On Nov 30, 4:11 pm, "\"We are Muslims, and we are extremely proud of
it.\"" <born_to_be_mus...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Talking to Atheists

The key in talking to Atheists is to bring them back always to the
fundamental questions. If they ask questions to raise objections to
the details of Islam you can spend all day arguing and end up nowhere.
What you need to do is to remind them of the hopeless position of an
Atheist.

The Atheist position is indeed hopeless. The believer has hope. If
there is a God and there is life after death then the believer wins.
If there is no God or no life after death the believer loses nothing.
On the other hand, the Atheist loses badly if he wakes up to discover
himself in the afterlife. In sum, if there is no afterlife both the
believer and the Atheist are safe. But if there is an afterlife then
the Atheist loses. The only one who can possibly lose is the Atheist.

Now the Atheist can argue that if there is no afterlife then the
believer has wasted his life in false hope. We can reply that Islam
gives our lives order, meaning, balance, purpose, and direction. We
have hope founded on clear facts and dependable revelation from
Allah.

On the other hand, it is the Atheist who is wasting his life. His life
has no purpose but temporary enjoyment. But such enjoyment is always
tempered by nagging doubts about whether or not life is heading in the
right direction. It is the believer who lives in quiet confidence that
God's promise is true.

The key, then, is to remind the Atheist that he is the only one who
stands to lose. Sure he may have questions, doubts, and objections to
some of the details of Islam. But rather than waste a lot of time
trying to answer for the details, bring the discussion back to the
fundamentals. Is there a God? Is there an afterlife? Is the Atheist
secure?

Even if the Atheist has doubts it is still reasonable for him to
embrace Islam. To illustrate this fact, consider this situation. You
are told that there is a speed-trap set by police to catch speeders on
a certain road. Even if you doubt the information you must still act
as though you believe it. You will slow down just to be on the safe
side.

You feel no need to start arguing that the police would never do a
thing like that, or that you drove there before and never got caught
speeding. In a similar sense the Atheist can simply submit in Islam
although he still has doubts. Rather than argue about what he doubts
he should first get on the safe side and then investigate further.

The reasonable thing, then, is for the Atheist to accept Islam right
away. If he will not take this reasonable position, then why should
you argue with an unreasonable person? Just remind him that even if
Islam is wrong you are still safe. But if Islam is right he is in deep
trouble. To use an expression, the Atheist may well be up the creek
without a paddle.

Useful link

http://www.irf.net/irf/comparativereligion/index.htm

why does the atheist lose if he is wrong about the existence of the
afterlife?