These are the words uttered by my philosophy professor more than three decades ago and had been reverberating in my mind whenever I discuss any topic with another person. As simple as it is, I keep these words in mind for a couple of reasons.

First, that I may be wary lest I commit fallacious arguments. Fallacious arguments are not readily recognizable especially to the ignorant of the fallacies of relevance. Fallacious reasoning essentially means nothing, even if a man appears to be winning in an argument. Winning an argument fallaciously is a hogwash. He may win the argument (or at least he thinks he does) but the truth is not in within his reach.

Secondly, these words also help me become vigilant. It would keep me on my toes whenever I listen to an argument in any form, whether it is in a context of a debate, a privileged speech or even a homily. When I listen, it is more often due to want of learning. I do not wish to overlook a person committing one or more of those fallacies of relevance.

Atheism is one of the issues that I hear argued about lately. In support to this belief, some would argue philosophically, others would demand empirical evidences for God’s existence, others argue on the grounds of the presence of evil and suffering.

Some on the other hand, reject theism in the light of the lifestyles of the ‘believers’ in God. The latter’s objectionable and unethical practices become a common arguments for the irrelevance of having faith in God. History, for instance, reveals that most of the cruelest acts against humanity were done in the guise of religion. Among Catholicism, there was the Inquisition, a part of the Period of the Dark Ages when the ‘Heretics’, those who do reject some of the Roman Catholic Dogmas, were hunted down and are tortured to denouncing their beliefs. Thus many people, referring to this dark period of history, would state their detest against belief in a god or gods.

In his letter to Titus, a minister of a church in the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea, Paul of Tarsus made a commentary regarding the situation of Christianity in that region. He said,

“They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him.”

Paul addressed these words to a minister whose church was in the midst of society where immorality, greed and vile values are rampant. In that society, there doesn’t seem to be a distinction between right and wrong. Everyone does whatever he pleases, and the Christians were no exceptions.

In his other letter, this time to the church in Rome, Paul again uttered a similar comment when he said the following words to describe many Jews,

But if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you”.

What then could be the value of being a ‘believer’ in God if one’s moral values does not reflect the teachings of the God he believes in? If the morality of the Christians were not different from that of the ‘outsiders’ or even the ‘atheists’, what then is the function of having faith in God. Is it to control other people, like in the times of the dark ages? Is it to take advantage of people by consoling them with the thought that God never sleeps and sees all the wickedness in this world and that eventually he will punish the wicked? No wonder that to some people religion is referred to as ‘the opium of the people”.

With a morality that do not conform to the teachings of the God, one might as well throw away the idea of theism. Many people was converted to atheism for witnessing the depraved morality of many Christians, especially those of religious and church leaders. These Christians live as if there is actually no God. Their lifestyle was thus construed to be a ‘proof’ that having faith in God is irrelevant, and that a religion, including Christianity, never does improve man’s values. One might as well be an unbeliever, for a good, kind atheist is more precious to the society than a morally depraved theist.

In the latter part of His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus the Christ said:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”

With these words, Jesus recognizes the fact that there will be people who would profess faith in Him. He warns them, therefore, to be a believer in a real sense of the word. The objectionable acts of the professing Christians never nullifies the existence of God. It only proves that there would be hypocrites.

Would you say that there is no God because of the presence of evil believers? That’s not the way to argue.