Saturday, October 11, 1997

My life as an atheist would not be meaningful

By Joy Thompson

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

"Suppose it is all a lie?" this Bible-believing Christian asked herself. God, Jesus, heaven and hell. Judgment Day. Suppose the Bible is just a collection of fabricated stories? Suppose the atheists are right? It's all a great lie.

I had just read about a study that showed that belief in the afterlife among "Generation Xers" is higher than it was among their parents and grandparents. Another international study conducted by author and sociologist Andrew Greeley and Wolfgang Jagodzinski, of the University of Cologne, found that the percentage of nonbelievers in the United States was almost negligible: A mere 0.8 percent said they did not believe in God or the possibility of life after death. (In East Germany, by comparison, the number was a whopping 42 percent.)

But suppose that 0.8 percent in the United States and 42 percent in East Germany are right. God doesn't and never did exist. That would mean that these past nine years of me striving to imitate the life of a famous first-century carpenter, philosopher and miracle worker were lived in vain.

Really? Were those years wasted, lived out in vain?

Without my faith in Jesus and the Bible, I probably would live a very different lifestyle. Some people might offer that I would live a much happier lifestyle. I would be free of a lot of guilt and self-consciousness. And I would have more freedom with my time. Instead of sitting in worship services Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights and Bible studies in between, I would be free to go to movies, visit museums, concentrate on sewing and catch up on some good books. Those are all things I enjoy.

I would be free to live life to the full.

A life full of Me.

Notice I didn't mention hanging out with friends or even making new ones. You see, we're talking about MY life, freed from the fetters of commandments, instructions and other rules for living. And by nature, I am a loner. I'm selfish.

Before I became a Christian, I had learned the art of keeping people at arm's length, enlisting their company only when I needed them or shutting them out completely. Chock it up to bad experiences and being burned in the past. I could be nice when I wanted to be. But the bottom line, in my mind, was that people were too troublesome to be bothered with.

Today as a Christian, I consider those old attitudes toward family, friends and strangers unacceptable. But for me a life outside of a relationship with God would be a life absent much of the expectations and motivation for character growth and social outreach. Don't get me wrong: I would not go out of my way to treat people harshly. And I would not break any laws in my treatment of others. I have always had a conscience. But, neither would I make much of an effort to improve my treatment of others beyond the basic social expectations of courtesy and civility.

You see, that was me - left to my own, natural devices. And honestly, I wasn't happy or fulfilled living that way.

But since deciding to make Jesus Christ the lord of my life and the Bible my standard for living, I have been challenged to grow in character and compassion for others. I have been encouraged not just to look after my own needs but also of the needs of my friends and neighbors. I have been inspired to love, patience, kindness, etc. and good deeds.

I don't get out to the movies as much. My sewing machine remains idle in my closet. And I usually find myself reading for work or spiritual edification instead of for personal pleasure. But when I fall on my bed sometimes exhausted at night, I do have the satisfaction of knowing that I tried to make a positive difference in someone's life that day. My faith in practice and the people it draws me to makes my life full.

I am not saying people don't live full, meaningful lives outside of a relationship with God. I just know myself enough to know, I wouldn't. And even if God and Jesus and the Bible turned out to be all lies, I hardly think a life lived in service to others is a life lived in vain.

(Joy Thompson is an editorial writer for the Long Beach Press-Telegram. You can write to her at 604 Pine Ave., Long Beach, Calif. 90844.)

(c) 1997, Press-Telegram (Long Beach, Calif.).

Visit PT Connect, the World Wide Web site of the Press-Telegram, Calif, at http://www.ptconnect.com/

Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.