Talking to Your Friends About Tough Faith Questions?

When your friends ask you tough faith questions, or bring up something you've never thought about before, how do you deal with it? I have a simple suggestion that comprises just three things:

Two Questions & a Promise...

Question 1

What do you mean by...?

Ask them to define their terms! Sometimes two people can be discussing a topic and be totally talking "past each other". A lot of times, this is because they may be using the same words, but meaning different things by those words. For example, some words that can mean different things to different people are:

• Savior
• Religion
• Belief
• Faith
• Truth
• Opinion

Question 2

How did you come to that conclusion or belief or idea?

Examples:
They may say the believe in Darwinism, but also believe they have special value. If they are a product of random chance, how could they possibly be "special" in any meaningful sense? Ask them how they can reconcile those two beliefs.
They might say that Jesus is their savior, but that they can measure up to God's standards. If they can measure up to God's standards, why would they need a savior?
They may have adopted a belief or idea simply because someone (a friend, family member, the Internet, etc.) told them it was so and they accepted it uncritically. Ask them how they would defend that belief if they were trying to convince someone about it.

Promise
When someone asks you a difficult question you don't know how to answer, promise them this:

I don't know the answer to that, but I'll check it out and get back to you!

Resources
I would like to thank Dave Geisler of Meekness & Truth ministries for the basic ideas behind these questions and promise. Although Dave doesn't format things exactly this way, he introduced me to these ideas and I have found them very helpful.