California Catholic Daily reporter, Mary Rose, visits a California college each week and asks students about God, good, and evil. Interview with Dalia, who is studying to be an ESL teacher, in the Amphitheatre at College of the Canyons on February 10, 2020.

Do you consider yourself religious?

Dalia: Yeah, I’m actually reading a book about parables. Religion definitely changes your perspective on things. You tend to think more about your decisions, the consequences of your decisions and how you treat people, because you obviously want to be treated the same way. I go to Grace Community Church down in Sun Valley. It’s a pretty big church.

If an atheist asked you why you believe in God, what would you say?

Dalia: I always get super nervous when they ask me, because I’m scared to say the wrong thing, but I just tell them there’s a lot of evidence in nature and as human beings, we have a conscience that doesn’t come naturally. Think of like the galaxy, that can’t just be made into existence by an explosion. That doesn’t make sense to me because when someone explodes something, it destroys, it doesn’t create anything. I feel like that’s kind of contradicting in a way. 

If someone asked you who Jesus is, what would you say?

Dalia: Jesus is the Son of God. God is the creator of everything. It’s kind of hard to explain, people don’t really get it, I still don’t get it, I just kind of believe it, that there’s three People in God. It’s God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Son was the one that came to live a perfect life and He was the one that died on the cross for our sins to save us from eternal damnation. People would call Him a good teacher because He was a good teacher, but He was more than that, obviously. And after He died, He rose again and He’s up in heaven right now interceding for us. If you believe in Him, His perfect life becomes yours. 

Why do you believe that Jesus actually lived?

Dalia: There’s a lot of evidence like historical records. I don’t know a lot of history, like how the Bible came to be one book. I know it was written obviously, but I don’t know when they found it, but most of the history in the Bible is the same as history. Knowing the history of ancient Greece, ancient Rome, Egypt, all that, it kind of just correlates along with it. That’s kind of one of the reasons why I believe it and it’s all about faith, honestly. Most of it you don’t really understand, but you just kind of have to believe and have faith.

Do you think some things are objectively wrong?

Dalia: I feel like, yeah, there’s definitely a line you cross where if you do something terribly wrong, you should know that’s wrong. Some people aren’t raised, like I was, where there was a strict childhood, they told you what was right and what was wrong. I feel like most people just do whatever they think is right and sometimes that can be wrong in other people’s perspectives. Like abortion is one of the things that I just cannot – it’s so sad to me. I feel like it’s really, really sad. I totally get the whole feminism, equality type of thing, kind of, but when it comes to that…

How would you argue that abortion is wrong to someone who says that God gave people free will?

Dalia: This is hard. I talk to people that are Christian, so it’s easier because we get each other, but when it’s other people, it’s a little hard. I hate arguing. For abortion, I feel like some people think it’s okay just because they don’t think it’s a human being. But at that point where the baby’s conceived, there’s a heartbeat. You can’t tell me that’s not akin to me. He has a heartbeat. Plants don’t even have a heartbeat and they’re living. And when someone is wanting to get an abortion, there’s a lot of other alternatives, you could give your baby for adoption for a family that can’t have babies. There’s a lot of families like that at our church. And it’s sad to hear that people over here are having abortions daily, and people on this side can’t have kids and they would love kids. It’s kind of hard to put into words why you shouldn’t do it. But I consider it murder in a way because if it has a heartbeat, it’s living. It’s not a cell. It’s a baby. It becomes a baby.

Do you believe in an afterlife?

Dalia: Yes. Like I said before, you have to believe in Jesus, put your faith in Him, believe that He’s interceding for you. That means like He’s like the middle person between you and the judge, which is God, and if you believe in Him, His life becomes yours, so God sees you as perfect, even though you’re not. I’m not perfect at all, but we’re trying to get there, in time, with a lot of prayer, practice, reading the word and stuff. And if you don’t believe in that, you are going to go to hell.

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