A MESSAGE TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS ENTERING DEBATE OR COLLEGE
by
A.S.A. Jones

If you are a Christian who is entering college or religious debate for the first time, you may be shocked to discover that some will view you as a laughingstock because of your beliefs. There is nothing new to mockery; the victims and the reason for the victimization change, but the cause remains the same. People naturally like to look down upon other people because, in making others look smaller, they create the illusion that they themselves are bigger. Academic bullying of Christians is becoming a socially acceptable form of misconduct and therefore, you should welcome it, because, like it or not, you are going to get it!

If one of your college professors makes a contemptuous comment concerning your faith in God, keep in mind a few things. Your respect for your professors or your opponents in debate should be earned, not automatically given. Professors are well aware of the influence they can have on young and impressionable minds and one who would exploit that position in order to attack a student's faith is of dubious character. When I was in college, I openly ridiculed any student brave enough to defend their Christian point of view until I ran into one who was an expert in debate and who subsequently assisted me in making a fool out of myself. Don't be intimidated and don't be discouraged. It can take years of study to acquire the knowledge to successfully defend any belief system, or lack thereof, including atheism. Secondly, when an authority tells you to question authority, don't feel silly questioning that authority's reasons for having you question authority! Usually, when a person tells you to question authority, they are telling you to only question the established authority. You will find that they don't like having their own views, or perceived authority, questioned or challenged. Finally, remember that there is nothing new under the sun. Christianity and God's existence have been debated since the gospel was first preached. The gospel writers were the first apologists, in fact! The arguments that you hear may be new to you and you may not yet know how to answer them, but most have been sufficiently answered time and time again by other Christians for two millennia.

You may also find it surprising to see that your textbooks in science and philosophy classes contain not so subtle anti-Christian remarks or viewpoints. Once again, everyone has a bias, including the authors of those texts. When Christian authors include their bias in their works, the secular world becomes indignant, but when the secular world makes anti-Christian remarks, it is considered whining if Christians protest. It's easy to see that secularists can have their own arrogance and their own hypocrisy.

There are those who would have you think that the educated and intelligent can only hold to an atheistic philosophy. While being intelligent and educated can make one so self-important and loud in one's own thoughts that he can no longer hear the voice of God, these things need not be made synonymous with atheism. There are many intelligent people with university degrees who maintain a faith in Jesus Christ. I belong to the American Scientific Affiliation, which is a group of scientists who are evangelical Christians. I encourage you to examine the credentials and beliefs of the members of ASA. This should indicate to you that there are qualified scientists with opinions on BOTH sides of the God issue.

If you feel that you are incapable of defending your faith, don't engage in debate. It's as simple as that! Three hundred pound men don't play tennis, they play football. Conversely, if you have a knack for adventures in wordplay and logic, apologetics can become an exciting hobby!

The anti-Christian's primary arsenal is designed to attack your faith through your ego. If Christianity has made your ego even larger than the average ego - that is to say, if you somehow got the impression that believing in The Life, The Truth and The Way has made you a superior to anyone who believes differently - your ego could be mortally wounded in the first assault. On the other hand, if you have successfully learned the Christian lessons of humility and silent perseverance in the face of condescension and outright disrespect, your ego is probably too small of a target for the opposition to hit.

In its desperation, the mortally wounded Ego will do anything it can to re-inflate itself, once it falls prey to the intellectual patronization of its peers. Thus, it is not uncommon for the most overbearing, self-righteous, egotistical, bible-thumping Christian to become an overbearing, self-righteous, egotistical, Bertrand Russell quoting atheist. This phenomenon is more readily apparent in the overweight kid in high school who is constantly teased about being fat, drops 80 pounds, and then proceeds to harshly tease other overweight kids because they are fat. We all secretly want to be the bully, not the bullied, and if we can't overcome that desire, we run the risk of fulfilling it. Don't let this happen to you! Be a humble servant, not a pompous blowhard. Of course, this is a general rule and there are exceptions (see "The Games Skeptics Play").

Intelligence, logic, and academic accomplishment used to be the criteria by which I judged another's worth. When I grew up, I found that these were no longer the details of people that impressed me. A doctorate is no substitute for integrity and intelligence cannot replace kindness. If belief in Jesus Christ assists us in being better persons, logic should tell us to retain this belief. If Christianity is a crutch that enables us to be better, kinder people, what does it say about a person who would willingly attempt to kick it out from under us?

