Atheist Family Member

[JillianRose]

Hi!

It is very hard to evangelize to someone who is an Atheist. Even though I know we are all under the same authority (GOD), they don’t acknowledge it. So I can’t use my catechism or Bible. How do I answer this question:

How do I know God exist?

That’s a big one. What do I say? Can anyone help me answer this or help me format an answer. I don’t want to give up on them.

Please and Thank you.

Jill

 

[christofirst]

You might try exploring this site:

magisreasonfaith.org/

Magis Center of Reason and Faith, by Father Robert J Spitzer. His approach is from science and philosophy. His explanations might not be acceptable to the atheist you know, as there are many reasons why someone does not accept the Faith, but it might help. I hope it does! Keep praying too, as I know you are (I say this because I have a few family members who are atheist or agnostic as well).

 

[landon13]

You may want to check out Catholic Answer’s new book Answering Atheism I just bought at a catholic store today. It is supposed to be really helpful in evangelizing atheists.

With atheists, use science and logical reasoning and statistics, don’t use Scripture until you can establish the existence of God unless to show that Christianity is moral.

Blessings!

 

[Mike_from_NJ]

Jillian, one thing I would ask – only because it’s getting to be that time – is if you’re looking for some assistance in evangelizing to someone at a Thanksgiving gathering. If you’re not, then please ignore me

If you are, I would like to caution you against it. That is not to say that I think you shouldn’t evangelize ever. I realize how important it is for christians to spread what they understand to be the truth to others, especially ones close to them. I just generally don’t find holidays to be the best time for that.

 

[daisybee]

There is a Catholic radio recording of the show “The Existence of God,” based on scientific insights from physics:

catholic.com/radio/shows/the-existence-of-god-6369

There is also a long list of resources available on catholic.com: catholic.com/browse/all/atheism/all/all

 

[esieffe]

So I can’t use my catechism or Bible. How do I answer this question:

How do I know God exist?

That’s a big one. What do I say? /QUOTE]

Hi Jill,
There are those people that insist on some sort of proof before they will believe in God. They don’t care about the faith of others, or books and dogma. Yet there are other types of proof if one is open for it. That would be my request to my brother, “Are you willing to become open minded about the existence of God, should proof come your way?”

Why? Because we both know it can. For we see proof every day, for him, it may take a little more. He will have to become open to the experience before it can happen though. It could take the form of a stranger helping out, or someone making a small sacrifice that only he could understand, comfort from an unlikely source. When I was a child a bird landed on my hand and stayed for five minutes. [my mother wouldn’t let me keep it.] When I was a child I walked into an area of the yard, heavily concealed by shrubs and the shade of trees, and there was hundreds of Monarch butterflies resting there and flitting about. It was an incredible site.

As an adult, when God speaks to me it sometimes can be through other people. Sometimes God may use you to speak to others. Proof is always there if we allow ourselves to see it. Even if we have faith, we must be OPEN to receive the love of God. If my heart has been hardened through bitterness or life it is like putting the welcome mat out, but never answering the door when the bell rings.

Clearly you are a special person to be so caring and concerned for your brother’s welfare! He has a head start already because of your presence.

I hope this helps in some way!
-Eric

 

[JillianRose]

JillianRose;11435789:

So I can’t use my catechism or Bible. How do I answer this question:

How do I know God exist?

That’s a big one. What do I say? /QUOTE]

Hi Jill,
There are those people that insist on some sort of proof before they will believe in God. They don’t care about the faith of others, or books and dogma. Yet there are other types of proof if one is open for it. That would be my request to my brother, “Are you willing to become open minded about the existence of God, should proof come your way?”

Why? Because we both know it can. For we see proof every day, for him, it may take a little more. He will have to become open to the experience before it can happen though. It could take the form of a stranger helping out, or someone making a small sacrifice that only he could understand, comfort from an unlikely source. When I was a child a bird landed on my hand and stayed for five minutes. [my mother wouldn’t let me keep it.] When I was a child I walked into an area of the yard, heavily concealed by shrubs and the shade of trees, and there was hundreds of Monarch butterflies resting there and flitting about. It was an incredible site.

As an adult, when God speaks to me it sometimes can be through other people. Sometimes God may use you to speak to others. Proof is always there if we allow ourselves to see it. Even if we have faith, we must be OPEN to receive the love of God. If my heart has been hardened through bitterness or life it is like putting the welcome mat out, but never answering the door when the bell rings.

Clearly you are a special person to be so caring and concerned for your brother’s welfare! He has a head start already because of your presence.

I hope this helps in some way!
-Eric

Whats Crazy is I never said it was my brother! IT IS!! Wow!! See, God at work!

 

[esieffe]

esieffe;11436088:

Whats Crazy is I never said it was my brother! IT IS!! Wow!! See, God at work!

