Had a face-to-face conversation with a real live person who believes religion is a huge problem. I told this person (face-to-face) that everybody holds some philosophical ideas which constitute a ‘religion.’ I told him (face-to-face) that he holds religious views, even if he chooses to call them something else.

He was a bit annoyed and told me (face-to-face) that I was merely stating ‘my opinion’ and what’s true for me isn’t necessarily true for him. I said (face-to-face) that his religion is called ‘relativism’ and he was irritated by that too. He said (face-to-face) that he wasn’t trying to force his beliefs on me so I shouldn’t try to force mine on him. That’s when I reminded him (and we were talking face-to-face) that he was the one who started this by making critical comments about ‘religion.’

“That was just my opinion,” he said. “You can take it or leave it.”

I asked (and remember, this is face-to-face) why he bothered voicing his opinion when he didn’t care what I thought of it. That didn’t make him any less frustrated.

“Look, you’re convinced that your views are right and I respect that,” he said. “I’m just saying that there’s no way to be certain about what’s true.”

So I asked him, to his face, if he was 100% certain that we can’t be 100% certain.

Rather than answer, he retreated to his earlier position that he wasn’t trying to convince me that he was right and I was wrong. “I’m not forcing you to adopt my beliefs.”

So I said, “That’s because you aren’t certain about anything you say. If you believed you had the truth, you would be as passionate as I am.”

That last comment went right over his head. We ended the face-to-face conversation without breaking fellowship. We’ll be able to talk again some other day. I’m mentioning it for you folks who suspect that I’m incapable of dialoguing with people outside of social media.

For what it’s worth, I wasn’t trying to persuade that guy to believe as I do. I was simply trying to help him see the uselessness of relativism. It’s a religion that despises religion and is oblivious to that hypocrisy. I’m grateful to God for granting me the wisdom to see it for what it is.

(Psalm 94:10) Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches man lack knowledge? The Lord knows the thoughts of man; he knows that they are futile.