How to deal with aggressive atheists

1.       How should we deal with aggressive atheists who derisively dismiss all our arguments?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Question? Sometimes we have some colleagues or acquaintances who are aggressively atheistic and they not only reject all the arguments that we give for the existence of God in their aggressiveness but they also are offensive and derisive and use disrespectful names and bad words while minimizing, criticizing and deriding devotees in the devotional philosophy.
How should we respond to such people? The Upadesa Amrit, the nectar of instruction is the primary guide for devotees in how to interact with different situations in a way that will lead to spiritual advancement. And the Upadesa Amrit based on the 11th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam tells us that as seekers who are in the intermediate stage of spiritual advancement who are madhyamadhikaris or who are trying to be madhyamadhikaris we need to distinguish between different kinds of people. ईश्वरे तदिवे अधिनेश्यो बालिशेष्यो दुश्यत्सुच प्रेम मैत्री कृपो पेक्षा यह करोती समाध्यमह The Ishwara there is we make the Lord as the supreme object of our love.
तदिवे अधिनेश्यो, the devotees, we befriend them. मैत्री, बालिशेष्यो, the innocent those who do not know much we share the mercy of the Acharyas by giving them the wisdom treasure that we have received. And दुश्यत्सु, the envious पुपेक्षा we neglect them.
So, neglecting the envious is a important principle for a seeker. This neglect is based not on our envying them, but our recognizing that their enviousness is so deep-rooted that we may not have the spiritual advancement and the depth of compassion to change it. And the more we glorify Krishna, the more their enviousness will increase.
So, it is best to stay away from them and pray for them from a distance. We would like to serve all living beings by sharing Krishna consciousness with them. But, these people, because of their past conditionings and present choices, are in a position where the only way that we can serve them right now is through our prayers offered from a distance.
Now, as far as their arguments are concerned, we have to know that there are different levels of arguments that need to be used for different kinds of people. So, if we are in a community of people who primarily have faith, but may have some influence of atheistic arguments, in the sense that they have some vague awareness of it. So, if we have to say refute Darwin’s theory of evolution, then, if we tell our children that men have come from monkeys, then, what is going to stop them from behaving like monkeys? And, probably, all these people will agree, yes, yes, this is true.
We are the children of God. We are not the descendants of monkeys. And, people will clap and appreciate, and that is good enough for them.
Now, somebody who is more scientifically oriented may feel, this is a puerile argument. This is a childish argument. For them, we may need to have a little more sophisticated argument, where we talk about how there are no transitional links, and there are no well-defined mechanisms at all, in fact, to explain how evolution occurs.
And, these people have some grounding in science, and although they think of themselves as scientific, they really don’t know much about the scientific theories, nor about the methods by which science actually works in the field. So, whatever general knowledge they have from their education and from their general reading about science, scientific theories, we refute that using the scientific arguments that have been proposed by those scientists who are against evolution, based on its scientific inadequacy. So, on this website, we are focusing on this level of audience, not scientists per se, but scientifically inclined, scientifically educated, scientifically aware people.
And, that is the kind of people we will encounter the most in the modern educated world, or even in the post-modern educated world. But beyond that, there are people who are hardline atheists. And, for them also, there can be arguments.
There are, within ISKCON, devotee scientists who have written books which go into significant detail, exposing the inadequacies and the flaws in the theories and purported evidences for, say, the theory of evolution. So, Forbidden Archaeology is a classic book which attacks evolution on the most indisputable fighting ground, that is the ground of empirical evidence, by showing how there are so many fossils which contradict the theory of evolution, and there are so many areas where supporting fossils are lacking. So, if our individual faith is disturbed by some of the atheist arguments, and we feel that we need a deeper study, then we can refer to devotee scientists’ book.
So, Forbidden Archaeology and subsequently Human Devolution are two good books. Similarly, there is a good book on the Krishna Consciousness and its Perspective Intelligent Design by Litanatha Prabhu. So, these are the kind of books which we can read to enhance our faith and to equip ourselves for defense against the arguments of hardline atheists.
But we do need to remember that people who are totally convinced about something, may not be able to change their ideas in this lifetime. We can serve them by our prayers, but probably by our outreach we will only increase their offenses. This applies not only to hardline atheists, but maybe to hardline Christians also.
Some Christians who are so totally convinced that Jesus is the only way, and anybody who is not following Jesus is going to go to hell. Even if we argue based on logic or even on the basis of Biblical scripture, they are not going to listen to us. So, we can leave them to their means and serve them by our prayers.
Thank you.