As soon as the 2005 fall semester began, it became apparent to me, fairly quickly, that my western civilization class was going to be my most confrontational and controversial. Both the students and the professor were highly opinionated in favor of a humanistic world view. Recently I adopted a personal policy to speak out against either students or professors regarding my faith only when God made it very clear to me. I wish to avoid being viewed as overly vocal or ignorant about what I believe, which is difficult to do in an anti-Bible climate. Many discussions or disputes can be dealt with more effectively by carefully considering exactly what should be said rather than just blurting out comments. My goal is to show other students and professors that the Gospel and Biblical positions are intelligent and reasonable. In one of my first classes, my professor asked the class, "what is faith?" A student in the back of the room responded, somewhat under his breath but loud enough for all to hear, "ignorance." I could not contain my contempt for such an ignorant comment and turned around, quickly responding: "what exactly do you believe are the origins of our universe?" Here is how the conversation proceeded: "I believe we are a product of evolution."
"That’s not what I asked, how do you think the universe came into existence?" "I adhere to the big bang theory." "Really, well can you provide factual evidence that this is true?" "There is evidence, yes" "But can you give me facts that PROVE this to be true?" "No, but proof is not possible with science, only evidence." "So then, according to your line of thought, I can consider you to be ignorant because without proof, you have a certain degree of faith that the universe originate by the big bang?" There was a short conversation that followed, mainly among other students in class and little pertaining to faith. Later in the semester, while we were discussing Greek history, our professor asked, "are men more naturally driven to be at war, or more naturally driven to be at peace with one another?" There was a brief discussion that followed, and after a minute I said, "It seems what you're wondering is: is human nature good or evil." "Yes, that’s exactly what I want to know, what do you think?" "Sigh" I knew where this was going to go. I stated, "I believe humans are by nature evil." The majority of students in the class responded by laughing, gasping, coughing on their coffee, or just making mocking comments. Many proceeded to disagree and most were merely stating there personal opinions rather than addressing the actual question. After a minute, however, I asked, "if you were to put two children in a room and give them both a toy of equal value, will they be content to play with their own toy the entire time? No. After a while, they would want the other child’s toy rather than their own. This shows that the unsocialized, undeveloped mind of a child is naturally self-centered and seeks to gratify its own desire before thinking of others. At our basic, instinctive level, we are selfish beings. We think only of ourselves. Is this not an evil desire?" Again discussion followed briefly, when a girl that I had encountered in a previous class asked, "So as a mother of two, are you telling me that my children are evil?" "Not at all. But if you needed someone to baby sit your two kids, and I, a clean-cut, well-dressed, seemingly well-to-do stranger approached you on the street and offered to baby sit them, would allow me?" "Of course not." "Why?" "Because I don’t know anything about you, how could I trust you?" "If we are inherently good natured beings, then what reason would you have NOT to trust me?" "It has nothing to do with good or bad nature, that’s just not smart to trust a stranger." "Well, it seems to me that the trusting strangers has everything to do with the inherent nature of humans. If you can’t trust a stranger, then you are making the assumption that he is untrustworthy." "No I'm not. I’m just looking out for the well being of my children." "Well the only other option is that you are assuming he IS trustworthy, which would lead you to allow him to watch your children." At this point the professor changed the subject and moved on. It was exciting to me that when God was without a doubt prompting me to speak that He was with me in my logic and thoughts. I was pleased to know that it was not me sharing with the class, but God. | 
