After seeing a similar artikel that claimed to disprove all religions in a simple dialog, I decided to write my own, this time with lebih realistic and logical paths of discussion.

My characters for this dialog will be a woman named link and a man named link. Neither is related to their Greek counterparts of the same name. They are just two young people living in our modern world. I have only linked anda to their namesakes' Wikipedia artikel so that anda may further your knowledge on Greek literature.

DISCLAIMER: This is only one possible conversation between a spiritual man and a non-spiritual woman. It does not speak for all spiritual men and woman, nor does it speak for all non-spiritual men and woman. It is simply two perspectives on a complex topic, of which there are many other viewpoints.

Sappho got on the bus and sat selanjutnya to her friend, Euripides, greeting him warmly.

Sappho: Euripides! Where are anda off to on this fine morning?

Euripides: I'm going to church. anda know I go every Sunday.

Sappho: That's right, I remember now. Say, Euripides, maybe anda can help me out. I was just wondering why anda have such unshakable faith in Christianity.

Euripides: Well, that's a mighty broad question, Sappho.

Sappho: OK, let's get a little lebih specific. What makes anda go to church every sunday.

Euripides: I enjoy it.

Sappho: Oh, please! Everyone knows that nobody enjoys going to church

Euripides: Yes, that is the stereotype, but I actually do enjoy church, very much.

Sappho: Why?

Euripides: I guess it has to do with my pastor. He's very smart, and his sermons are fascinating.

Sappho: I went to church when I was younger. My pastor just read from the Bible.

Euripides: Well, he does that too... Let me put it this way. It's like college. There are good professors and bad professors. The good ones know how to keep anda engaged and learning at the same time. The bad ones may make anda hate the subject.

Sappho: OK, but if anda don't like college, anda can always drop out. What if anda didn't like church?

Euripides: I would go to see my friends and family, and to celebrate my faith. It's the one jam every week I can devote entirely to God.

Sappho: OK, anda berkata the G-word, so I have to bring it up. How do anda know there is a God?

Euripides: I don't. I believe there is a God.

Sappho: But what if you're wrong?

Euripides: That's not a pertanyaan I think about.

Sappho: But if anda don't know then there's the possibility that you're wrong, right? How can anda not think about it this way?

Euripides: anda have beliefs that anda don't question, too, Sappho. Everyone does. For example, we believe the sun will rise every morning. But we don't know it will.

Sappho: Yes, but that belief is based on evidence. We believe the sun will rise every morning because that's what it has done every hari since Earth coalesced and formed a planet. We believe based on pattern.

Euripides: anda talk as if anda think I have no reason to believe in God.

Sappho: So what is that reason?

Euripides: There are things that happen in this world, Sappho. Serendipitous things. Beautiful, complicated things. Did anda know that every living being's DNA is made up of only four different nucleotide bases, which make only two different nucleotide pairs? And yet, from that simplicity, anda get such vast diversity.

Sappho: That's beautiful poetry, Euripides, but it doesn't answer my question.

Euripides: I believe that this earth did not happen oleh accident because it the mathematical probability of that happening is smaller than the mathematical probability that it happened on purpose.

Sappho: Now you're talking like a mathematician. Speak English, Euripides. In five words atau less, what makes anda believe?

Euripides: The miracles in everyday life.

Sappho: I don't buy it.

Euripides: anda don't have to. They're my reasons. Not yours.

Sappho: But anda have no empirical evidence that God exists. anda can't see, hear, touch, smell atau taste him.

Euripides: Can anda see the infrared rays reflecting off a bunga petal? atau hear a dog whistle? No. But it's there. There are lebih things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Sappho: OK, I still don't agree with you, but I understand. So why Christianity? Why not some other monotheistic religion like Judaism atau Islam. atau why not a polytheistic religion, like Hinduism atau Wicca?

Euripides: Well, to be honest, I was raised Christian.

Sappho: Did anda ever think about joining another religion?

Euripides: I've studied them, but no, I never thought of converting. kristen works for me, just as I'm sure Hinduism works for Hindus.

Sappho: Why, though? Why Christianity?

Euripides: Why does Atheism work for you?

Sappho: Because I believe that there is no God, Heaven atau Hell.

Euripides: And I believe that there is.

Sappho: Yeah, but so do the Jews.

Euripides: I believe Yesus Christ is my savior.

Sappho: Oh, that, yeah. How does that make sense? Guy comes to earth just to let his children watch him suffer and die, only to come back three days later as some sort of cruel April Fool's joke. Sounds like fiction to me.

Euripides: You're focusing too much on the crucifixion and resurrection.

Sappho: Aren't those the two biggest points in Christianity?

Euripides: Yes, and no. Christ did lebih than just died for our sins. He set us on the right path again when we strayed. He came here to teach us, to guide us, to heal us. And he did. The Crucifixion and Resurrection were just further proof of his divinity.

Sappho: But how is that even possible?

Euripides: Christ is Lord. He can do anything.

Sappho: Even break the laws of physics?

Euripides: God made the rules. He can break them, too.

Sappho: Why make rules if you're just going to break them?

Euripides: To bring order to chaos. It's not like He's a little kid cheating at checkers, anda know. He doesn't do it for laughs, He does it when He needs to make a point.

Sappho: Like the point of Christ's divinity?

Euripides: Yes.

Sappho: But what if there was another explanation? What if something contaminated the water supply and people just thought they saw Christ rise from the dead?

Euripides: Now you're just being argumentative.

Sappho: No, seriously. How can anda trust the Bible?