A lot of people have the skill to make others look and feel stupid. When I debated as an atheist, my goal was to destroy the faith of any Christian who was dumb enough to engage me in a discussion. I threw everything I had at them, including arguments of logic, evolution, quantum physics, and M theory. When these arguments proved ineffective, I resorted to misinformation and deception. I drove a wedge in between God and many people by causing them to doubt. Don't let people, like the person I was, intellectually intimidate or bully you out of your faith in God. Don't settle for a blind faith! Your best defense against doubt is to know exactly what you believe and why you believe it.

I wish all who read this good fortune and growth in their Christian walk, especially in their new endeavors.

EPHESIANS 4:2 : Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

MATTHEW 10:16 : I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

source: http://www.ex-atheist.com/message-to-young-christians.html

my good friend Hairston630 sent this over to me... just wondering what your opinions are on what he said...
do you find this to be true?
why or why not?

Well, I would first like to say, that there are some people in this world that will treat you this way, for any number of reasons, whether you're not as smart, or whether you like classical music, or whether you live in an apartment complex, or a trailor park. People can just be down right mean, and I do understand that being religious IS another way for other's to attack. Mean people will always attack other people, regardless of their religious beliefs.

With that said, I would like to point out that when I was in Highschool, (when I did show up ) My science teacher homeschooled his children. He is a Christian, and the other sciencs teacher was an Atheist. The Atheist science teacher taught evolution, but the Christian science teacher couldn't teach creation. So he just refused to teach either.

I do also agree with the thought on, if you don't feel strong enough to defend your faith, don't. I also have to say I agree with "If Christianity is a crutch that enables us to be better, kinder people, what does it say about a person who would willingly attempt to kick it out from under us?" I guess I'm not the best candidate for any debate here, as I am NOT anti Christian, I'm just not Christian.

Hmm..... no matter where you go you will run into critism and people will challenge your beliefs. Especially if you go into classes that you know may debate your beliefs. But most Christians I have debated with were not being bullied, but rather were looking around for an arguement.


So if a book says that the world wasn't made in 6 days, it is offensive to Christians? They are there to tell us how things actually happened, and if that challenges Christian beliefs, too bad. Other people will not be denied education just because of some people's religious beliefs. Religion should stay far away from science anyway.


That is because it was a science class. Creationism isn't a science for it lacks scientific basis. That is his own traditional belief system, not the correct one that should be taught in school. And it is not like athiesim is it's own religion, so why shouldn't an athiest be aloud to teach evolution?

Most of these problems won't occur if you don't try to argue people. Athiests aren't out to bully Christians you know.

you call unverifiable guess at what happened hundreds of millions of years ago... an education? LMAO

science should stay far far away from religion...

I have to share my experience with Christian hating prof!

I had a Dr. Mcglyne- the head of Psychology board (abnormal) he looked like santa clause, but he couldn't turn his head without turning his entire body with him, due to this particular miserable muscle dissolving disease... anyway, he hated Christians. Always made smart assed comments toward them- this was daily.. Many dropped the course. He had a tener and could teach any darn thing he pleased.
well, he had this fetish (a couple of them actually)... sick.

So, us girls stayed away from him on the elevator after he warned us straight from his own mouth, just in case he "accidently" rubbed up against you----look out!! No one got on elevator with him, we all took stairs, happily.
and also another fetish he warned us about... when he would ask to get a drag of a cig. out at break, we knew to drop it as soon as he gave the cig. back to us...His fetish was getting a sexual high off of inhaling off a girls' smoke.. it's crazy, but ... well, it was abnormal psychology prof. He was miserable, he was atheist, he recieved Doctrine in Abnormal Psychology which suit him just fine, and his muscles were medically dissolving daily right in front of us ---and he was perverted to boot.

Anyhoo. :}

That "unverified guesse" is a lot more realistic than an invisible, all knowing being magically creating everything in 6 days out of no where. Evolution actually has fossil records and a plausable theory to back it up. What does creationism have? A book that was written thousands of years ago that makes no sense what-so-ever and can only be followed with blind faith?

And science doesn't have to stay away from religion, because religion ignores it anyway.

I can't speak for anywhere else, but where I went there were choices. You had either evolutionary, or pro creationist view points to choose from.

Hmm, sounds like one heck of a teacher

How is everything happening by a "chance" more realistic than intelligent design?...Darwin had a hard to explaining to his critic's how and why we "evolved" such emotions like love, such an emotion is powerful and requires an intelligent creation. I look at it this way....take a grandfather clock, dissemble every single piece of the clock from every last nut and screw and throw it into the casing of the clock. If you are an evolutionist, you would believe that if you shook the grandfather up and down, side to side, and every direction imaginable over millions of years every single nut, screw, rod, piece by piece would assemble in perfect harmony, piece by piece to its exact location to make the clock work and tell time. I'd rather entertain the thought of an intelligent creator than toy with the thought that everything just came together perfectly.

