প্রমাণ

 (২০১৬ তে প্রকাশিত)

Don নামের একজন নাস্তিকের সাথে ফিলোসফার Norman L. Geisler এর কথোপকথন। খুবই অসাধারণভাবে Geisler কনভারসেশন কন্টিনিউ করেছেন। যারা মুক্তমনা ভাব নিয়ে থাকে তাদের বিষয়টা Don এর মতই হওয়ার সম্ভাবনা বেশি। তবে যারা একগুয়ে তারা কখনো আলোর পথ দেখবে না।Norman L. Geisler এর মতে-

"Being willing is essential. Evidence cannot convince the unwilling."

' Knock, Knock.

“Who’s there?” (A man came to the door.)

I stuck out my hand and said, “Hi! My name is Norm Geisler, this is my partner, Ron, and we’re from the church at the end of the street.”

“I’m Don,” the man replied, his eyes quickly sizing us up.

Immediately I jumped into action with question 1: “Don, do you mind if we ask you a spiritual question?”

“No, go ahead,” Don said boldly, apparently eager to have a Bible thumper for dessert.

I laid question 2 on him: “Don, if you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ what would you say?”

Don snapped back, “I’d say to God, ‘Why shouldn’t you let me into your heaven?’”

Gulp . . . he wasn’t supposed to say that! I mean, that answer wasn’t in the book!

After a split second of panic, I offered up a quick prayer and replied, “Don, if we knocked on your door seeking to come into your house, and you said to us, ‘Why should I let you into my house?’ and we responded, ‘Why shouldn’t you let us in?’ what would you say?”

Don pointed his finger at my chest and sternly replied, “I would tell you where to go!”

I immediately shot back, “That’s exactly what God is going to say to you!”

Don looked stunned for a second but then narrowed his eyes and said, “To tell you the truth: I don’t believe in God. I’m an atheist.”

“You’re an atheist?”

“That’s right!”

“Well, are you absolutely sure there is no God?” I asked him.

He paused, and said, “Well, no, I’m not absolutely sure. I guess it’s possible there might be a God.”

“So you’re not really an atheist, then—you’re an agnostic,” I informed him, “because an atheist says, ‘I know there is no God,’ and an agnostic says ‘I don’t know whether there is a God.’”

“Yeah . . . alright; so I guess I’m an agnostic then,” he admitted.

Now this was real progress. With just one question we moved from atheism to agnosticism! But I still had to figure out what kind of agnostic Don was.

So I asked him, “Don, what kind of agnostic are you?”

He laughed as he asked, “What do you mean?” (He was probably thinking, “A minute ago, I was an atheist—I have no idea what kind of agnostic I am now!”)

“Well, Don, there are two kinds of agnostics,” I explained. “There’s the ordinary agnostic who says he doesn’t know anything for sure, and then there’s the ornery agnostic who says he can’t know anything for sure.”

Don was sure about this. He said, “I’m the ornery kind. You can’t know anything for sure.”

Recognizing the self-defeating nature of his claim, I unleashed the Road Runner tactic by asking him, “Don, if you say that you can’t know anything for sure, then how do you know that for sure?”

Looking puzzled, he said, “What do you mean?”

Explaining it another way, I said, “How do you know for sure that you can’t know anything for sure?”

I could see the lightbulb coming on but decided to add one more point: “Besides, Don, you can’t be a skeptic about everything because that would mean you’d have to doubt skepticism; but the more you doubt skepticism the more sure you become.”

He relented. “Okay, I guess I really can know something for sure. I must be an ordinary agnostic.”

Now we were really getting somewhere. With just a few questions, Don had moved from atheism through ornery agnosticism to ordinary agnosticism.

I continued, “Since you admit now that you can know, why don’t you know that God exists?”

Shrugging his shoulders, he said, “Because nobody has shown me any evidence, I guess.”

Now I launched the million-dollar question: “Would you be willing to look at some evidence?”

“Sure,” he replied.

This is the best type of person to talk to: someone who is willing to take an honest look at the evidence. Being willing is essential. Evidence cannot convince the unwilling.'

(From the book 'I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist')