Today, many people seemed to be very open to discussing the things of God. I had several good discussions with folks who had evangelical backgrounds that appreciated my interaction even though many of them couldn't explain the gospel. I met two people who not only could explain the gospel quite well, but also embraced it as truth. I also spoke with one Christian who had a difficult time articulating her beliefs, but seemed to demonstrate a sincere desire to learn and grow in her faith.As expected, several young people I attempted to speak with were more interested in texting and watching YouTube music videos on their laptops than they were in discussing spiritual things. That's par for the course. It makes even more sense given the fact that people are easily lost if you go beyond surface level conversation that lasts longer than 30-60 seconds. Again, most of the answers I received from these folks regarding God and the gospel were of the Moralistic Therapeutic Deism variety than of orthodox, Biblical Christianity.
I did have an interesting conversation with a young lady that was an atheist. She denied that people could know anything with certainty and when pressed on this issue she eventually saw the inherent contradiction involved. She sticks out in my mind because I sensed some subtle hostility in her interaction with me after I started to ask some probing questions. This was not an overt hostility mind you, but the kind of hostility that flies under the radar, the kind that seemed to be rooted in something other than the present conversation. She noted that she sent her children to church on Sunday mornings because she wanted them to learn "morals". I wanted to then ask why she would have her own children learn morality from what she believed to be a fairy tale, but I didn't get the chance to because a friend of hers walking up to sit beside of her briefly interrupted our conversation.
Her friend was a professing Christian, but seemed to be a little uneasy that I was there and asked right off the cuff, "What are you preaching?" to which I responded, "I'm a Christian pastor, and I'm out here talking to people about the Biblical gospel." This young man's uneasiness was certainly understandable given the fact that he didn't know me from Adam. He began to speak of how Christians are so-narrow minded and I responded, "Everybody is narrow minded, it just depends upon what they are narrow-minded about." He said, "that's true." I then turned to resume my conversation with the atheist young lady and asked her how she could make sense out of her objections given her worldview. Once I had made the points I wanted to make I then thanked them for their time and was on my way.
In conclusion, take time to talk to people. Be calm, be nice, and most of all, try to be a good listener. People who vehemently disagree with you yet aren't overtly hostile will oftentimes appreciate a good conversation about ultimate questions.
"She denied that people could know anything with certainty and when pressed on this issue she eventually saw the inherent contradiction involved."
ReplyDeletePerhaps we shouldn't say that "nothing" is certain, but aren't there degrees of certainty? I'm sure a man named George Bush was President. I'm reasonably certain a man named Abraham Lincoln was. I understand that there was a Roman Emperor named Nero, but I'm not as certain about his existence as I am about the Presidency of Bush.
Even more uncertain is the idea that a man named Methuselah lived to be 900 years old. It's certainly outside my realm of experience.
Muslims claims that the prophet Muhammad spoke with the angel Gabriel. They're pretty certain about it. I'm not. How do I go about validating this so as to either accept or reject their claims?
Hi James,
ReplyDeleteYou asked,
"Perhaps we shouldn't say that "nothing" is certain, but aren't there degrees of certainty?"
First, as a preface to answering your question, to know anything whatsoever with certainty requires the prior existence of the Trinitarian God of Scripture. Any denial thereof will ultimately result in irrationality. Thus, the purpose of asking the question of the young lady.
Second, it is true that people can have varying degrees of *psychological* certainty. However, epistemic certainty is a different matter. Please see here: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/certainty/
"Even more uncertain is the idea that a man named Methuselah lived to be 900 years old. It's certainly outside my realm of experience."
This is begging the question. Just because it's outside the realm of your personal experience has nothing to do with whether one can have certainty about it. God can reveal some things to people in such a way that they can know them for certain and the example you've proffered above is one such example.
You can experience something and have complete psychological certainty that that experience was veridical, but be completely mistaken. Being epistemically certain about something requires assumptions which are themselves outside the realm of experience, of which you must assume them in order to verify anything whatsoever.
"Muslims claims that the prophet Muhammad spoke with the angel Gabriel. They're pretty certain about it. I'm not. How do I go about validating this so as to either accept or reject their claims?"
You can't validate something that's not true. Islam is internally contradictory and contradicts Scripture (which it affirms); thus *if* someone appeared to Mohammed, it wasn't Gabriel.
Thanks for asking the question.