You're not kiddin.' I barely got a C in that class. :}

I really didn't think I was going to make it out of that class, but I did just fine. I sat my beliefs to the side and learned what I had to to get by.. I ignored the other.

The teacher was probably a sexual predator

Ohh, ohh! *lightbulb moment* new movie...the 65 Year-Old Virgin.

My first thought is why your good friend can't post for themselves, this article. The second thought was to each their own. Former Atheist now paranoid christian. Their life, their choice. May the author continue to believe their new found god shall bless them as they continue to find their way to accepting themselves.

I don't need to insult people to feel bigger than em'. I've got the physical presence to do that for me. But, laughing at a christian for their beliefs..hmm...if I'm particually pissed off, I might do that...and I poke fun at some Mormon Friends of mine(all in good fun). Being an asshole to anyone isn't good(lest they deserve it, in which, by all means, go forth and do so).

"being intelligent and educated can make one so self-important and loud in one's own thoughts that he can no longer hear the voice of God"

Using one's mind, one's reason, can lead to the conclusion that God created everything and then b*ggered off... so he's right, using your brain can bring about the realisation that God isn't speaking to you.

"The anti-Christian's primary arsenal is designed to attack your faith through your ego. If Christianity has made your ego even larger than the average ego - that is to say, if you somehow got the impression that believing in The Life, The Truth and The Way has made you a superior to anyone who believes differently - your ego could be mortally wounded in the first assault."

What's with all this anti-Christian stuff? When did non-Christian beliefs become anti-Christian? I do not believe in the Biblical God, I am not a Christian... that does not make my opinions anti-Christian. I've seen thaphantum use this term several times to refer to comments simply because they do not agree with his own, and it worries me that the difference between anti-Christian prejudice and reasonable criticism of Christianity or its claims seems to be being ignored.

A viewpoint which questions Christianity and its claims is not anti-Christian. I just wanted to get that out because it's been bothering me.

No.

Take a human eye. If you remove any single part of it it will stop working (properly, atleast), that much we can agree on. Your analogy would only work if animals suddenly developed a fully functioning modern eye, (I don't know if you just misunderstand or are trying to disregard the actual logic for the sake of your argument against evolution, that seems to be happening a lot) but that obviously isn't how it worked. It began as a region of photosensitive cells, which slowly developed different characteristics such as a change in structure, lenses, irises etc. What's unexplainable about that? How does that rely on everything just 'by chance' fitting together?

The same can be applied to any number of systems in organisms.



Familial bonds ensure survival, it's not surprsing that we've evolved them. Why do emotions require intelligent creation? They're controlled by the brain.

one answer:
get EVIDENCE

the reason people dont believe and are tired of listening to you is because you are asking them to lobotomize themselves

its not bigotry
its self respect
if you want to live by a fairy tale do so---and yes that is all any religion is
(the adult equivalent of santa claus and the easter bunny)
YOU expect the world to bend to YOU.

i could walk around claiming that god talks to me and that i have the absolute truth
and you dont believe just because YOURE closed-minded and bigotted.

all your doing is whining and expecting people to hand over their will and their minds to your ignorance. YES IGNORANCE!

and for the record im an agnostic. i at least have the HUMILITY to say i dont know whether there is a god or not but i will abide by the EVIDENCE.

all theists are trying to do is say they know everything so they can go back to the medieval ages when they had absolute power. THAT IS ALL IT IS. A POWER PLAY. AN ATTEMPTED INTELLECTUAL COUP DE TAT THAT PREYS UPON PEOPLES FEAR OF DEATH AND THE UNKNOWN TO SCARE THEM INTO THE FOLD.

people like you are the reason there is atrocity in the world. i would never abolish religion or ban it. but if you had your way you know deep down you'd have every last one like me killed. and before you say know to that---read a history book.

I disagree. I think for the most part both disciplines are motivated by essentially the same desire: to find out the nature and workings of the Universe in which we live. At some point in our evolution, both will probably merge as one and we will be improved substantially as a result. [Insert famous Einstein science/religion quote here].

For the love of all that is good and intellegent, may that day never come. I do not want church leaders to have any sort of scientific authority..

Fear not. By then, churches as such will have ceased to exist and scientists are bound to have developed a few more neurons. Both camps will be a lot more flexible in their thinking.

and vise versa.

Ouch - i think my God gene just groaned...