How to Deal with an Atheist?

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BlueRain

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I have a co-worker who is an atheist. We have not gotten into a fight. We kind of had a discussion and it was kind of “civil”, but I’m not sure if some comments were jabs at my religion. From talking to this person, I feel as if they will just deny anything. This person said that Jesus probably did not exist, this person knows about the Jewish historian (I can’t remember his name, Josevius? or something) that mentioned something about the “Christ followers”, but said that it’s general and not specific enough.

Anyways, I don’t really know how to deal with this person. I’m going to avoid religious topics, but I feel that when we talk this person wants proof, but any proof is just denied.

Also, I have another question. At one point in my life, many years ago, I had decided that there was no god (this only lasted a bit, like a few minutes, but it was my journey into understanding the faith and learning more about it). Anyways, at that point I would have lived as a person who did not believe in a god, but I would have respected other people’s belief.

Yet, I feel that many atheists are not like this, I feel that rather than not believing in God, they are more like anti-God and attack people who believe in God.
Do you guys think this is the majority of the cases?
 
1.First remember this Bad company corrupts Good Morals.

Ref:2 Timothy 2:16, Job 15:16, Titus 1:15, Ezekiel 3:19, Proverbs 27:5-6, Philippians 3:2, Psalm 1:1, 2 Corinthians 6:14, 2 Timothy 2:2-5, Proverbs 4:14-15, Ecclesiastes 7:5, Ephesians 4:29, Proverbs 22:24-25, Proverbs 10:18

2.They are Atheist because they are spiritually Blind.
Ref:1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 4:17-19, Jeremiah 5:21, John 3:19-20, Romans 11:8, Ezekiel 12:2, Matthew 15:14, Acts 28:27.
  1. Do not yoke with unbelievers.
ref:1 Corinthians 14:22, 2 Corinthians 6:14, Romans 1:18, Romans 1: 26,27., 1 John 3:9, John 12:37, Jeremiah 17:13, Hebrews 4:11 , 2 Kings 17:14, Psalm 10:4
  1. Remember This :
Avoid Godless chatters because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.2Timothy 2:16.
 
Theres also plenty scripture about befriending sinners, dont hide your light under a bushel, we are the salt etc., dont run away from them be nice to them, make them question themselves as to why they are Atheists, soon they will want what you have, the light.

Derek
 
My dear friend

Jesus said, " He who is not with us is against us." Jesus is so counter cultural, revolutionary and extremely demanding, particularly from the moral aspect and wanting everything from us, that when one encounters the subject it always ends like this with atheists. Also like our Lord said," Would that you were hot or cold, but that you are lukewarm I will vomit you forth." Better to be cold than lukewarm and just couldn’t care less. When one is cold one can quickly turn hot.

Try printing out my inherit eternal life page ( link at top) on www.heavensmessengers.org and ask im to read it. It’s good and backed by 100 masses for it’s success. May be the start of his journey home.

Ask him if he has joy, happiness and peace inside. He doesn’t even if he says he does. Explain he can get this and much more in the church. Be very careful to show the same and always be cheerful as you are the one they will all look at. Over time if they see you always happy etc even thru all the ups and downs and they realise their not all that happy they will start to think about it all.

It’s spiritual warfare too so make prayers and sacrifices for them.

God bless and peace to you:)
 
Sometimes I think atheists look more at your behavior than your words…just live your faith. People can see through a phoney and one who is sincere. For many talk is cheap and we are a bunch of loopey hippocrates. I work with an atheist also but she has said to me that she knows faith is something within your heart and she doesn’t have it. You never no someone may have killed their faith when they were very young. And naturally as time progresses the person builds up walls and the heart becomes hardened. The more I get to know this woman the more I can see just how wounded she actually is. However, she also mentioned out of all the christian denominations she thinks the Catholics have the most common sense and the most respectable.:rolleyes:

Along with working with an atheist…I work with JW, Islam, and a Jewish woman…it is a very small office as well. But we all get along pretty well…sometimes we have to put the JW in line…
 
Hi BlueRain,

For this person to actually deny the historicity of Jesus Christ is simply to reject the views of the majority of contemporary critical New Testament historians, both Christian and secular alike. There is some controversy regarding copying changes of our documents of Josephus but it is still the most commonly held view amongst historians that Josephus did in fact mention Jesus in some capacity. To deny the historicity of the historical Jesus figure just shows ignorance I’m afraid.

As for more specific facts about Jesus life and death, the majority of critical contemporary historians also affirm the burial of Jesus in Joseph of Arimithia’s tomb, the empty tomb, and the post-partum appearances of Jesus. This are well attested historical facts irrespective of what Josephus said. Atheists like to deny the gospels as historically reliable, but they have no good grounds of doing this apart from vague (and evidence-less) assertions about the Church doctoring documents, or strange ideas like mass hallucinations. They’ll also regularly trot out the old Humean cliche “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” which is a philosophically defunct idea which is now rejected in contemporary philosophy.

