Keith Darrell, a traveling open-air preacher of evangelism, stood in the Agora on Tuesday afternoon lecturing students on why they should believe in God.

Darrell has a history of preaching at colleges, visiting schools like the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Idaho to spread his message.

The message to Iowa State students Tuesday afternoon was that truth is not always tangible.

“You cannot take me anywhere and show me that the truth is only tangible in nature,” he said to the students who stopped to listen.

One student who maintained a dialogue with Darrell was Sam Gutermuth, junior in computer science. Gutermuth told Darrell that his truth used circular reasoning, saying “it explains itself because it is.”

In response, Darrell compared his belief to a person’s five senses.

“If I come out here and say, ‘I’m only going to believe what my five senses tell me,’ how do you know your five senses tell you the truth? ‘It’s what I believe,'” Darrell said.

Darrell continued by saying that any belief in a higher authority is somewhat circular in nature.

Gutermuth, who had been listening and talking for just under an hour, told the Daily that he had heard a lot of ad hominem attacks from both Darrell and students listening.

“He’s saying I’m a smart a– because I try to poke holes in his beliefs, like ask him questions that make him question his own beliefs, but that’s making me a smart a–, which is an ad hominem attack on myself,” Gutermuth said.

He also called Darrell’s belief that a person can’t be logical if they’re not a Christian “one of the most moronic things I’ve ever heard.”

Despite his disagreement, Gutermuth still thinks it’s important that Darrell has the ability to preach to students. 

“I feel like the best way to get rid of bad ideas is have them go out in the free market of ideas,” he said.

Gutermuth does believe that a debate setting with a moderator would be more appropriate for some of the dialogue occurring, so opposing sides could prepare points and counterpoints.

Another student who had been looking on for about 10 minutes, Katie Colman, freshman in chemical engineering, watched mostly to listen to opinions being discussed.

“I definitely agree with some of the things that [Darrell’s] saying, but I see other people’s point of view,” she said.

Colman said she was interested in what other students had to say to Darrell, but felt some of the students were “having fun with it and just enjoy arguing.”

She also thinks it’s good that Darrell can tell people what he believes but doesn’t think it should be allowed “for him to pressure people to think what he thinks.”