Bekah Grim is a junior majoring in creative writing

If you've ever sat through a University Core or University Foundations class then you've heard the phrases I'm about to discuss. They usually come out when the doctrine of the Trinity is introduced, or when Bertrand Russell's "Why I am Not a Christian" peeks its head out of the syllabus.

These cliches make their appearance inside and outside of the classroom. In fact, I've heard these phrases so often that I've compiled them into a top three list: the greatest hits list of Christian arguments for God's existence.

Number one: "You can't put God in a box."

When students say this cliche, it's not God they're putting into a box, but their own minds. It's an excuse that doesn't allow them to get "too specific" about the nature of God.

It is interesting that Christians are OK with getting specific about God's nature only when it's convenient for justifying their beliefs.

It's acceptable to get very specific about God's nature and how he operates to justify keeping homosexuals unmarried and out of the church. Yet, when questions about God's nature don't align with Christian beliefs, or counter arguments challenge God's omnipotence or the product of his creation then Christians resort to the above cliche. What's actually happening is that Christians are locking away their God-given reason into a box.

Number two: "That's where faith comes in."

I'm not trying to completely abandon faith for reason, but merely to point out that faith and reason rely on each other.

Soren Kierkegaard once said you cannot have faith without a leap and a risk. He meant that there will always be some mystery when talking about God and that the act of faith requires that stretch of trusting in the unknown.

Yet, before Christians make that "leap," they need to have an idea of what they're leaping into. It is necessary to first use reason to help define and discern what is required of a Christian from the Christian faith. Reason must be used to interpret what the Bible is asking its followers to have faith in before they can take any kind of leap.

Number three: "It's because of original sin and the fall."

Oh, the fall. Thank God for the fall, because if it weren't for that doctrine, many Christians might actually have to question the world around them.

Again and again I hear people trying to write off the horror and suffering in the world by saying, "we have a fallen nature."

Yes, the doctrine of original sin can help Christians to begin to explore the problem of evil and suffering in the world, but it is not the "be all and end all" of questioning the surrounding world. Just because we live in a "fallen world" doesn't mean we're trusting in a "fallen" God as well. The doctrine of the fall just leaves questions remaining about the divine being that would set the universe into motion.

I once had a professor at a Christian university in Florida who described many of his students as "lazy for Christ." He was referring to the way that students were willing to question God and the world around them only to the point that it was comfortable.

When they started groping toward the gray areas, into the facets of human existence that cannot so easily be written off by a Bible story on a flannel board, that's when they abandoned their questioning.

Being a Christian is uncomfortable. It asks us to embrace a doctrine that cannot be so easily explained by a quick, "Oh, well you can't put God in a box." When we discuss things that are only comfortable, it is not a discussion or reasoning; it is merely a Christian pep rally.

We need to get used to asking uncomfortable questions and pressing beyond these easy cliches that keep us from thinking about ideas in a meaningful way.

These cliches are not furthering a discussion about faith and God, but rather, ending it abruptly.

"When Christians move too quickly to use these cliches, they create the impression that the Christian world view does not help us understand life, but rather is simply a tissue of implausible assertions and paradoxes," said Steve Layman, philosophy professor and author.

It's time to abandon intellectual "laziness for Christ." We must relentlessly pursue the difficult questions, and as Immanuel Kant said, "Dare to know."

If we are claiming to be Christians, we should know why and be able to explain why, not only to others, but also to ourselves. Let's engage our own reasoning to reach toward answers, and leave the cop-out cliches in the ashes of your UCOR class.