Euripides: Because it is the Word of God.

Sappho: Written oleh men.

Euripides: Transcribed oleh men through divine inspiration.

Sappho: How come nobody gets "divinely inspired" today? Why was God so involved in humanity 2000 years ago, but not now? Did he just forget about us?

Euripides: Who's to say that God isn't involved in humanity today, just in different ways? And there are people who claim to have been divinely inspired. Like Joseph Smith.

Sappho: Yeah, but anda don't believe that.

Euripides: I don't, no, but some people do.

Sappho: Would it be out of line to suggest that those people are just being gullible?

Euripides: People believe what makes sense to them. Maybe they are gullible, maybe they're not. But it makes them happy, so why does it matter?

Sappho: Back to the Bible. How can anda believe everything it says when several passages contradict each other?

Euripides: Some people take the Bible very literally, and in some cases, I think that may be appropriate. But when anda think about it, of course there are contradictions because the story of life and creation is a complicated one. There are exceptions to rules, rules that count in some circumstances, but not others, and rules that are absolute and unbendable.

Sappho: So, killing would belong in which category?

Euripides: Murder is an absolute sin. It can never be justified.

Sappho: Never? Not even in the case of self-defense?

Euripides: If it is unavoidable, God will forgive you. But it doesn't make it right.

Sappho: So what about Leviticus, where it says people should be put to death for their sins?

Euripides: I believe that this instance is a good time to interpret the Bible metaphorically, atau hyperbolically. The phrasing "shall be be put to death" does not necessarily mean at the hands of human beings, as judgment is reserved for God. Nor does it necessarily mean a physical death.

Sappho: Sounds like splitting hairs to me. How do anda know what in the Bible to interpret literally and what to interpret metaphorically?

Euripides: anda don't. Why do anda think so many people disagree on the topic? Not just people outside Christianity, but also within it. Why do anda think there are so many different denominations? Interpreting the Bible is one of the most difficult tasks a Christian person can do. That's why we have trained theologians like our ministers and pastors to help us. So how about you, Sappho? Why do anda so strongly believe that there is no God?

Sappho: I'm a tangible person. I like things that can be proven, one way atau the other.

Euripides: So anda can prove that God does not exist?

Sappho: Probably no lebih effectively than anda proved that he does. But if there really was a God, why do bad things happen to us?

Euripides: anda have a little boy, don't you?

Sappho: Sophacles, yes!

Euripides: When Sophacles goes out to play, do anda follow him around, making sure he doesn't hurt himself?

Sappho: I never let him out of my sight, but I let him explore if he wants to. He's a kid, he needs to learn things for himself.

Euripides: So when Sophacles falls down and kulit his knee and starts to cry, what do anda do?

Sappho: I comfort him a bit, then tell him to smile and keep going.

Euripides: Do anda forbid him from playing outside?

Sappho: No. Life is full of scrapes and bruises. It's just... part of life.

Euripides: God is not a hovering parent, Sappho. God is a responsible parent. He knows He can't keep us from everything that will hurt us, but He's there for us when we need him.

Sappho: But if He created the world, why did he make bad things in the first place?

Euripides: Would anda appreciate the world if he hadn't?

Sappho: Yeah, actually, I'd enjoy living in a place without war, disease, atau natural disasters.

Euripides: But would anda appreciate it? If anda never knew anything different?

Sappho: So God made bad things... so we can appreciate the good ones?

Euripides: Correct.

Sappho: That sounds like an excuse, not a reason.

Euripides: Several religions believe in balance, not just Christianity. It's one thing that's universal. The yin and the yang, karma, reincarnation... It's all about balance.

Sappho: See, I think the world is about acak probability, microorganisms, pathogens, meteorology and human nature. Hurricanes don't exist because they want to hurt human kind, they're just the result of wind currents over temperate seas. A virus doesn't want to kill us, it wants to survive, and to do that, it infects us. These are just facts of our world, and probability dictates if we'll die in an earthquake atau get infected with Malaria. As for wars, that's just humans being... humans.

Euripides: I agree.

Sappho: But I don't think any of them have any link - positive atau negative - to some divine creator who allows them to exist for the sake of balance.

Euripides: This is not just our Earth. We share it with all of God's creation, and they share it with us. We follow God's rules, and that includes meteorology. As for wars and human nature, well, that's free will, isn't it?

Sappho: What happened to the idea of predestination instead of free will?

Euripides: A religious schism hundreds of years ago. There are a few who still believe that.

Sappho: But anda don't?

Euripides: I do not.

Sappho: So how would they explain, war?

Euripides: I suppose the same way a defense attorney would explain why a serial killer slaughtered his family. He was born to do it.

Sappho: If God allows people like that to be born... people like Hitler who, as far as determinism goes, was predestined to slaughter millions of people... then what does that say about God?

Euripides: I think that's why lebih people believe in free will.

Sappho: This was a fascinating conversation, Euripides. This is my stop!

Euripides: See anda later, Sappho!




The purpose of this dialog was to inspire thought. In a follow-up, I may delve deeper into the thinking behind Sappho's beliefs, but I thought I'd stop here for now. How would you answer some of the pertanyaan posed in this article? Like I said, the jawaban provided are only one perspective. There is no right atau wrong answer. So what do anda think?

Also - do anda see how Sappho and Euripides' conversation was made possible oleh a mutual respect? They listened to each other, and still sometimes were in disagreement, but they managed to understand each other a little better. I'd like to promote behavior like that in this spot, and all across Fanpop.