I am just as amazed as you are… kind of. When I read it, I thought it said your brother. But… then it didn’t. It would be easy for me to be a vessel because I am such an airhead! Never me though, always God, ALWAYS God. I am just a miserable sinner trying to find his way to heaven.

 

[PennyinCanada]

The human body and reproduction to a brand new being could not just appear out of nowhere. The molecules of this planet are so organized, to the hugeness of the galaxy. There is a Divine Maker to put all things into place, to have balance and to continue in a cycle of life. There is the idea of a watch in the forest, sitting on a stump. We all know it was a watchmaker that designed it’s workings, that there existed an idea of time so that a watch could tell it, yet what can one say to a person who insists that by chance happening, the molecules came together in such a way as to make a watch.

Sometimes we have to wait on God to plow the field of his heart so that the rains can come and soften it for the seed.

I know a grandmother with a grown son who is married with children. She prayed for him every day asking God to do something to bring him back to his faith. But my, how she wrung her hands and groaned and moaned over every little thing that went on, the car breaking down, the kids getting sick, him losing his job. She prayed against all these happenings in his life and it seemed to me, that she was tieing God’s hands. She couldn’t trust that in the daily ins and outs of life, God could be there, especially when things went a way she didn’t like. I heard that ‘there’s no atheists in foxholes’, speaking about soldiers in combat. If you can’t find a way to change an atheist’s mind, trust that God can use life circumstances to draw him closer, soften his heart. If things go badly in his life, tell God that the time of his redemption is at hand! We don’t seem to look for God when things go well. How very sad for us.

Best wishes on your conversations, and may God strengthen and guide you today.

 

[Cricket2]

Hi!

It is very hard to evangelize to someone who is an Atheist. Even though I know we are all under the same authority (GOD), they don’t acknowledge it. So I can’t use my catechism or Bible. How do I answer this question:

How do I know God exist?

That’s a big one. What do I say? Can anyone help me answer this or help me format an answer. I don’t want to give up on them.

Please and Thank you.

Jill

Keep praying. I noticed some references to web sites that might help you. On a different note; have you ever discussed near death experiences with this person?

This is how I learned that there was a God when I was 4 years old. You might ask this person how a child, who has not been exposed to religion via their family, and who has little if any outside contact with others, has an experience in which she suddenly knows that there is a God. There are all kinds of NDE out there, and some of the most interesting are from children.

I know this is just one suggestion, and a bit personal, but every exposure to stories about our Faith has the potential to change an Athiest’s mind. You might try looking for stories about athiests that have converted. I know they are out there.

 

[ClearWater]

St. Thomas Aquinas had his 5 proofs for the existence of God, and some modern apologists have come up with as many as 20!

For example, Aquinas said that things were created, by something which was created, etc., back and back and back until you hit the beginning. We maintain it couldn’t have gone back indefinitely, created by, created by…infinitely, that there was one point when there was something which was NOT created. We call that uncreated, Creator, “God”.

Further, to me, I look around and see the evidence of God, everywhere! Look at the human body with its trillions, trillions, and trillions of reactions and everything all coming together, perfectly. If just ONE fact wouldn’t come together, something as simple as temperature, no life, simple as that.

If the universe were, as some say, just coming together through a fortuitous series of completely random chances, accidents, and mutations, one would expect it to be extraordinarily chaotic, and it’s not, at all.

For example…we have plants that produce oxygen and utilize carbon dioxide. Coincidentally, we have us that breathe in oxygen, produce carbon dioxide. There seems to be an overriding intelligence at work that things work together, harmoniously, in the extreme.

We have our planet spinning, rotating and revolving at the same time, tilting for the seasons, but none of this interferes with life. We have gravity. The stars, moon, planets, and all work together in harmony.

The ecosystems, again, work together in harmony, for the most part. Sometimes when there is a bit of chaos, it’s usually when we, humans, are throwing a monkey wrench into things.

The human body has its nervous, digestive, circulatory, endocrine, musculoskeletal, reproductive, excretory, and respiratory systems.

We have entire libraries on each! We have things from the most microscopic levels to the most macroscopic.

We just happen to have an atmosphere, that looks, and acts like a shield from space and harmful things, also just coincidentally protects us from everything from harmful rays and other things.

Now, a movie you might find helpful is “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”.

The analogy has been put of a bunch of monkeys typing at computers and the probability of their coming up with the complete works of William Shakespeare. The odds of that happening would be trillions to one!

If we saw a computer here, we’d know someone had to have created it, that it couldn’t possibly have created itself! Yet, we have something infinitely more complex and still think it came about, by accident! It defies all logic and probability. It’s so improbable, that it’d be impossible!

 

[kingston1]

I don’t know if we truly can know God exists, but we can know Jesus was real. I would never engage an atheist that God exists. We are too small and pathetic to understand God. We can understand Jesus.

