By Tracy N.

It never fails. Frustrate a devout Christian, and get sentenced to an eternity burning in hell.

In debate, I’ve come to graciously accept these threats and condemnations as a positive measurement of my intellect. Usually, sentencing comes after proving my point, refuting my opponents, or just making the tiniest bit of sense.

"Oh yeah? Well you’re going to burn in hell!" they tell me.

I love to watch these fundamentalists go into intellectual overload. They tense up, grab the crucifix dangling from the necks, and begin to raise their voice. They rack their brains for a clever counter point (usually Biblical), but

It’s not that these people are stupid. They’re just…uh…free thought challenged. The problem, as I see it, is that these people simply accept whatever their pastor/priest/minister tells them. Few ever stop to think about the meaning of the argument or belief, and even fewer look for evidence that may contradict it.

One could hardly blame them. Most religious fundamentalists strongly identify themselves with other members of the religious community, and each attempt to seek truth at the expense of commonly held beliefs is an attempt to destroy his/her identity. For the most part, people (including you and I) would rather live ignorant than face the possibility that something you’ve believed in since a child, something you’ve fought for with all your heart, was in vain.

In my Introductory Psychology course we once reviewed the possible processing mechanisms used when confronted with conflicting evidence from a reliable source. Often, people will dismiss the new evidence as "the exception to the rule", allowing them to retain their belief. Other times, they will simply ignore the new evidence, but rarely will they accept it.

And that’s what comes to mind every time I receive my sentencing. No, I don’t start panicking about the afterlife - any "sentence" I may receive will NOT be coming from close minded individuals. Only one being has the power to condemn me to an eternity in hell. And frankly, if I’m cast aside for utilizing the very gift He gave to me, then I’m not sure that such a bad punishment after all.