Meeting Halfway
When atheists and Christians discuss religion we often talk past each other. That being the case, I came up with an idea that might change that. I think we should try to meet Christians halfway… as long as they are willing to meet us halfway.
Here is how it works. First, we offer to meet halfway and let them know that we are willing to consider the possibility that there might be a god and that we can’t rule it out with 100% certainty. This seems like a reasonable concession to make.
Then we ask them to admit a concession. Specifically, we ask them if they are willing to at least admit that on the surface, the whole Christian story does sound a little farfetched. You can go into the whole virgin birth, walking on water, raising the dead, raised from the dead thing in you want, but the point is to get them to at least try to understand why someone might not take such a stseriously. It is pretty absurd.
That’s as far as we need to go. While the whole god concept is possible and we can’t rule it out with 100% certainty, it is extremely improbable and as we just pointed out and they admitted, it is a bit ludicrous.
Now we have given them something to think about and we don’t need to concede another inch. We’re done here. The seeds of doubt have been planted and watered.
Related articles
- The Certainty Trap (dangeroustalk.net)
- Hitchens dead at 62 (examiner.com)
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, conversation, de-conversion, delusion
