Loving a Believer

Chapter 15: Late Night Talk with an Apologist

"So, you were an atheist," I said.

We were both lying on the bed while looking at the ceiling of his room and having a late night talk. It was already midnight but we were still wide awake because we were talking about a disputable thing. He just told me that he was a former atheist though his religion in his birth certificate was Roman Catholic.

"Yes, I was," he said. "I spent a lot of time in studying the Bible and Christian Apologetics just to prove that God really exists."

"Why did you study to prove God's existence when you were an atheist? Hindi ba dapat you studied that God doesn't really exist?" I questioned.

"In order to identify if something is true is to look at its all sides. The problem with some people or atheists is that, they just focus on what they believe because they are biased. They refute a thing that they don't really know. How can you refute the idea that the sugar is sweet if you haven't yet tasted it? You can't just simply say that the sugar is not sweet if you haven't tasted it. That's irrational."

"So, that's why I studied Christian Apologetics, and these Christian Apologetics defend the Christian faith. The fastest way to prove that something is true is by identifying what is the closest to the truth, like for example, proving that except Christianity, all religions are false. It would be crazy if you're going to join all the religions in the world just to know which one is true. The easiest way to identify which one is true is by knowing whom they worship. Are their gods true? Each one should fit into one of these four categories: sociological, psychological, religious, and philosophical. Their evidences about the truth of their religion should be logical according to those categories."

"And based on the study, Christianity has the largest numbers of evidences how true their God is and their reasons are the most logical. Therefore, Christianity is the closest to the truth or it is really... the true religion. But, that is not the end of the study... Here's the question that you might be thinking about: 'If Christianity is the closest to the truth, does it mean the God of Christians is real?' And you must find out the answer," he stopped and later glanced at me.

"Of course, you're gonna be biased now because you are now devoted to Christianity. That explains why you left atheism, because you changed the subject that you want to believe - probably, for you, Christianity is more interesting," I said with sarcasm. I knew what was going on his mind.

I let him make me know his God, but I wouldn't be complacent. He might trick me.

He let out a chuckle and spoke, "I'm not like that. Yes, I was an atheist, but I wasn't an atheist because I just didn't want to believe in the existence of God. I was an atheist because I observed and studied why there must be no God, and I believed in what I have observed and studied. And that was my mistake, I just looked at one side. As what I've said: In order to identify if something is true is to look at all its sides. Being biased will make you feel lost. If you really want to know the truth, look at all sides. It's like observing a fruit. How can you know that another part of a fruit is rotten if you will not turn it over and cut it? That's how you should study your belief. How sure are you that God doesn't exist? How sure are you that Christians are wrong about what they believe? Therefore, in order not to be biased about something, you have to assume that what you believe is false, and then start studying why what you believe is false."

"So, your belief now has holes, and you need to fill those holes in order to make you believe that what you have believed in the first place is the right one," he concluded.

I fell silent for a moment. I got his point.

"So, how did you study the Bible and Christian Apologetics?" I asked.