Navigation:
[P]rofile
[M]emories
[W]hat's On My Mind
[P]ic(s) Of The Week
[S]houtbox
[L]inks
[A]SN Parties

Reading: I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist
Tuesday 23 December 2008

Warrupt repapips, tropapips, bogaloids, mensen.... as you could see guys my first and last post was on September 3rd and it's now December, kinda long tym ago dont yah think? well btw am back again and blogging again, I will spend more time and make time for my blogspot!!SEGUE
Well lots of peeps knows that am currently reading a book about religion titled “I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist”. There's lots of things in this book that are really interesting and that caught my attention, I will mention some of them: "Men Stumble Over The Truth From Time To Time, But Most Pick Themselves Up And Hurry Off As If Nothing Happened" And This

"No One Religion Has The Complete Box Top. Religions Are Simply Different Paths Up The Same Mountain"

“People Almost Invariably Arrive At Their Beliefs Not On The Basis Of Proof But On The Basis Of What They Find Attractive”.

Isn't it interesting guys?? well for me “Yes It Is!” I'm not going to make an entry about the whole book it self but about a piece that comes in the book, it's a religious question. Before I will begin about that one piece why don't you read it by yourself first? Here's that piece:


Can Truth Be Known? Knock, Knock ...


Evangelical Christians believe that they ought to obey Jesus' command to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). In order to help Christians carry out this “Great Commission,” D. James Kennedy created a door-to-door evangelism technique called “Evangelism Explosion” (EE). If you're a Christian, the EE technique allows you to quickly ascertain where a person is spiritually. After introducing yourself, you are to ask questions like these to the person answering the door:


Can I ask you a spiritual question?


And


If you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” what would you say?


Most people are curious enough to say yes to question 1. (If they say, “What do you mean by 'a spiritual question'?” you go ahead and ask them the second question.) As for the second question , the EE manual predicts that the non-Christian will usually give the “good works” answer. You know, something like, “God will accept me because I'm basically a good person. I haven't killed anybody; I go to church; I give to the poor ... “ In that case, the EE manual tells you to respond with the gospel (literally the “good news”): that all (including you) have fallen short of God's perfect standard, and no good work can erase the fact that you've already sinned; but the good news is that you can be saved from punishment by trusting Christ, who was punished in your place. While this technique has been successful, some non-Christians do not respond to the two questions as expected. For example, one evening I (Norm) decided to take EE to the streets along with fellow member of my church. Here's how it went:

Knock, Knock.

“Who's there?” (A man came to the door)

I stuck out my hand and said, “Hi! My name is Norm Geisler, this is my partner, Ron, and we're from the church at the end of the street.”

“I'm Don,” the man replied, his eyes quickly sizing us up.

Immediately I jumped into action with question 1: “Don, do you min if we ask you a spiritual question?”

“No, go ahead,” Don said boldly, apparently eager to have a Bible thumper for dessert.

I laid question 2 on him: “Don, if you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?' what would you say?”

Don snapped back, “I'd say to God, 'Why shouldn't you let me into your heaven?'”

Gulp.... he wasn't supposed to say that! I mean, that answer wasn't in the book!

After a split second of panic, I offered up a quick prayer and replied, “Don, if we knocked on your door seeking to come into your house, and you said to us, “Why should I let you into my house?' and we responded, 'Why shouldn't you let us?' what would you say?”

Don pointed his finger at my chest and sternly replied, “I would tell you where to go!”

I immediately shot back, “That's exactly what God is going to say to you!”

Don looked stunned for a second but then narrowed his eyes and said, “To tell you the truth: I don't believe in God. I'm an atheist.”

“You're an atheist?”

“That's right!”

“Well, are you absolutely sure there is no God?” I asked him.

He paused, and said, “Well, no, I'm not absolutely sure. I guess it's possible there might be a God.”

“So you're not really an atheist, then-you're an agnostic. “I informed him, “because an atheist says, 'I know there is no God,' and an agnostic says 'I don't know whether there is a God.”

“Yeah... alright; so I guess I'm an agnostic then,” he admitted. Now this was real progress. With just one question we moved from atheism to agnosticism! But I still had to figure out what kind of agnostic Don was.

So I asked him, “Don, what kind of agnostic are you?”

He laughed as he asked, “What do you mean?” (He was probably thinking, “A minute ago, I was an atheist-I have no idea what kind of agnostic I am now!”)

“Well, Don, there are two kinds of agnostics,” I explained. “There's the ordinary agnostic who says he doesn't know anything for sure, and then there's the ornery agnostic who says he can't know anything for sure.” Don was sure about this. He said, “I'm ornery kind. You can't know anything for sure.”

