Last Thursday I spent some time in front of Faner listening to a young man argue his beliefs with someone who didn’t believe the same way he did. He had a number of people surrounding him, some of which believed him and some who did not. The argument was about the young man’s belief that the Bible was the truth. As the conversation continued, the voices of both the young man and the girl raised to a fevered pitch. It occurred to me that neither side was actually listening to what the other was saying. The young preacher was there to share his beliefs and it didn’t matter what others thought because they were all wrong, and the young girl was there to argue because she knew in her mind he was wrong. The thing that struck me about both of the arguments used were neither of them were very good. The young man was demeaning the young woman for not believing like he did and the girl was there to argue.

I have studied religions in the past, and the thing that has always intrigued me about Jesus was his presentation. There were very few times that Jesus argued his deity with others where he yelled at people, and as far as I can tell there are absolutely NO times where he called anyone an idiot for not believing in Him.

But I’m not here to criticize the young man. From watching different evangelists come to campus, I’ve found that the hecklers that are in these groups aren’t really looking for anything to believe in. They are there to argue.

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What is my purpose for writing this? Its twofold. First, if you really are searching for the truth, don’t just give it lip service. Arguing for argument’s sake accomplishes nothing. And second, live your beliefs out loud instead of speaking them first. People are more likely to listen to you if they can see your beliefs in action rather than by just saying them, especially if you are going to argue.