I grew up going to church every Sunday, rarely did I miss a service. I felt like my house was Christian-based for me and my siblings. My father was a preacher; my mother was a stay at home mom. Needless to say, the early stages of my life consisted of and were based upon my family’s religion. It was natural and regular for me to live each day through the beliefs instilled in me by my parents, uncontested. Then there was this thing called high school. My parents did an excellent job of exposing me to the world and to parts of society. I experienced many things and was not “sheltered” as some people put it. Even though I had social experiences before, daily contact and interaction with certain people, in high school, opened my eyes to the world even more. I experienced a radical change from spending my day with family and friends who were of the same mindset, to interacting with many people who did not share my values and some were even hostile towards my beliefs.
People and their beliefs are extraordinarily interesting to consider. Some people view all values to merely be one’s opinion on matters, while others mistake a simple opinion to be an inherent moral truth. Such mistakes seem to occur in nearly all debates or discussions that even slightly relate or appeal to a person’s values or opinions. Upon entering high school, I was almost blindsided with the realization that many people do not mind challenging all that you stand for. From your petty opinion on something of little importance, to maybe your core religious beliefs, people will try to make you defend what you think or say. Such a challenge was once forced upon me, and so I responded by defending what I considered to be a moral truth. Freshman year in health class, by some vague means, the issue of abortion came up during a class discussion. Like a drop of water hitting a hot iron, the classroom heated up and passionate arguments began to fly. The teacher attempted to calm the mood, but the debate raged on. Then I opened my mouth and naively voiced my thoughts. The opposing side jumped on me and began to tear my statements apart like a pack of wolves. Using little to no rational or reasonable counter arguments, they resorted to degrading names and making passionate accusations. Accusations that I, and a few other classmates, considered to have no relevance to the debate topic and therefore they had essentially no value to the discussion. Regardless of what I thought, the opposing