Proof Through Need
The below item is part of my "Conversations" series.
An atheist and a Christian in an Amusement park
Jay: I need a break from roller coasters. Let’s get one of those ice cream things.
Kendall: You just had lunch an hour ago and you’re hungry already?
Jay: No, but I definitely need an ice cream.
Kendall: You want an ice cream.
Jay: I am totally craving ice cream right now. It’s my body’s way of telling me something’s missing that it needs me to get — probably calcium or sprinkles or something.
Kendall: What makes you think that feeling a need for something means it’s something your body needs?
Jay: It’s a scientific fact.
Kendall: For thousands of years people have been feeling a need for the divine — have you ever thought about that?
Jay: I don’t even know what you mean.
Kendall: There are so many religions in the world because throughout history people have sought the reason for their existence and the explanation for the world around them. They had a need to know the answers to these questions.
Jay: I suppose that’s true.
Kendall: Then why don’t you believe in God?
Jay: What does that have to do with it? People wanting answers to questions doesn’t mean God exists.
Kendall: It’s the same as your craving for ice cream. People don’t feel a need for something that doesn’t exist.
Jay: I feel the need to be rich.
Kendall: It’s not impossible for you to become rich.
Jay: I feel a longing for my grandma, even though she’s been dead a year.
Kendall: Your grandma was a real person and, whether you believe it or not, she still exists in Heaven.
Jay: I really want to be able to fly around the world under my own power, defeating criminals with my impossible strength and invulnerability.
Kendall: Feeling a need for something impossible is a sign of insanity. And you can’t say that religious people are insane since the majority of people have that need, and by definition the majority is not insane — they’re average.
Jay: I still don’t buy it. If a kid saw a magician produce fire from his fingertips and developed an obsessive need to control fire, that doesn’t prove that pyrokinesis is a possibility.
Kendall: But the kid could learn to do what the magician did. That’s possible.
Jay: Then if somebody misunderstands the situation, they could have a desire for something they think exists but really doesn’t.
Kendall: Yes.
Jay: That’s your answer right there, then. People can have a desire for God because they are misunderstanding the world. They think that a supernatural explanation is necessary so that’s what they look for, but it really isn’t.
Kendall: But God is the explanation.
Jay: Then you’re assuming what you’re trying to prove.
Kendall: That’s true, darn it. Ice cream’s on me.
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