A number of years ago, many people were shocked when letters found after her death showed that Mother Teresa struggled with doubt. How could this incredible person of faith have doubt? Apparently she had an inner atheist.
The truth is that we all have an inner atheist, although some are louder than others. That is why I appreciate Randal Rauser’s book Conversations With My Inner Atheist.
In this thought provoking book, Randal has a conversation with Mia (My Inner Atheist) in a Socratic style dialogue. Mia brings us some of the difficult aspects of the world and faith and challenges Randal to defend Christianity.
It can at times feel like Randal is talking to a random skeptic, but he is really talking to himself and letting us listen in. It may be that his inner atheist has different arguments than his. And your responses may be different from his as well.
The point is that none of us have absolute certainty about everything. There are those hard questions that we all wrestle with. Instead of condemning ourselves for having doubt, we need to have healthy conversations with that part of ourselves.
Reading Conversations With My Inner Atheist may help us to start the conversation with our own inner atheist.
Make sure to check out Randal Rauser’s website and watch this interview that I did with him about the book.
