I think atheism is very unscientific. We can’t say conclusively that something doesn’t exist just because we have no proof of it. At best, we can say it may or may not exist, but we’ve no proof. So agnosticism is about as far as you can go without being illogical.
I can’t prove that your pet cat exists. You may have a cat, you may not, I have no proof either way. But for me to say conclusively that you do not have a cat, solely based on a lack of proof for it, would be totally illogical. At best, I can claim agnosticism, which is “a -gnosis”, that is, “without knowledge.”
Hope that makes some sense. It made sense in my brain: ).
I would ask him what kind of a God it is that he has rejected. Often, I think, atheism is really a straw man argument: it’s a particular God-image they have that can’t possibly exist. For example, my sister-in-law rejects the God her mother taught her about: the one who is opposed to Evolution or any kind of hard science, the one who is a picture of an old man with a long gray beard and a triangle on his head that she learned about from pre-Vatican II children’s books, the kind who judges and overreacts and really doesn’t love, the one who expects humans to believe based on the “because I said so” sort of argument. I reject that God too, thankfully that’s not the One who actually exists!
So you could ask him about this God he rejects, where he got that image, and then explain to him the philosophical arguments for God. Catholics, for instance, and I think Anglicans also, since your basic theology comes straight from Catholicism, believe that God is Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. We believe that God is Love (not in some silly new age way, or like Santa Claus is the generous spirit of Christmas type way). God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient. God is the Ultimate Cause (or “Causeless Cause”, “Uncaused Cause”), the Prime Mover, etc. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but we need to remember that these are the analogies that God gives us to understand His nature. God is also referred to as mother, as pure spirit, as the “alpha and the omega”, etc. in the Bible. God is Father, in the sense of parent, source of our creation, strength, etc. but He is so much more than that, as that is just the tiny bit of understanding that fits into our brains. I think it was St. Augustine who had the image of the boy trying to pour the ocean into a hole in the sand, and the boy said, “neither can you understand God with your finite mind.”
It might be that he rejects God based on the problems he sees in religion. Fair enough as most people see it, but to expect people to be accurate imitators of the divine and then to reject the divine when people fail is a bit unfair. People often hold religions to higher standards than they hold any other kind of institution. Nothing run by humans really works that great, as we can see by looking at any company, government, organization of any kind. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong or was a bad idea all along - just means that people screw up everything we touch. That’s our nature. Because we’re not God.
So, find out on what basis he rejects his perception of what God is, and then counteract it.
My points out that atheism is really “me-theism”, that atheists generally are replacing God in their lives with themselves as the arbiters of truth and morality. That’s much more illogical than subscribing to a way of life that’s worked for thousands of years for most people on the planet, and is responsible for the creation of hospitals, universities, orphanages, most modern science, and all kind of charity. I see you’re from the U.K. Look at your own history. What happened when the Church was suppressed and the monasteries were shut down? Prior to that time, charitable work was taken care of by the Church and anyone could depend on it, whatever the abuses of the Church were, it took care of the poor, the insane, etc. With the Church suppressed, up rose poor houses, work houses, and the ways of life we read about in Dickens. So, yes, organized religion has problems and has caused problems, but it’s also done a LOT of good.
Or, just keep praying and let it rest a while. Sometimes the best thing to do is just drop it, maintain the friendship as best you can, and let your life speak for itself. I would recommend that you continue to educate yourself as to why you believe what you believe (I think it’s in Timothy that St Peter says to always be prepared to give a reason for your faith, in charity and truth) just in case the subject comes up organically some time. But if he’s that touchy about it, continuing to beat the dead horse won’t help, and probably will make it worse.
