On Oct. 16, Dan Barker was here to give a speech on keeping church and state separate. Barker was an evangelical pastor who spent nearly 20 years in the ministry before he deconverted to atheism. Now, he’s an author, speaker, and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Being raised in a home by two Pentecostal Christian pastors allowed me to go to church multiple times a week. I was lucky enough to grow up in a healthy environment and gain experience by volunteering in the ministry. As I grew up, my thoughts and opinions of the church had begun to change. The church wasn’t wrong, but we had a difference in beliefs. They did things differently than I would have.

When I saw Dan Barker was going to be a part of the Iowa State University Lectures program, I immediately decided to go and listen to him. Within the first five minutes he dismisses anyone who disagrees with him. It hadn’t taken him long to insult Christians by using a metaphor describing God as a “dictator” and “an old man with a fragile ego.”

Though angry after leaving the lecture, I attempted to calm myself down. I couldn’t believe how arrogant and smug Barker had appeared to be. Then it occurred to me. It’s not Dan Barker that made me upset. It’s the way he presented his message. Much the way some Christians give their message. He dismissed all others’ beliefs and assumed his was correct. For those few hours, the majority of the people in attendance were in agreement with him. If he had said the same message in the free speech zone on campus, the audience reaction may be much different.

While I don’t agree with Dan Barker’s beliefs, I do find his personal passion refreshing. He’s willing to wage war on the issue of religion being separate from government, giving all people their own religious freedoms. 

However, I believe he leaves the door open for a younger generation to attempt to grow up with a lack of belief. But is that possible.

“If you could know nothing without proof, you could know nothing by means of proof. That is to say that every proof requires premise,” are the words of Toby Ziemer, a philosophy student at Luther College. He adds, “So to prove every premise requires another proof which, by its definition, has more premises. This leads to an infinite regress which is impossible. No one can live without premises.”

What he’s saying is that it’s impossible for a man or woman to breathe air in this world and not believe in something. Just because I believe Dan Barker is wrong, doesn’t mean I’m right. What matters is that I believe in something so much that I have that something to hold on to. It’s that something that gets us up in the morning, or the thing that allows us to sleep at night. It could be a person or an object. Each individual is different.

I believe the most important part about our society is that we need to learn to be more accepting of others no matter what they believe. It may take some self-examination to determine how much we hold others’ beliefs against them. If we desire acceptance of our beliefs, we have an obligation to welcome a new perspective. This could be as simple as listening to their views with an attempt to hold our own tongues when it comes to potential disagreements. It’s how we live out our beliefs that will do more to convince others than by being autocratic and arrogant. Whether you believe in God or not, we need to live together, work together and learn together.