Did Jesus exist or did He not? Was He a real person or not? He did exist and He was a real person. Since we know He was real, then were His claims of being both God and man and the Church’s reaffirmation of this true? If not, why?

Put it back on your loved one. Maybe instead of a verbal debate a written letter would be better.

Finally, I would not openly try to convince of something in the head which is a matter of faith. Faith is recognized through the spirit, therefore only through the spirit will an atheist come to Jesus. I would throw my plea upon the Saints, especially our blessed Mother and St. Joseph and ask them to pray for your loved one. I would offer up my mass intentions for him, I would pray the rosary for him. Leave the convincing to the Holy Spirit.

Thanks be to God!

 

[tjones80]

Hi!

It is very hard to evangelize to someone who is an Atheist. Even though I know we are all under the same authority (GOD), they don’t acknowledge it. So I can’t use my catechism or Bible. How do I answer this question:

How do I know God exist?

That’s a big one. What do I say? Can anyone help me answer this or help me format an answer. I don’t want to give up on them.

Please and Thank you.

Jill

None of us know if God exist. Many Christians, Jews and Muslims have a faith that God exist, but we don’t know for sure.

I’ve given up on trying to convince an adult that God exists. It is something deeply personal and one must come to a decision on their own. The only thing I do if someone brings it up is to encourage him to read the bible or other religious text.

 

[Cricket2]

None of us know if God exist. Many Christians, Jews and Muslims have a faith that God exist, but we don’t know for sure.

I’ve given up on trying to convince an adult that God exists. It is something deeply personal and one must come to a decision on their own. The only thing I do if someone brings it up is to encourage him to read the bible or other religious text.

I can’t agree. I do know God exists. I think others do to.

 

[tektonik]

Hi!

It is very hard to evangelize to someone who is an Atheist. Even though I know we are all under the same authority (GOD), they don’t acknowledge it. So I can’t use my catechism or Bible. How do I answer this question:

How do I know God exist?

That’s a big one. What do I say? Can anyone help me answer this or help me format an answer. I don’t want to give up on them.

Please and Thank you.

Jill

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” - St. Thomas Aquinas

I’d suggest praying for that person every day. Include them in your daily prayers. I have bought green scapulars for my unbelieving family members and I ask for Mary’s intercession daily for them. I know it’s not easy, but they have free will and they have to consciously choose Christ. Not even Jesus can force them to do anything, so obviously you can’t. Just pray and live a Catholic life in defiance of what they may think of you. They will thank you because you are right.

None of us know if God exist.

Actually, I am so convinced of God’s existence, I would die for it.

 

[esieffe]

I can’t agree. I do know God exists. I think others do to.

I think I can safely ‘second’ your sentiment.

 

[PJM]

=JillianRose;11435789]Hi!

It is very hard to evangelize to someone who is an Atheist. Even though I know we are all under the same authority (GOD), they don’t acknowledge it. So I can’t use my catechism or Bible. How do I answer this question:

How do I know God exist?

That’s a big one. What do I say? Can anyone help me answer this or help me format an answer. I don’t want to give up on them.

Please and Thank you.

Jill

One can ONLY TRY

Faith and right understanding ARE exclusive gifts of, from and by God alone.

BUT If the person in question has an open mind, here’s something to consider.

Ask the person to “look into a mirror”

then: “what do you see?”

Next: Who decided what you were going to wear today?

Then: How did you decide?

Then explain that there are BILLIONS of planet, stars and galaxies in the Universe
BUT: ONLY ONE; ONLY Planet earth can be proven to support the life forms we know of

On “planet earth” there are hundreds of thousands of living things;** BUT ONLY ONE; only “man”** can describe their image in the mirror or decide what to wear.

WHY?

Because to do so requires all of the following
a MIND [not speaking of brain here]

a INTELLECT not speaking of “I.Q”

and a FREEWILL

And ONLY humanity has these things!

Now ask them to quantify their “FREEWILL” [any honest and logical person will admit to having one]; YET they can’t tell you its size, color, shape or weight**. WHY?**

**Because like mans “SOUL” each of these things is a Spiritual reality. **

Because “like comes from LIKE” these things MUST too come from a Spiritual Reality

That “spiritual reality” is the “FIRST-CAUSE” of every living thing and the Universe itself. We choose to call it “God”

NOW READ and quote them John 4:23-24

It may not convince them, but ought to at least give pause for reflection.

Hope this helps; BUT understand that God alone can GRANT right understanding, so pray MUCH for this person.

God Bless you,
Patrick

 

[amrin]

Quoting William Lane Craig: It is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man.

commonsenseatheism.com/?p=8016

Some people will never believe in God, no matter what you say. Even if God decided to prove it, they would still deny it, like many denied Jesus, over two thousand years ago.