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It is 1963. The setting is a boys' locker room where a group of 14-year olds are dressing for gym class. As they tie shoes and slam lockers, Timmy turns to Mike and proclaims with a voice of certainty and authority, "Your mother wears combat boots!"

His pride wounded, Mike might respond in kind or escalate to violence, but if he had stopped to think (not likely then or now for 14 year old boys!) he would have realized three things that every listener knew: First, his mother did not wear combat boots. Second, Timmy was just practicing his annoyance skills. And third, there was no way to prove the negative.

This is the essence of modern, organized atheism. Some people are, by nature, annoyers, disturbers of the peace, declarers of the opposite of the truths that sustain and comfort those around them. As with the combat boot analogy, such people attempt to shift the burden of proof to those who are quietly carried through life in the vest pocket of God.

In the most meaningful arenas of life, empirical proof is useless. Life's experiences are the great teachers of truth. May you be fortunate to gaze into the eyes of your young grandchild. May you be blessed with the awareness that the person you love more than life itself loves you far more than you love. May you, in times of deepest distress, know the absolute joy of the presence of one who holds all tomorrows in His hand and whose love for you exceeds the capacity of all seas. At those moments, it becomes obvious that to even give the atheist the platform for debate makes as little sense as arguing the existence of life on earth.

The best response to the challenge of an atheist is to smile and walk away humming "Amazing Grace" (a truly great song that can be appreciated across many doctrinal lines.)

But what about the struggling soul for whom atheism is a cry out to meet the very God whose existence he so vehemently denies? Just as a flitting bird may light for a moment on a rotten limb, so a person in the anguish of fear or grief might shout his doubt at the very existence of a Great Creator or a Compassionate Saviour. To this person, the best response may be a pat on the shoulder, a shared meal and the gift of listening. The best way to demonstrate the wrongness of atheism is to live the rightness of faith.

Learn more about this author, Loyd Rawls.
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