Dear Mr. Christian, Please Treat Atheists With Respect

Joshua Feuerstein

Most Christians mean well when they defend their faith. But too often, many make some fundamental errors when dialoguing with atheists. For several months now a well meaning Christian by the name of Joshua Feurenstein has been filling up my news feed. His videos go by titles like:

• “Dear Mr. Atheist allow me to destroy evolution in 3 minutes”
  
• “$100,000 ATHEIST CHALLENGE: Can YOU prove him wrong”
  
• "When God gave the devil . . . THE FINGER! BOOM" (seriously that's a real title)

Josh’s videos (particularly the first one on the above list) have been shared countless times by well meaning Christians. It’s those first two videos that are particularly troublesome to me. Many see these videos and assume that Josh has done exactly what he set out to do. He has swiftly and unequivocally defeated the atheists.

When I saw one of Josh’s videos the first time I remember being a little reticent to even click on the link. I reluctantly watched the video and immediately regretted that I had. It was as poorly argued as it was presented. The video was literally just Josh in the back seat of his car ranting. The end result of the video seems to be that there are more people mocking Christianity than people being convinced by Josh’s arguments. Seriously, just Google his name and you will see endless comments and blogs from people on both sides of the fence telling Josh to please stop with his ridiculous rants.

The reason I felt compelled to write something about Josh Feurenstein was that I feared that my fellow Christians who ate up what Josh said will likely regurgitate the same poor arguments he used. Unfortunately, Feuerstein is only symptomatic of the greater problem in the church. Our greatest problem is that we lack sound doctrine in our churches. Because of our lack of true understanding we eat up these nonsensical, unresearched, fallacious rants. I believe Josh is just a representation of where the church is at today. We lack a sound knowledge of our own beliefs yet still have the audacity to mock those who disagree with us (and by mock I really mean MOCK). 

Here’s a shocker: Joshua Feurenstein doesn’t know atheists. Here’s a bigger shocker: Josh Feurenstein did not behave like Jesus in that video. Throughout the video Josh treats atheists as if they are ignorant piles of scum. Listen Josh. Just because “Mr. Atheist” does not agree with you does not make him an idiot. Josh arrogantly declares that he can convince evolutionists that they are wrong. What a childish and immature claim. Do you honestly believe that Christ would have spoken that way to those who disagreed with Him? One of the greatest examples Christ gave us during his time on earth was His incredible display of meekness. Nowhere in that video did I see anything close to a meek spirit being displayed by Josh.

I remember being a counselor at a Christian camp when the speaker spoke on evolutionism vs. creationism. During his message he started to mock those who believe in evolutionism. Sitting next to me was a teenage boy who had grown up in the public school system. Since elementary school he had been taught evolution. As the preacher went on and on about how ridiculous evolution was to believe in I watched as the teenagers next to me slouched lower and lower in his chair. The preacher had literally insulted the boy not so much because of the content of the message but because of how he delivered it.

Dear Christian, there are times when your position cannot be heard because of your disposition.  Please don’t misunderstand my point. I am not saying that you should stop defending your faith until you are smart enough to do so. My point is that our God is both logical and gracious. To display the incredible grace of God by being anything less than gracious is completely illogical. Please think and stop sharing Josh’s stuff. It is wrong for us to behave in such a flippant and off the cuff style. Maybe Josh should spend some time studying James 3:1 and Ephesians 4:25 before he decides to post another video. 

Posted by Caleb

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