He did not mean it in a patronising or demeaning way, to put you down or in your place. He was just making a point. A bit like today people who start by saying, "The thing is ... ... ..."
So I'll borrow his phrase and start with:
Now look here ... There isn't one person in the civilised free world that has not heard of God or Jesus. Everyone has heard of Jesus. Every generation since the Old Testament has had an opportunity to hear about God and Jesus.
But many do not believe.
I was thinking about that the other day. These people are not non-believers because of ignorance. Because somehow they've never heard of God. They have made the conscious decision not to believe.
At some point in their lives they heard about God, and His Son, Jesus, and either dismissed the whole "thing" as irrelevant to their lives, or consciously and deliberately decided not to believe. To them, God and Christianity are either nonsense or a human invention of some sort, a fairy tale without substance.
When a comedian on TV makes fun of Christianity, sometimes bordering on the blasphemous, he not only has decided that God does not exist, but is confident enough to ridicule the very notion and mocks those people who believe and practice their Faith. He has consciously decided to openly joke about belief in God and Jesus. He cannot in any way have the slightest doubt, or possibility of one chance in a million millions, that he might be wrong. To his mind, he is as sure as sure can be, that God does not exist. And, whether deliberately or not, his public utterances are influencing vulnerable young minds who are yet struggling about their beliefs.
He won't be able to say, "Oops ... I'm sorry ... I didn't mean it!" when he meets his Maker.
He reminds me of the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes in the Bible. They were learned men. They studied the scriptures and the writings of the Prophets of the Old Testament. They knew, and probably believed, about God. They knew the Birth of Jesus was prophesied as the Son of God. Yet, they deliberately, obstinately, and in defiance stood against Christ time and again and accused Him of getting His powers from the devil. (Matthew 12:22 onwards).
So now look here ... most non-believers, in my view, do so as a conscious decision. No one is an atheist by accident any more than no one is a Christian by accident.
So what should we, Real Christians, (if we are such and not by name only), do about this?
Pray ... pray ... and pray again. Many a person changed his mind,
(Check out Saint Augustine on the Internet. He changed his mind and eventually turned to God and became a leading figure in the Church).
