“There is something fundamentally similar about us. You believe that God doesn’t exist. I believe that God exists. Ultimately, both of us are believers”. Anthony Akinwale.
I am often met with messages on my in box sequel to my posts. This particular one is fascinating. I have the person’s permission to talk about it. It goes thus: ” I find your posts reasonable and intelligent. I don’t share the opinions however on your posts about God. How do you come around your opinions with such convincing brilliance?” I replied him with 2cor 3:11; it says, “For if what fades away comes with such splendour, what is permanent must have much more splendour”. God. “That is how I come about my convictions”, I replied, with a mild bit of religious arrogance. He said, “That is where I always have problem, when your posts come with divine underpinnings, because I don’t believe in God”. The conversation then began.
He gave his reasons for not believing in God. The reasons, to be fair to him were existential human concerns, though contestable. After much detailed communication back and forth, I said to him; “For the records, there are a couple of things I don’t believe as a person, certainly the existence of God isn’t one of them. We had disagreed on many fronts. But I think we share some things also: I hold my convictions with passion. You hold your convictions with passion too. Thus, both of us are passionate. Secondly, you believe that God doesn’t exist. I believe that God does exist. Thus, both of us are believers. Hence, because we share passions and beliefs, summarily, both of us are passionate believers”. He said nothing. He remained silent for some time. Later, he replied, “the conversation continues some other time”.
A concerned friend asked me, ” what has kept you busy this long?” I said, “I just finished a polite debate with an atheist”. He responded, “I have no time for those rigid jerks”. To my mind, the road to conversion could be long and slow and sometimes frustrating. But with patience and steadiness the result is worth it. St Augustine said once: ” If you are suffering from a bad man’s injustice, forgive him – lest there be two bad men”.
