I've had a few readings this week with professed atheists. In my experience, atheists are very bright people who have a difficult time rationalizing the unrationable. They want definable proof, but that's not the way God works. Imagine if Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed came dancing down to Earth holding hands. What would happen? If you could really see Jesus, touch his wounds, talk philosophy with Buddha and discuss the crisis in the Middle East with Mohammed, what would happen? You'd believe. But why? God doesn't want us to believe this way -- out of knowledge, knowing and sometimes even fear. God wants us to believe out of experience, faith and an inner desire to surrender to the mystery of all that is.
Some atheists have had a trauma or two in their life to deal with and, when their prayers went unanswered, decided the whole thing was silly and gave up. I think it's like this:
Pretend there's a party you really want to get invited to. You look for your invitation every day. You plan in your head what you're going to wear. You're consumed with excitement about this party. And then, you're not invited.
What do you do? You put down the party. "It was a stupid party. I didn't want to go anyway. Those people are so shallow anyway." And on and on.
I think this is what happens to some atheists. Life is the party and often we can feel uninvited.
All prayers are answered. All prayers.
Sometimes the answer is no.
If you get a bunch of no's in a row, is it any wonder some people turn away from their faith?
In my experience, atheists are often very nice people who want to believe. They just want proof. And that is one thing they'll never get. Faith isn't about proof; it's about belief.
I always say extra prayers for atheists, especially when they cross. In the beginning, after we die, we see what we think we'll see. So if you're a traditional believer and you think you'll see pearly gates, St. Peter and streets lined with gold, then that's what you'll see. If you think you'll see a meadow with flowers and your angels, then that's what you'll see. And once you get acclimated to what's happened to you, then your guides take you to the real other side.
But, if you think that when you die, you'll see nothing, then that's what you'll see. For a long time.
That's why I think it's important for us to pray for atheists that they will see the light -- now and always.
Don't mean to sound like an atheist (I'm not) but how can you or anyone else who has never gone to the other side and come back really know what it is that we will see when we die?
ReplyDeleteBecause I have faith and I hear and see what they show me on the other side. I trust what they show me and then I trust even more when it's validated from my clients who knew them. I remember one reading where the client's mother came through and kept calling the client her middle child. The client insisted he was the oldest. But the mother kept insisting he was the middle child. Then she showed me the client almost driving off the road when he fell asleep at the wheel. Miraculously, he was fine and got back on the road. She said she'd helped him wake up. The client confirmed that this had occurred two weeks prior to our reading. Later, he emailed to tell me that when he told his father about the reading, his dad told him that their first born had been a stillborn and my client really was the middle child. This, to me, is validation that his mother made it to the other side and proof that I'm not just reading minds. How can I read something that's not in his mind? That he never knew?
ReplyDeleteSo I trust what they tell me and show me about the other side. Hope that answers your question.