanity?
No faith (secular or religious) will give us a stronger basis for love, inclusion and peace than believing that this world was created by a God of love Who wants to redeem us and include us in the community of love He is forming around Himself. Nothing will make us ready to suffer for the sake of the other more than believing that God became man to give His life for us.
Our longings for intimacy, meaning, and purpose are clues to our origin. As Augustine put it in the “Confessions”, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in You.”
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