Recognizing the self-defeating nature of his claim, I unleashed the Road Runner tactic by asking him, “Don, if you say that you can't anything for sure, then how do you know that for sure?”
Looking puzzled, he said, “What do you mean?”

Explaining it another way, I said, “How do you know for sure that you can't know anything for sure?”

I could see the light bulb coming on but decided to add one more point: “Besides, Don, you can't be a skeptic about everything because that would mean you'd have to doubt skepticism; but the more you doubt skepticism the more sure you become.”

He relented. “Okay, I guess I really can know something for sure. I must be an ordinary agnostic.”

Now were really getting somewhere. With just few questions, Don had moved from atheism through ornery agnosticism to ordinary ordinary agnosticism. I continued, “Since you admit now that you can know, why don't you know that God exists?”

Shrugging hid shoulders, he said, “Because nobody has shown me any evidence, I guess.”

No I launched the million-dollar question: “Would you be willing to look at some evidence?” “Sure,” he replied.

This is the best type of person to talk to: someone who is willing to take an honest look at the evidence. Being willing is essential. Evidence cannot convince the unwilling.

Since Don was willing, we gave him a book by Frank Morison titled “Who Moved the Stone? Morison was a skeptic who set out to write a book refuting Christianity but instead became convinced by the evidence that Christianity was indeed true. (In fact, the first chapter of “Who Move the Stone? Is called “The Book That Refused to Be Written.”) We visited Don a short time later. He described the evidence presented by Morison as “very convincing.” Several week later, in the middle of a study of the Gospel of John, Don accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. Today Don is a deacon in a Baptist Church near St. Louis, Missouri. Every Sunday morning, for years, he's driven the church bus through the local neighborhood to pick those kids whose parents wouldn't come to church. His ministry has special morning to me (Norm) because two men like Don (Mr. Costie and Mr. Sweetland) picked me up with a church bus more than 400 times-every Sunday from when I was nine until I was seventeen. I was in position to accept Christ at seventeen largely because of that bus ministry. I guess it's true what they say “What goes around comes around,” even if it's just the Sunday school bus.


Courtesy: I don't have enough faith to be an atheist

And again, it's interesting huh..?

Well what I actually did, I've asked some peeps the 2nd question(If you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” what would you say?), some of them they did not answer seriously like my cousin. Maybe it's because of me cause am not really a serious guy, though I can be serious. And some answers were MUMBO JUMBO, and there was only one peep left, that I've thought he will answer it seriously. And “THANK GOD HE DID” well I will not mention his real name I will name him “moiboi”, it went like this:


Oney: ey moiboi, If you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” what would you say?

Moboi:i'll do anything to go to heaven

Oney: (maar de vraag was wrom God jou in zijn hemel laten gaan) The question was why should God let you into his heaven?

Moiboi: (tjaa, dat is moeilijk) well, that's difficult.


Well honestly it is difficult to answer that question, though I believe in God, but I believe thet every person in this world has a sin. Let's go further with our conversation:


Oney: (ik wist het... dat je dat zou typen) I knew it, you will type that..

Oney:(ik ga nog iets vragen zelfde vraag maar op een andere manier) I will ask you something again, it's the same question but I will ask it another way

Oneyt:(als iemand bij jou aan de deur klopt...) If someone knocks at your door and seeking to come into your house and you say "Why should I let you into my house? What would you say?

Moiboi: i don't now you and i don't now what you wan't, but if i can help you i would only for a good purpose

oney: aha.. hmmm...

Well I was kinda surprised with his answer, I thought he will do the same thing what Don did, but moiboi is a religious guy so I think that's why he did not do the same think what don did. So as we go further:

Oney:(dus je bent niet z'n persoon die iemand aan gaat wijzen waar die naartoe moet)So you're not that kind of guy who would tell someone where to go?


Well the reason why I've asked him he's not the kind of guy who would tell someone where to go, because people here in Holland definitely rude, if your lucky person the won't do anythings violence. Here's the last part of our conversation:


moiboi: (ligt eraan wat voor situatie het is ..)It depends in what situation...


Well my conclusion about our chitchat is... because he is a religious guy sow he didn't tell the person where to go and I believe that God will tell you where to go, because maybe in God eyes you do not belong in heaven because you did not believed in him when you was alive... Actually who knows?

Well guys I just advice you to read this book:

[O]nEy.[F]ever
Feel the heat!
16:49
Comments:
Post a Comment