Apologetics

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The following is an article that an atheist asked me to write about a common ground between a theist and a non-theist. He asked me to write it because he appreciated our ability to have meaningful conversation while standing from the opposite sides of the "Gap".

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Our common Ground

I think the reason I try to converse in a respectable manner is because I want to reflect Christ in everything I do. And though I don't think all ideas are equally true and equally valid, I can still extend love and respect to everyone who expresses those Ideas. There’s an old Indian proverb that says, “There’s no point at giving someone a rose after you have cut off their nose”. And as a Christian, I do hope and desire that all men (& women) come to Christ, but I also realize that people won’t make up their minds based on my persuasion nor my ability to convince them. I have discovered that all I can do is be responsible for my attitude and the way I conduct myself. The only thing I can do is try to control the way that people perceive me- (that in itself is a battle) in the efforts to win some to Christ.

My differences with an atheistic point of view are not only superficial, they are fundamental. They are as opposites as can be. In light of this, I still absolutely believe there is a middle ground between theists and non-theists, but it's not in the form of a compromise in ideas or a hybrid of beliefs. I think the middle ground that is present exists because both theists and non-theists are more than a mere collection of walking matter. More than bones, muscles, and blood-more than a physiologically functioning thing. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, in this case.

I think the middle ground lies behind the individual views- behind the search. There is a unity found among the diversity of questions, and that middle ground is found here. Amidst the differences of ideas, goals, and persuasion, the inner man aches to satisfy a deep longing for joy, peace, love, contentment and meaning. And all of us- atheists or otherwise, seek after theses things. Our very drive to study the evidences, our attempts to logically “peal” arguments to their core, and our desire to converse with others, even with opposing views, are all rooted in this need to answer such questions. You can see it in the way we talk and make our presentations, we see it in how we form views, we even get a hint of it when we disagree with someone.

Truth is exclusive, and the very fact that we stand for something means we denounce something. Even someone who says, “I embrace all truths” still rejects something- they reject the idea that there is only one truth. Atheists & theists make exclusive claims and with those claims come some embrace of a truth. But I think a bridge can still be built between the two antithetical sides- and that bridge is “pegged” on the commonality of the inner person and its deep-seated desires. You can call it the soul, or the emotion, or instincts – but whatever you call it, you cannot deny that it pulls.

That is our common ground.

March M. Villareal
[email protected]

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