Collegiate Times

I struggled with what to write this week?s column about. I find the topic I inevitably chose comes from a ?Sophical? argument held in my political theory course.

The Sophical argument refers to the type of argument Sophocles would take part in, one in which he limits himself from giving any opinion but rather attempts to confuse the people arguing against him until they begin to question what they formerly believed.

Our argument began with a given topic: If God is an omnipotent God, why does evil exist? This is a touchy subject. One that both my professor and I realized would probably return some response, not all of which would be positive.

I should start by expressing my life and the presence faith has had in it. I was brought up going to a Christian church every Sunday. I stopped going when I was about 14 and returned to a different church, this time a Baptist one, at the age of 17.

Throughout my life, I won?t say there haven?t been times I have questioned God.

I have wondered why people who preach an inability to judge ? that people will have their own judgment days when they stand up before God ? are so quick to judge someone with a different sexual orientation than theirs.

I know the argument that a man is not to lay with another man in the same way he would a woman.

Remember, I grew up in church. I don?t think I know everything, but I?ve heard all the arguments. I also know that my rebuttal for such an argument is usually that we as Christians are supposed to love the sinner and hate the sin.

Furthermore, if in the eyes of God a sin is a sin, then does it not make sense that Christians who judge people who practice homosexuality are committing a sin as well, and therefore are just as likely to have to repent? Of course, I have wondered other things as well. I wonder why two young girls have to watch their mother battle cancer ? a fight she would eventually lose ? and to then have their only other parent die a month later.

I wonder why a mother, who struggled for years to make sure her children had everything they ever needed, is denied a Section 8 stipend for housing because her income is just above the maximum for a four-person family. I wonder who determines those maximums. I think I?d like to meet him.

I wonder how men who are guilty of committing domestic abuse against their significant others go to sleep it night; How a young collegiate track runner can randomly collapse and never wake up again; How two towers can fall and cause an entire nation to mourn the deaths of so many.

I wonder how God lets these things happen.

And in the midst of all of my questions, I find an answer. Faith.

If you believe in God, you believe he created heaven and earth. You believe Satan fell from heaven to hell. You believe God created Adam, and then Eve out of Adam, and placed them in the Garden of Eden with only one restriction. You believe God granted them free will and gave them the choice of whether or not to eat the forbidden fruit. You believe they were tempted by Satan and thus sin was brought into the world.

You also believe that with each opportunity to fall, there is an opportunity to step back up. As humans, we are innately given the opportunity to choose which path we shall take with our lives. However, if you follow the Christian faith, is it ludicrous to suggest that all paths can eventually lead back to God? I don?t think so. All you need is a little faith.

It?s easy to suggest that bad things happen and God can?t possibly care. Don?t live your life that way.

I questioned why bad things happened to me, never considering the good things I did have, how much luckier I was than some.

What I have found is that if you are willing to trust that everything happens for a reason, although certainly they aren?t always known, that everything works out for the best and that every life experience comprises who we become as a person then what you end up with is faith. You never know where a little bit of that might take you.