Atheist Central - Ray Comfort's Blog

[Jason Jarred]

Goodbye Atheists

Around 2004, I was with our film crew in Las Vegas. We were interviewing people for our television program outside the famed Bellagio Hotel. One of the reasons it’s famous is because it has a magnificent computerized fountain that plays music as water bursts into the sky with each crescendo.

During that time they played some music that almost brought me to tears. I never knew what that song was called, and for years I have longed to hear it again. But recently, to my great joy, I heard it. Here is the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLHq7rgHOLk

As I listened to its incredible melody, tears streamed down my face. One of the reasons for the tears was its title. It is called "Time to Say Goodbye." I have often watched people say goodbye to their loved ones at airports and my heart breaks for them, because one day there will be a last goodbye. All of us will say goodbye to everything we love and hold dear to us.

The Christian carries around a deep and heavy sorrow. He is like a man who sees villagers happily living beneath a great dam. He has seen cracks in the dam and he knows that they will soon die if they don’t move from where they are living. But the villagers refuse to believe his warning, and even mock his every word. His sorrow is that their deaths will be totally needless.

I know that when I say goodbye to my loved ones for the last time, I will see them again at the resurrection of the just and the unjust. If you want that incredible consolation, stop doubting, and take a long and honest look at the Ten Commandments. They are going to justly damn you forever. Then take a long look at the Savior on the cross. That’s what can save you completely. Then move out of the sinful village of this world, through repentance and faith in Jesus. When your sins are forgiven, instead of having God against you, "God will be with you":

Goodbye Origin: 1565–75; contr. of "God be with ye."

Over the past years I have seriously questioned my beliefs, do I believe in an afterlife, do I believe in a God, why do I believe the things I believe, why do I disbelieve those I don't? It has been a short journey so far, but I already feel that I have learnt so much, and had to come to accept many difficult truths.
Life becomes more precious, every day, every moment, when we accept the inevitability of death, that in the end everybody's time comes. To believe in a God is *so* tempting, how much I would love to be able to go back to that - but I can't. I know now that it's a delusion, as much as I would love to believe there is a God - I know I must accept what the facts are.

When I see god believers, I feel sorry for them. They hang around in the airport, annoyed, restless, fidgeting. They're anxious to get on the plane, that one way flight that is destined to plummet them into the ocean. They fool themselves however "My plane is going to Hawaii", "Mine is going to Fiji". The plane is unmarked, the pilots annonymous. Finally the Christians flight arrives, and off they go, never to be seen again. They wave happily to their friends standing at the airport window (do the departees feel a bit anxious? What if the flight they're catching isn't *really* going where they have been told it's going?). The plane departs, her passengers never to be seen again.

Meanwhile, the atheists at the airport spend their time quite differently. At the very least they admit they have no idea where the plane is going, but they also admit that they will also have to board the same plane one day. With this acceptance of their inability to control this aspect of their future, they spend their time *considerably* differently. All the time spent in that airport takes on significant meaning. Perhaps they will appreciate their time more, perhaps they will spend more time getting to know other passengers before the departure time. Perhaps they will sit and enjoy their last episode of Oprah while enjoying a ham sandwitch.
The Atheist pities the Theist, because he did not value the only thing he knew to be true - that there is an airport, and perhaps most likely, that is all.
The atheist boards the plane, sad in a way that the god believer isnt, but also more accepting in a way that the god believer isn't. They're happy that they spent their time well knowing that this moment would come. They wave sadly to their friends, and family - every moment spent with them, appreciating every moment, in the knoweldge that one day they would forever be separated, every moment well spent.

Life *is* that airport Ray.
We don't know where that plane goes, but we do know it never comes back. That plane is unmarked by the colour of race, it doesn't discriminate against sex, religion, belief, lifestyle, or hair colour.

How will *you* spend your time in the airport?