Talking about faith with someone who doesn't believe is hard. Defending God, who someone doesn't believe in, is hard. Christian apologetic's isn't a perfected art of right and wrong ways to talk to non-believers about faith.
Non-believers tend to equate Christianity/all religion into humanistic and scientific terms. Thus, they analyzing religious societies based on their actions according to morals that most of the world tend to agree on (religious and non religious). They supposedly argue objectively, which is to say they have no religion to bind them. The idea is that science, where you need to have facts/proof to back up anything, is the essential way to understand the world.
At the same time arguing that faith is not needed to be a person who loves other people and sacrifices for other people (which is true). Faith in a loving God is lost on them because God is supposedly a tool to be used by humans for their purposes. Religion, then is a trend that has changed over the course of the world. The Babylonians gods are to be understood the same as The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible the same as ancient texts about ancient gods. I have faith in God, but it is much different than the faith of a Muslim or Buddhist. I believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and they believe in Muhammad's revelation and Buddhas transformation to enlightenment.
I am finding that the easiest part of the conversation is understanding the background on how we came to our conclusions/faith. Our Context. They way we grew up in the church. The way I came to accept my parents faith by challenging it and developing a relationship with my Savior. The way my friend denied his parents faith and had a "faith experience" of coming to terms with his beliefs in that process. It felt freeing to him to leave his parents faith similarly as it did for me to accept Christ's love and choose to respond to Him in my life. As weird as that sounds.
Our personal experiences, in relation to faith, (which I believe encompasses my whole life) have shaped how we understand the very fundamental aspects of the world we live in. ie. How the world was made. How history is to be interpreted. Whether or not God exists...which puts the whole conversation in a tailspin.
My friend and I care about each others well being and would sacrifice a lot to help one another out. But at the end of the day we can agree that some people believe and some people don't.
Thoughts?