If you want more information on this, look up debates/essays of William Lane Craig, he is very capable in this regard. What ever you do, don’t feel that Christians are somehow on the losing side of the intellectual philosophical/historical debate, on the contrary the tide is now turning in our favour and showing that the rampant secularism of the 60’s was a massive error.
 
I think a lot of atheist are former Christians or even Catholics who have become disillusioned with the faith and/or have read a lot of the anti-Christian rhetoric of the socialists or Marxist. At least this is how my son became one.

They think that religion was the cause of the poor remaining suppressed by the rich and powerful. They blame the spread of Christianity for the collapse of indigenous cultures. They condemn the colonial conquests and crusades started in the name of God. Some of what they say have a small grain of truth, but they forget that much of the evil done was by individuals or countries who used religion as an excuse to justify world conquest or greed.

The fact of the matter is, IF these countries or individual had properly followed their religion, most or all of these atrocities would never have happened. It is their perversion of their religion that these things took place. The evils of the world are not the result of having God in the world, but it is the result of having Godlessness in it. It is the absense of God within men’s heart that evil exist. To eliminate God from the world will not prevent evil, but make it flourish even more.

The Hitlers and Attilas of the world were NOT God-fearing folks. Some may have used God or faith to forward their own agendas, but that was a subversion of faith. Had these folks truly followed God in their hearts as they should they would have never crossed the line.

The biggest fault with atheists is that they no longer recognize God or faith as good. They see evil in the world and they see that sometimes it is perpetrated by folks who claim some sort of religion (or by some conflicts between religions) and they conclude that IF God really does exists, then He would never allow this to happen.

Or they think that IF God exists, then He surely would have proven Himself to them by now. Maybe they are waiting for some miraculous event or supernatural happening. But the sad thing is even IF such a thing would happen, they probably would not recognize it or accept it for what it is.

For people who believem we seem to see God’s handiwork in just about everything in our lives.

For folks who do not believe, God is completely absent from the universe. Everything is explainable either by science or by coincidence or by mass hysteria or delusion. Miraculous things or events are hoaxes or aberrations or parlor tricks. The question they can never answer is, what is it that would change or open their minds/hearts to believe ?

Even IF Jesus, Himself, came back today and performed the miracles that He did almost 2000 years ago, would they believe ? Sadly, they pobably would not.
 
I agree fullheartedly that if atheists wanted to understand God or religion thatthey would hold their tounges and listen, but often this is not the case. They reject God insomuch that they will not have to answer for the wrongs they do in life also.This is the view of my sister-in-law a confirmed atheist. She refuses to believe in Christ but has also convinced my brother that no such person exists. And that if he does he was a ‘magician’ fooling people.
Personally, my father and I ignore her and do not visit them because of this. The only thing you can really do for an atheist is to pray for mercy from God for their hardened hearts and minds. You can lead the camel to water , but you cannot make him drink.
Gods Blessings on you… Mary:)
 
Thank you all for the advice and suggestions for materials to read.
I think this person grew up in a very extreme form of Christianity and is one reason they turned against it.

I just want to be prepared in case a discussion like this comes up, like it did at work with another co-worker. I felt I could not just stay there with my mouth shut. Like I said we are still “friendly” and I did mention many things that you guys mentioned here. For example, it’s people not God who corrupt many things.

The thing is that it seemed to me that this person was ready to believe all the negative stuff or ideas like “Jesus never existed” and not take the time to investigate those claims.

I wanted to see if it was worth getting involved in discussions. I think I did okay. It seems that more and more there’s discussions like this in the workplace (like abortion etc.). I guess I can only hope to have the courage to speak up and bring in a bit of the truth. I try to handle these conversations as “cheerfully” and as possible.

Thnak you guys again, it gives me encouragement and I hope the Holy Spirit guides us. Good luck to you all in these kinds of situations.
 
Just deal with the atheist the same way you deal with anyone, with as much gentleness and charity as you possibly can. God wants their souls.
 
I put up with an athiest for awhile… I didnt say anything while he called anyone who believed a ‘programmed religious robot’…

Then one day I had it… the athiest would point out all the famous athiests in history…
Turns out… nobody on their list was an athiest. (athiests have websites devoted to claiming all kinds of famous people in history were athiests)

I just turned it around and showed him… it is he that is a programmed robot.

It took me weeks of research and it was exhausting (mentally) but I felt like I was standing up for Jesus.

I dont think I changed his mind but the point was for him to think for himself… maybe he will look at what athiests say and question the motive.

Plus… the few athiests I have ever come in contact with are miserable people… rude and have no peace.

So… when they are being miserable and hateful… I always think… ‘if athiesism is so great… why are they so miserable?’
 
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