If you don't believe in God, I would presume you don't believe in Heaven. But if you allow that Heaven might be a reality, by extension you allow that God might also be a reality. If wish for a friend to find a joyful Heaven, you must actually believe in God, despite your claims to the contrary.
Years ago I had a similar exchange with a coworker, also an atheist, who had a friend going through serious health issues. She called me one day and asked, "I know you are a faithful person, so would you please pray for my friend?"
I thought, if you don't believe that God exists, why would you think that my prayers to Him would help your friend?
I offered those prayers nonetheless.
Agnostics. They just haven't bothered to explore enough to even be able to define themselves.
ReplyDeleteThey're just not that smart.
DeleteMan being a creature of God, deep down, we all know there is a God, no matter how hard we may work to convince ourselves otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI've experienced all sorts of similar comments, perhaps the oddest being a comment by a person whose a declared atheist and whom is extremely hostile to Catholicism, but none the less mentioned a belief in ghosts and an experience with what he thought was one, over a protracted period of time.
If ghosts are the souls of the departed, and if they're visiting you . . . .
You see my point.
Most arguments I hear against the existence of God sound more like the person is trying to convince themselves rather than me.
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