An Open Letter to Marshall

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The following is a response to a letter someone named Marshall wrote and was posted to the Q&A section on William Lane Craig’s website. I suggest reading the original post before continuing.

Hello, Marshall. I spotted your letter to Dr. Craig about a recent encounter you had with an atheist who challenged your beliefs and left you feeling unprepared. Craig's post has comments disabled, and your experience reminded me of dialogues I've had with people who afterwards told me they felt like they too "belly flopped," so I'm writing this as an open letter to you and everyone who may have had a similar experience.

The description of your conversation with an atheist at your dinner party sounds similar to a method of talking with believers called Street Epistemology (SE). SE is a way of conversing with people in a way that helps them examine the methods they used to conclude that their beliefs are true. Rather than debating someone, SE focuses on the foundation of people’s beliefs, and not what they believe, which could explain why your attempts at apologetics were ineffective and the talk stuck with you. Based on what you’ve described in your letter, it’s possible that your conversation partner was engaging with you using this method.

You wrote that you felt like you were on the defensive during the talk. Once I begin dialogue with a believer to understand why they believe their God exists I try to keep the discussion focused. I discourage changing the subject, for example onto my own beliefs, though I understand one may be tempted to do so when feeling challenged. To be fair, you should still have an opportunity to examine the atheist's beliefs and claims in a separate discussion or by agreeing to "turn the table" halfway through your time together.

I fully understand that these types of conversations can shake people up, Marshall. And your response afterwards is completely normal. People have later told me that they prayed to their God, sought advice from professional believers, or met with others who believe the same thing to build up their confidence again in the belief. Addressing the possibility that a belief is not true can be a difficult thing to do, but I urge you to do more than simply insulating yourself from introspection.

Keep asking questions, Marshall, from both inside and outside of your faith community. Continue to explore the reasons why you believe in a God. Do the reasons justify a high degree of confidence? Are your reasons similar to what someone who believes in a completely different God might offer? Is your confidence in those reasons testable in some way? If you ever find yourself in a similar situation again, I hope you will gladly participate in the talk, and perhaps even use the same conversational approach in return.

It sounds like your dinner party conversation has started you on an exciting journey of inquiry, Marshall. Please contact me if you would like to continue exploring how you arrived at your beliefs, or ask me how I arrived at my beliefs. This offer extends to anyone reading this who might be exploring their beliefs and wants to engage in discussion.

P.S. A great resource for people who are questioning their religion or looking for a supportive secular community is Recovering from Religion. You can write to them or call one of their agents and share your feelings with them privately.

Anthony Magnabosco is an agnostic atheist and frequent practitioner of Street Epistemology.