Several months ago with fear and trepidation I agreed to have lunch with an atheist friend. He’d been bugging me for over a year to “debate religion.”

I told him several times, “I’m happy to have lunch with you but I really have no interest in debating religion. Frankly I don’t like debating and I’m not all that interested in religion.”

Photo Credit: Michael Thurber

Finally, I agreed on the condition we’d discuss faith not debate religion. He agreed. And I knew that agreement wouldn’t hold.

We sat on the patio of a vineyard restaurant on a warm fall afternoon. I said, “For today, I’d like to only focus on why belief in God is reasonable and how your view is based on belief as much as mine. I think that’s enough for one lunch.”

Through our conversation I kept focusing on the origins of the universe. How did all of this begin?

I said, “I’ve no problem accepting the Big Bang theory. But atheists have no explanation for where the matter and energy came from. In other words where did everything come from that went bang and who or what caused it?

He talked about theories of alternate universes and time dimensions. Then stated, “But I believe that matter and energy are eternal. They’ve always existed.”

I responded, “Wow! That sounds a lot like God to me.”

He answered, “No no, of course not.”

As we finished I said, “For me the simplest, most straight forward explanation is God. There’s just no logical or provable alternative explanation. So in reality we both begin by choosing our belief.”

He reluctantly agreed and amazingly we parted still friends.

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