A few weeks ago I was on Sproul Plaza with the students of Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship. It was a special day, one in which tens of thousands of visitors flock from around the country to thoroughly scrutinate and tromp through our campus.
Yes, it was the one and only Cal Day.
Standing near our Chi Alpha table, it just so happened that out of all the student groups on campus we were assigned to share our table with Berkeley’s one and only atheist student organization.
A couple questions quickly rolled through my mind:
- Was this going to be a problem?
- Could faith co-exist side by side with skepticism?
- Would a Christian group be able to peacefully share their table with an atheist group for the better part of a day?
I don’t want to be cheesy here, but that’s the sort of internal discussion that went on inside my head.
I’ve had some time to reflect on the experience, and I would assert that Christians and Atheists might actually have more in common than not. (And I don’t just mean that we both have arms and legs!)
Here are four things I noticed that our two groups had in common in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the Cal Day crowds:
We Were Perceived As Persecuted Minorities
Parents of future students swung by our table throughout the day, their faces seemingly in shock that there could actually be an extant Christian student organization alive on the campus. “It so good to actually see a Christian group out here in the midst of such a secular campus,” they would exclaim, discreetly eyeing the atheist literature merely inches away from our sign-up list.
In their minds, we were the outcasts of the campus!
But in the exact same manner, the atheists sitting next to us received a similar genre of comments. People came up to their table, clearly overjoyed to see their skeptical voice represented as well: “There are so many Christian groups out here! It’s good to see someone out here representing reason and science.”
Well, which one was it? Were we the underdogs, the socially marginalized minority, or was it them?
It seems hard to tell. Clearly they were only atheist group out there, but it wasn’t like the vast majority of the campus was eagerly participating in spiritual activities either.
The truth is, both Christians and atheists were the minority on campus. Both were largely ignored by the mainstream.
Although they hail from the opposite sides of the spectrum, let’s be honest: neither group was dominating the field, no matter what our table visitors might think!
We Were More Diverse Than Our Public Label
One of the faults of the human intelligence is the tendency to categorize everyone within the same “group” as the same. Just because one person of a different worldview is one way doesn’t mean that everyone belonging to their tribe is that way.
Thus, at our table I couldn’t help but overhear some interesting conversations from the so-called “atheist” group. In all actuality, it wasn’t an atheist group at all. More accurately, it was a broad-based group open to people coming from all sorts of starting points and holding a variety of skeptical stances toward traditional religion.
I’m not even sure there was an atheist at that table. From the sounds of it, they were closer to a generous agnosticism, quite skeptical of the Christian God but not absolute in their denial of the possibility of some type of creator deity.
This is important.
Just as our particular Christian group contains people from a variety of different backgrounds – evangelical, Pentecostal, Catholic, atheist, and agnostic – so the group next to us contained a rich variety ranging from atheists, agnostic, ex-Christians, skeptics, and probably a whole lot more.
To paper over these important differences is to falsely impose misleading prejudices to the detriment of further mutual understanding. If we are ever going to communicate with the so-called “other side”, we’ll have to get past our naive assumptions about what we think a “regular atheist” or a “typical Christian” should be like.
We Were Both Friendly (Aka We Didn’t Bite)
Marked by a severe lack of the standard repertoire of facial muscles, fake smiles usually appear creepy and strange. And you can tell when someone is acting “fake nice” toward you, and it makes you want to book it out of there as fast as humanly possible.
It was not so sitting next to the atheist students.
They were nice to us. In fact, they were more friendly than many Christians I have met. They smiled, started amiable conversations with us, and didn’t challenge our belief system seconds after meeting us (how many Christians can say the same?)
We even lent them our duct tape, which for most student organizations is the equivalent of becoming total BFFs for life.
Just as we weren’t angry militant Christians, they weren’t angry militant atheists. And there was only one way to find this out: by getting to know them. We started asking them about themselves, and in the process discovered some common interests (in my case, classical literature!)
If you think atheists or Christians are the enemy, I would suggest you first get to know one. It might just change your mind.
We Were Both Trying To Do Some Actual Good In The World
I have no doubt that the skeptical students next to us were not malicious.
Were they promoting a particular worldview contrary to mine? Sure. But did they want to forcefully squash people’s faith and trample all their hopes and dreams? Probably not.
In their view (which I obviously but respectfully disagree with), religion is a pretend game which hinders rather than helps society move forward. Blind faith is naive, even harmful, and ultimately a waste of human potential.
In my view (which they hopefully respectfully disagree with), skepticism is a rejection of faith in a real God and is inept at coping with the miserable failure of human progress. Faith is powerful, even essential, and ultimately the only hope for mankind.
Although these two views are in conflict, every Christian needs to remember that atheists, agnostics, and skeptics hardly wish harm upon anyone else. And the vast majority do not practice a militant atheism of the Richard Dawkins variety.
Conversely, skeptics should remember that Christians do not wish ill on anyone else, either to subdue or manipulate them for some twisted sense of personal affirmation. The vast majority are not theocratic Christians wielding faith as a vehicle for political power.
It’s easy to exaggerate our differences, but at some point we must work to find some common decency and maintain civility between those we disagree with. And when we do, we find that our differences are not so different. After all, last I checked the other side still had arms and legs.
Can we co-exist? I say yes, and perhaps at great service to one another.
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