When it comes to evangelism, some of the hardest people to work with are those who are apathetic toward spiritual things. They simply don’t care whether God exists. This is often a conversation stopper. If you want to press on a bit more, however, there are some tactics for doing so. I’ve offered some thoughts on this in the past (here and here), but as I was reflecting on this the other day again, I came up with another tactic you might find helpful.

When Mr. Apathetic says he doesn’t care if God exists or not, ask him what he does care about. Often, what he cares about will be tied to the existence of God in some way. Tactically speaking, our job is to help him see the relationship between (1) what he cares about and (2) God’s existence in hopes that this will raise his interest in the latter.

For example, he might say he only cares about being a good person. Point out that real moral goodness is only possible if God exists. If there is no God, then moral goodness if a fiction. And if he’s truly interested in being good, and God is the source of all goodness, the more he knows about God the more he will know about the good.

Or, perhaps he will say he cares about finding the meaning of life, or fulfilling his purpose in life. Gently point out to him that if there is no God, then there is no objective meaning and purpose to life to be discovered. At best, we can invent our own meaning or fulfill our own plan. Objective meaning and purpose require a transcendent creator who made us for a purpose.