Parable of the conversation with an atheist.

I had a dream the other night that I would like to share. I was in that in between state when you are aware of yourself and yet you are dreaming. You know it is a dream yet it still feels real. In my dream I was in a room full of men. All of us were listening to one teacher who was teaching from behind a podium.

The man asked a question. What would you do if questioned about you belief in God by an atheist?

I stood up and answered with this parable. Part of this conversation that I shared in my dream, actually happened in a conversation that I was apart of years ago, and part of it is all fiction. I am not entirely sure why I had this dream, its significance, or why this is the response I gave. But I felt compelled to share it with all of you.

In this dream I started by stating that I was going to tell a parable about a conversation with an atheist.

An atheist once approached a man and asked him if he believed in a higher power. The man responded and said of course I do. Don’t you? I believe in the one true God, the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. I believe that God sent His one and only begotten Son and His name is Yeshua (Jesus).

The atheist responded with why? Don’t you see that we are alone. That it is impossible for there to be a God? The believer responded and said. Of course not.

Now after much arguing over the points of science, and philosophy. It became apparent that it didn’t seem to matter how much since or logic was used on either side, neither one was willing to back down.

So finally the atheist stopped in mid sentence, and stated that it didn’t matter how much arguing they did, it wasn’t going to change either of there opinions because they were looking at the subject in two entirely different ways.

The atheist pulled a pencil out of his pocket, and set it on the table. He said let me illustrate my point. You would say that it was Gods will that I had a pencil, and through His power, I can choose to push it off of the table. And even though it was done with my own power, it was His Will that allowed it to happen.

Now I would say that I had the pencil out of chance. I decided to use my own power, and on my own I chose to push the pencil off of the table to prove a point.

So the Believer thinks for a second, and says to the atheist. You presume to know what I think. You use a simple thought, and state it, as if it proves your point. Lets take a moment, and look at this another way.

What color would you say the sky is. The atheist looks up, and says that the sky is blue. The believer then asks him why he says that. The atheist says because I can look up with my own eyes, and see that it is so.

OK so you say the sky is blue because you can see it. Yet isn’t color only the a presentable of fracturing light? Isn’t color only seen through how it is perceived? Isn’t color the aspect of things that is caused by differing qualities of light being reflected or emitted by them. So to see color you have to have light. When light shines on an object some colors bounce off the object, and others are absorbed by it. Our eyes only see the colors that are bounced off or reflected. To see light you must have light. To see faith you must have faith.

But in either case what is color to one who is color blind?

The atheist responds and asks. Are you saying that because I do not have faith I can never see God. The believer tells him that isn’t exactly right. But as long as you refuse to see light you will never see color.

The atheist then responds with another question. You said that the color blind can not see color. Are you saying that I am flawed, and it is my flaws that make it where I can not see God. Are you saying that God designed me to not see Him?

So the believe says lets take one thing at a time. You asked if you are flawed. Then the atheist responds well aren’t we all. So the believer asks, how do you know you are flawed? The atheist responds with the answer - well no body is perfect.


The believer then asks how do you know. By what standard are you going by?

You see in your example of the pencil you said it was you, and with your own power, you made the pencil move. You had the power. But how did you get the power in the first place. How do you know wither or not you are not flawed? How do you know whether or not you have power?

It is through our faith that the flawed, can to begin to remove the flaws, and be restored day by day to what we were always meant to be.

At the end of this parable I stopped and I answered the teachers question like this.

In other words we do not fight with an atheist, because how can one show color to the color blind. All we can do is hope that one day that through truth the light will shine in to his closed eyes, and he can choose to one day see the beauty of Our One True God.