Another conversation that I had at the ultimate tournament was with a student who argued that governments in third-world countries should freely distribute contraceptives. His reasoning was, by distributing contraceptives, the total amount of abortions would decrease thus eliminating the sin of murdering innocent children.  He argued that conservatives should support the distribution of contraceptives if we felt that it was wrong to have abortions (he also tried to discuss politics with me, but that was one avenue I wouldn't follow him down).  I asked him, "Don't you think you're missing the point?"  I then explained to him if he just reads from the Bible that God doesn't want us to have sex, then he's missing God's purpose and the Bible's underlying message.  I informed him that the Bible says that as a Christian I have permission to do anything.  However, just because I can doing anything, doesn't mean everything is beneficial, or good for me.  God isn't keeping sex from non-married individuals because God's trying to hold out on us. (Yes, I could have explained how pre-marital sex is an offense against the body, but please remember that non-spiritual people do not comprehend spiritual things and exploring this avenue wasn't, therefore, required.) I continued by telling him that God did not want us to have premarital sex for our benefit.  We would not have to worry about STDs or the emotional, physical and spiritual baggage from having sex with multiple partners. And eventually, the sin takes over, we would become addicted and eventually aggressive in order to have sex, or needing to continue to feel in control, thus leading to cases of rape.  I reasoned with him, instead of putting a bandaid on the symptons of the sin, why not just get rid of the sin?

The student continued to take the position that people in these countries would continue to have problems of rape (he wasn't a Christian, so the idea of evangelizing these countries was not an option) so we still needed to freely give contraceptives.  I told him that I believed he was using circular reasoning for his case. (This is the same as my last post.) I asked him, "If you were 16 and asked your parents for a car and they said, 'No,' would you then tell them, 'Either give me a car or I will go steal one'"? He chuckled and said that he wouldn't.  I continued, "Well, basically you're telling God the same thing, because God has told you not to have pre-marital sex you've replied to God, 'God let me have sex or I'll commit an abortion.' You're telling God, 'You choose which law you would rather me break.'" Then I told him, "My friend, you're not in any condition to be telling God what he should or shouldn't do or allow. The problem is that you don't love God, so you have no regard for any of his laws, not just murder." Then, I turned to conversation back full circle. "You know, we're sitting here talking about the lives of other people and their babies, but what about your life?  You are worried about their physical life, but you should be worried about your spiritual life? These children are already dead; you, however, still have a choice.  What choice are you going to make?"

He thanked me for talking to him and told me that I had given him a lot of stuff to think about. We, then, went our on ways.

In this post and my last post you see how I'm reasoning with these students and their arguments.  Please realize that as Solomon wrote, "Nothing is new under the sun."  All arguments against Scripture are the same; they've only taken new faces.  (You see how the arguments in this post and the last post were like the argument facing Paul in Romans 3:5-8.) Many of these students that I talked with during the tournament were from ivy league colleges and universities. Most of them have had more philosophy classes than I have had.  But I still have two 'tools' in my belt: 1) the knowledge of Scripture; and, 2) the Holy Spirit.  As Christ told his disciples, "...for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." (Luke 12:12) And, it is the word of God that is "sharper than a double-edge sword." Paul writes to the Corinthians, "Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a 'fool' so that be may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: 'He catches the wise in their craftiness'; and again, 'The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.'" (1 Corinthians 3:18-20)

You don't have to be 'smart' to reason your faith, just know God's word and be willing to listen to the Holy Spirit's guidance.