Philosophy

I took one philosophy class in college, and I pretty much hated it. I think the reason that I hated it was because it was my first semester of college and I was this really close minded Christian kid who didn't like to hear people give their world opinions that didn't match up to mine. I thought anyone who believed in the big bang was stupid and couldn't teach me anything. That was one of the reasons I went to a Christian college, to try and avoid a lot of that stuff, so I was pretty surprised when my philosophy teacher would preach how we all came from monkeys every day. In addition to all that, the class was super boring and we were only graded on papers that were graded way too harshly, so it all added up to me just hating the class and hating philosophy in general.

Fast forward four years and I am a lot different person. My beliefs haven't changed, but my perspective on the world's beliefs has. I don't think less of a person because they believe something different than me. Honestly, I'm probably more apathetic than I should be about other people's beliefs. What they believe doesn't change what I believe, so why make a big deal about it? A lot of people, especially Christians, are way too concerned about conflicting beliefs. They'll get offended and straight up insulted by the passing glance of someone who doesn't believe in God or the Bible or what have you. The worst times are when one extra confident Christian feels high and mighty enough to try to change the beliefs of another person by force. I saw this a couple times in college.

I do think that most Christians that do this kind of stuff have good intentions in mind, the problem is that they lack any kind of tact or reasonable understanding of how the human brain works. If there was a way to prove that God existed and that everything the Bible says is true, we wouldn't be talking about this right now. As long as humans exist there will be argument about the supernatural. While most people prefer to avoid it entirely, I don't think that there's anything wrong with talking about it with someone who doesn't agree with your views. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to hear an opinion that butts heads with your own. However, that head butting can easily result in one or both parties getting really offended and hurt, which then often leads to things being said out of anger and everything just becomes a chaotic mess.

There was one time my sophomore year where someone who didn't believe in God (at least as the Bible describes Him) got into a pretty intense discussion with a pastor's kid who had been homeschooled through high school and had just recently been exposed to differing beliefs. While I don't remember it perfectly, I do remember the end result being that these two were not very good friends after that night. They were both being mature about their discussion, at least in the start of it. The atheist (or agnostic, whatever he was) was asking honest, reasonable questions about the Christian beliefs, and the Christian just wasn't answering him how he wanted to be answered, he was basically dodging the tough questions. I remember the one question was something like "so you think that since I don't believe in God, I will go to hell when I die". Christian kid, for whatever reason, was afraid to answer honestly in the affirmative. By this time I had shown up and was catching up on what was going on, so being the overconfident person I am, I stepped in to try to save myself, being a strong believer in Christianity and not wanting to made look foolish by someone else with the same beliefs as me. I simply said "yes, that is what we believe". I didn't know how the kid was going to take it, but that's what he wanted to know, so I told him. From then on I was pretty much entrenched in the conversation and I tried to do as much talking as I could to avoid my tactless teammate making me look bad. I wish I could remember more, but basically it all ended up how you'd think it would - nobody's beliefs ever changed.

While I certainly didn't have all the answers that night, I was still happy with the way I handled everything. The kid I was arguing against and I had mutual friends, and a few months later one of those friends told me how much respect I had earned by being truthful, confident, and not emitting any signs that I thought less of the person because we disagreed on the subject. The kid didn't have the same good things to say about the person he was arguing with first.

Am I tooting my own horn, yes. But I'm trying to make a point.

Changing the opinions of another person is one of the hardest things to do in life. Especially when the opinions are about things that no one can prove right or wrong. It's almost a waste of time to even try. It's happened before, and I'm not saying that Christians shouldn't try to do as the Bible says and be fishers of men, I just think most of the time they do it wrong. Nobody likes being told they're wrong. Starting with that approach is the same as challenging someone in the same shape as you to a foot race and letting them take a 30 second head start. If someone doesn't respect you, they'll never listen to you, even if you are right. Tact is key in all facets of life, and a lot of people never understand that.