“O Lord, if there is a Lord, save my soul, if I have a soul .”

— Ernest Renan (1823-1892)

The debate between Christians and non-Christians just keeps on rolling along like a bad sequel to “The Neverending Story” only this one doesn’t have Falkor, the adorable flying luck dragon loved by millions of children around the globe.

Most people are sick of the debate, and I can’t say as I blame them. For the most part, you are aren’t going to see a lot of minds changing on this subject either way. But I also cannot say that I would ever advocate that people stop arguing about it.

Lots of subjects are pointless to argue about in terms of a final solution, but it isn’t the resolution that is always the most important thing, it is the arguing itself that inspires.

There will always be a constant struggle between people who believe Jesus is the one true path and that it is their duty to convert others to their way of life.

Naturally there will always be people who are going to resist this. People have their own beliefs and take offense at the notion that they should be forced to accept someone else’s.

It’s directly analogous to the eternal battle between good and evil. There will always be evil in the world, and without it, there couldn’t really be good. In order to be good, you need to resist evil and fight temptation.

And in many ways, we wouldn’t have it any different. Most of our most important myths and legends involve heroes fighting evil.

Perseus slew the Gorgon and Medusa. If evil hadn’t existed, the great Perseus would just have been another shepherd with nothing to do but eye those sheep.

Not that I am suggesting one side or the other in the religious debate is good or evil though both sides would readily claim to be the good ones thus starting another tangential argument about the relative merits of conversion.

I don’t want to get too conciliatory on this issue because I do have an obvious stance that I’ve stated any times and will undoubtedly state again.

I don’t need to be converted, and even if I did, I certainly wouldn’t need to be converted by anyone whose intelligence, integrity and tactics I don’t respect.

I don’t care how devout you claim to be. I don’t care how deep your faith is. I don’t care if you claim to have personally met Jesus the last time you were getting an oil change at Jiffy Lube — I don’t buy it.

And you know what? I don’t have to. No one does.

Personally, I am happy for anyone who has that feeling of being personally connected to the Almighty. It must make the pain and drudgery of this angst-filled world much more bearable to think that after 60 or 70 years of meaningless labor and simple faith, you will be rewarded by the Big Man.

Maybe he’ll give you an eternity’s worth of free cable and all the Pepsi products you can drink while armies of cherubim rub your bunions and sing Johnny Cash songs. Great! Live it up!

But it should be painfully obvious to us all that the same things don’t work for every one.

The reason a lot of people don’t go that way is it doesn’t work for them.

Many atheists and agnostics cannot simply believe whole-heartedly in these things and rest easy at night. If it worked for them, they would no doubt have done it by now.

The logical inconsistencies drive them up a wall and provide no comfort for their troubled souls, psysches or whatever the hell else they believe controls their higher consciousness.

But on the other hand, I find it nearly as objectionable for atheists and agnostics to get as equally worked up about the faith others demonstrate.

They will often find it so deeply offensive to have to listen to any kind of religious discussion which is not critical of religious belief that will demonstrate their own variety of religious bigotry.

It is understandable when one considers growing up in a country where it is considered reasonable to brainwash not only your own children but any child that comes within the perimeter of your sermons.

I can’t tell you how many times I have been forced to pray according to someone else’s religious beliefs.

This should be as offensive to the religious as it is to the atheists because faith cannot and should not be forced on anyone.

But there is still room for tolerance on both sides. I won’t deliberately screw with anyone who doesn’t start in with me first. My religious and spiritual beliefs are my concern only.

They are not for the Christians to twist and convert and they are not for the atheists to attack and belittle.

I keep them to myself, and I consider any attack on my version of spirituality to be at least as dire as any physical attack.

But with that said, let the fur fly. Cast those stones and hit as many innocent bystanders as you want.

Because out there somewhere are young, impressionable minds looking at this debate closely for the smallest sign of which direction they should turn.

Eventually they will decide and the circle will continue to go around and around and around …

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Greg Jerrett is a graduate student in English from Council Bluffs. He is opinion editor of the Daily. Ben and I both have plays at Fisher Oct. 14-17. Come and witness the spectacle.