Recently I read these words in John 12:37 where we are told, “Even after Jesus had performed all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in Him.” I have always been intrigued by how people arrive at their beliefs, particularly their beliefs about God and spiritual reality.

I remember speaking with a physician who claimed he did not believe in God. I asked him how he had come to be an atheist. How did he come to believe there is no God? As I remember, he claimed to have read certain books on the subject. I pressed him by asking what he had actually read. After a few minutes it became apparent he had read no books on the existence or non-existence of God. This man was guilty of what Dallas Willard calls “irresponsible disbelief.” I wonder how many of us are guilty of this as well.

This reminds me of a true story told by Dr. Anthony Campolo. Dr. Campolo, who passed away last year, taught sociology at Eastern College. This story comes from an experience that took place while speaking as a guest lecturer at an Ivy League University.

The students that crowded into the lecture hall were intensely interested in the Bible and the gospel message. It was as though they wanted to believe and were hoping to hear some good reasons that would enable them to do so.

At the end of the lecture there was a question time, and the very first question was asked by a young man who stood and inquired, “How can you possibly believe that the Bible is true? You seem like an intelligent person, and you seem to be well-credentialed. How could anybody with your academic background possibly accept those Bible stories as though they were true?”

“Because I decided to!” I answered. “Many years ago, I considered the various options of truth that were available in the intellectual marketplace, and I made a decision to believe the Bible. Having made that decision, I spent the ensuing years constructing arguments and gathering information that would buttress my beliefs. But to be honest, I believed first. All my thinking and all my philosophizing and theologizing since then has been designed to support my a priori faith commitment.”

The young man was taken aback by my forthrightness. He smiled and said, “I thought so.”

“Before you sit down,” I said to him, “I have a question to ask of you. Why don’t you believe the Bible? Isn’t it because you decided not to? Please, don’t tell me you’ve read it from cover to cover, tested out what it has to say, and gained empirical evidence to contradict it. Please don’t tell me it’s full of contradictions, because I don’t think you can name five. I think that what you did was to decide awhile back that the Bible was not true, and having made that decision, you’ve been constructing arguments and gathering information to support you’re a priori commitment to nonbelief. Let’s be honest. I have as much basis for believing the Bible as you have for not believing.”

Then I pulled out Blaise Pascal’s argument called The Great Wager. I said to him, “If my faith commitment to what I believe to be true is erroneous, and there is no God and the Bible is false, I will not ever know it. When I die, all consciousness will cease to exist. On the other hand, if your atheism proves false, you will know it. Right away.

Richard E Simmons III is the founder and Executive Director of The Center for Executive Leadership and a best-selling author.