Last Thursday I went to a SSA meeting (Secular Student Association). As you have probably guessed from the blog thus far, I am not atheist. I'm quite the theist. Anyway, I went there and the event was organized to where Christians would talk for 20 minutes saying what they believe, then the atheists talk for 20 minutes about what they believe. Afterwords, there's a question and answer session. Fun? How could it not be?
Well for one, majority of the Christians that attended this event with me were feeling based Christians from what I can gather, the atheists gathered as much. So naturally, they were of no use in a discussion. If anything, they were detrimental because the atheists could continue their stereotyping that Christians used God to feel better about life, or God is merely a psychological/evolutionary development.
Don't get me wrong, a relationship with anyone includes emotions so naturally the most important one in any of our lives will also include emotions. BUT to try to justify your beliefs with a description of feelings and emotions is silly. I'm Christian and I hate when my fellow Christians talk of how God makes them feel. We are His creation, it doesn't matter if we feel like crap as Christians, if it's true then we must pursue God. No matter the cost, even our own happiness. But guess what? God designed us to only be complete and happy in Him. Now does this mean a religious person will always feel fulfilled? Of course not, it means that only through being religious person will we feel truly fulfilled ever (yeah, I'm a pro-blogger, I used bold).
So why am I against happiness and God being intertwined? Because I worry people start blurring the line of what they pursue in my religion. Are we pursuing God and so are happy or are we pursuing God to be happy? Notice the second option shows what you truly pursue is not God but the happiness He provides you. And as I've mentioned earlier, happiness can not be a goal for a stable (and happy) person. As a true theist, I should be willing to pursue God and be miserable than be happy and godless (italics too?! he's going all out on this post...).
And so I listened to the atheists tear down my friends as they talked of how God made them feel. I won't lie, I enjoyed it. Being happy by pursuing God is no form of evidence, some of my friends have been happy to accept God and reject thinking about the implications of that. But the atheists have thought of it. And so I was able to talk to them and explain my religion. It was refreshing to both sides I believe, I liked the challenging questions and they enjoyed me not throwing the F-words out there (faith and feeling).
But this has all been the foundation for what's coming next (doesn't most of our lives feel like that sometimes) in the post. Sure it's cool to have tolerant conversations with atheists but what I really liked was that I think I was affirmed in what I'm to be used for by God ( I believe we all have a purpose, like different parts of the body). In terms of my purpose as a Christian, I believe I would be best used as an apologetic. To destroy the faulty arguments against my religion and reinforce the faith of those less logic based Christians. Because honestly, I think a lot of the Christians went in there thinking "Yeah, God's just going to show up, they'll convert, and we will all rejoice. Yeah!" That's an awful way to view such a situation. It should be seen as the opening act of their salvation, not the whole play... Especially since a lot of the atheists had been brought up Christians and knew the Gospel and Good News and all that. So there was not going to be a "wow" factor unless it was done in reasoning...but maybe that's just me. I don't know.
For better or for worse, I preferred being with the Atheists than being with Christians. Atheists think for the most part on why they believe things. I would prefer someone who had reasonable answers for why they disagreed with me than someone that agreed with me for an awful reason. But either way, love should always be first in our hearts, for love is God. And so if I really am bothered about the foundations of my Christian friends, I should strive to lovingly show them the WHY in our religion.
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