“No offense, but the Christians on this website are really… stupid. lol.”

I felt the urge to partake in a session of epic facepalming as I watched a single atheist tear apart a handful of Christians on a forum. The topic at hand was Creation & Evolution, and this individual had extensive experience in logical analysis and crafty condescension. When I showed the discussion to a friend, she responded rather bluntly with the remark above.

For the record, she’s a believer and a heartfelt follower.

I suppose the purpose of this post is to encourage fellow Christians to pursue academic diligence. Up through high school, I probably wasn’t the best example of an intellectual individual. I only pushed myself hard enough to get a decent GPA in hopes of staying within the Asian stereotype.

I guess it bothers me that many Christians are simply unprepared to defend their beliefs. There’s no doubt, of course, that faith is important. Jesus made that pretty clear, and He was a smart guy.

That said, faith should be accompanied by academic prowess. If you’re a Christian and a student, you have no excuse for slacking in class. If you do, it’s like a slap in the face to Jesus. He didn’t take nails to the wrists so you could taint His name by slugging through school. As an ambassador of God, it should be within your best interest to be intellectually diligent.

So keep learning. Exercise rational analysis. Play some chess. Know what the first two laws of thermodynamics are. Find out what aspects of evolution are compatible with your faith. Expand your vocabulary. Study apologetics. Remind yourself what chloroplasts are and how they work. Have an understanding of string theory. Discover how the aperture setting affects a captured image. Learn about how supermodels undergo amazing transformations in Photoshop. And stop mixing up “peak” and “peek” (note to self).