A discussion with an atheist

Once I settled into my seat aboard an airbus A 340 from Dallas/Fort Worth to Frankfurt, Germany, I turned to greet the woman sitting next to me. She looked at me with light blue eyes and her fair complexion lightened through a soft shy smile. A smile that led me to start a long conversation; one that lasted through the ten hours flight.

Anna, a Russian who spoke clear and perfect English as well as three more languages, has been living for a few years in Texas with her German husband and two sons. When she mentioned how her parents let her read a children's Bible in secret while she lived in Russia, I naively asked her how she felt now that she could freely practice Christianity.

"I'm an atheist." She said.

"An atheist as in you don't believe in God?"

"Right, I believe there is no God." She answered with a compassionate smile.

Many thoughts raced through my head as I tried to tresspass her blue eyes and absorb what she just said. I had a choice to wrap up the conversation right then and there and focus on the novel I had in my hands. But I felt I wanted to learn more.

"Forgive me if I am intruding on you."

"Not at all." She said.

"Well if you believe there is no God, then who do you think created me and you and the whole universe?"

"Nature grew by itself and we, humans, have evolved with nature to this current form."

"So you believe humans were apes?"

"That is exactly what I believe." She answered with the same compassionate smile.

"O.K. then, but who sustains the univere and our bodies? Like, who makes sure your heart will keep beating and your lungs will keep functioning, you know..."

"It's still nature with its complex process." She then added: "I know it is hard for you to understand and believe."

"You bet! I have a stubborn doctrine encraved on my soul and it surely tells me God is my creator."

"Same with me except my doctrine denies the existence of God."

"So what happens to humans when they die?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing? You mean just like an infinite sleep."

"Sort of."

Anna responded to many more questions I had, and whenever she asked me any questions, they were more about the culture and traditions of Muslims, not about the beliefs. Her answers did not seem logical to me, they certainly did not make common sense as they seemed to have come from emptiness. I asked her if she belonged to any atheist community and she said she did not.

"So you don't think you need the support of a community who shares your beliefs?"

"Not necessarily."

"But don't you need faith and spirituality to lift your spirits up, boost your energy, give you hope, and ease your bad times?"

"I don't think I need spirituality as I get my energy most of the time from my own strength."

"How is that?"

"Well if I have a problem, I keep telling myself that no matter what I do that problem is going to remain. So I hold on to my will power and remain patient until the hardship goes away."

I thought that the lady had some nerves of steel. I liked her eloquence and discipline, I admired her modesty especially when she told me she opposed using maids to clean her house in order to avoid social exploitation, and I wondered how such an educated woman with a rich cultural experience could simply not believe in God.

It was ironical that there I was seated on a plane over thirty thousands of feet away from earth, much closer to Heavens, much in need to God's mercy, and this woman seated next to me did not acknowledge His blessings. What surprised me was that our conversation continued on and on with mutual pleasure.

At the end of the trip, I told her that I needed God in my life. I surely do. When I finally landed in Germany, I thanked God for having bestowed faith upon me. Anna seemed to be a happy woman who had a code of ethics that she lived by. So did I. But when it came to the most important thing in my life, we were opposites. Yet, we tolerated each other and even respected each other. I said goodbye to Anna and wished her well and remembered the Quranic verse: "You have your belief, I have my religion." (Chapter 109, verse 6.)