Defense

  Another long week with many exams, little sleep, and multiple situations where I had to put my faith on the line.  This week I am going to focus on defending the faith.  This key concept is something that I think we miss out on.  When I say defending the faith, it involves quite a complex process.  It is one thing to know the knowledge, but an entirely different matter to be able to synthesize the information and put it out in different ways for people to understand.  I have had quite the learning experience since I have been at school about defending the faith.
  I will use an example of an idea that ran over several days this week.  I have a friend named Derek.  Derek has taught me quite a bit in what it takes to back up an opinion.  Arguing with a guy whose religious belief on facebook says "Religious views are the route of a lot of evil," already puts me at a disadvantage.  Derek's huge thing is that logic is king.  If your argument has ANY flaw whatsoever, you are done, finished.  He is great at translating arguments and proving them using propositional logic.  This week our topic was the human sexuality.  We had a roughly three hour long discussion on the topic.  I felt extremely pressed to form an argument that he could not prove to be invalid.  After a while, I presented him with one.  He spent awhile trying to prove it absurd, and thus attack the quality of the argument.  After an hour, he could not do it, and for once, my argument stayed.
  What does this have to do with defending the faith?  It has quite a bit actually.  As I said in the intro, the ability to synthesize information is critical.  I am in an argumentation class, and until this year I have never understood the importance of how to form good arguments.  It is incredibly critical.  As we go out and defend the faith people will constantly challenge the logic and validity of the arguments you present. In high school, I never ran into this problem, and I seemed to be able to conquer any argument placed against me due to my incredible knowledge.  The synthesis never had to come, because I was never challenged on forming good arguments.  In college, I am constantly challenged to present clear, valid arguments.  This has not only led to a deepening of my faith, but also greatly increased my effectiveness as an evangelizer.  I challenge each and every one of you to present great logical arguments when defending the faith, if you do not succeed in winning the point, you will at least gain respect from the other person.  Learn it, Live it, Love it.  God bless.