letters to surfers

what could persuade an atheist to have faith?

by robert brow


Dear W.,

 You say you are an atheist, and you ask what could possibly persuade you to have faith.

 Perhaps it would be helpful to think in terms of love and loving. My own faith is based on the idea that love is the ultimate reality of our universe, which means that love brought energy into being, and matter is only one form of being. If one is a materialist, and cares about love and loving, then one has to believe that matter brought love temporarily into being among humans. An extreme form of that would be Egotheism which is believing that I myself am the ultimate reality which has brought my own love into being.

 If one believes, as I suspect you do, that love is the ultimate reality in our universe, then one is hooked into a search for the meaning of love, its ultimate nature, and how it touches us. I am not sure how far you are into that search.

 The first evidence of faith is that you find yourself thankful (you can only given thanks to a personal being). The next step might be to talk to the God you give thanks to. "God, I am not sure you are around, but I care about loving and if that is what you are about I want to know more." A third step could be to explore what love is about from the person of Jesus, and once you start that exploration you are already a Christian disciple.

 Bob.
  


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