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Reflecting On An Atheist’s Experience

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I have read Atheistwager’s reflection and am quite amazed at the many similarities between ours. We both struggled through a circumstance and stayed persistent throughout it. His story of self-will inspires and resonates within me. It is extremely difficult and lonely to continue to a goal when everyone doesn’t care or believes that you should give up. I applaud him tremendously for his strength.

I have to be honest that I don’t really know how to respond to his post from a faith perspective. Mostly, I agree with his opinion that bad luck comes upon everyone. I recently wrote about this in my post Shit Happens. It really isn’t about the actions from a bad experience that is important but our reactions that we chose from it. The only thing I disagree on is that knowing God exists through tough times.

In my story and life I do believe that I know God through those struggles. I am a follower of Jesus and do have faith that God wants to be with us. It was in the times of loneliness and abandonment that I felt God’s comfort upon me. There is a good chance that it was a bunch of hoopla that my mind created, but the same amount of chance it was God. I knew God because he was near me like how I know my wife when she is near.

The problem it seems is the general definition of the verb know. I assume (correct me if I’m wrong) that atheists read that when one says he/she knows God because.. that they are referring to some logical conclusion has been formed – I know gravity is true because I can prove it so. This is not the same definition as most faithful use. It is used in a relational way – I know that man across the street because I’ve played Madden with him. In gravity terms: I know gravity is real because I’ve fallen down stairs and experienced gravity.

The gravity metaphor is good but limited. It is something provable and we know the tools to view its effects. You can’t prove or disprove God by human logic or things on Earth. I am also trying to avoid any word usage to say that my “knowing God” is proof or fact of God’s existence. I know that it doesn’t prove anything.

I like the field goal kicker analogy a lot. It is very true that some people say that God is the reason for all the good. A lot of people give God credit when one should at least credit themselves, others, circumstances or luck. On the other hand, I can also see the opposite for atheists. If God happens to be real, then truth of the field goal kicker applies to atheists. Maybe it was God who gave the courage, strength, circumstances, friends who helped in the situation. You don’t thank God for it because you don’t know how to see God’s actions.

Note to Readers

As readers of each of the two reflections, we need to remember a few things. This is not an expirement in proving/disproving God does/doesn’t exist. A subjective difficult experience for an individual cannot provide objective evidence. It would be a dumb move on either part, if we concluded that our experiences proved God could not exist. The other thing is that it is not something we need to judge which is more comforting/inspiring. If God does or doesn’t exist needs to be considered beyond personal preferences in outcomes. Because I like the idea of having a friend always or relying on my own self does not mean I can choose God to exist or not. In the end, this experiment purely shows how two different individuals react in a hard/difficult situation [whether or not it was self-created :)]

Read Atheistwager’s Reflection and Response to mine.