College religious fair experience

I was invited to help out with the Bahai booth for the college religious fair for the freshman orientation. I just stood around and made it a point not to engage with the students who came by the booth, because I am not very good at talking to people I don't know well. I like to think that I added credibility to the group by being the only ethnic guy among the group of otherwise entirely elderly whites. I think people are more likely to take a religion seriously if they see that it has ethnic followers.


I think the event was a sobering experience for me. Even though nothing eventful happened, I felt much better afterwards than I did going in. I felt nice seeing the young attractive girls come up to the booth and ask questions. They seemed so nice too. Just the idea that I was having some kind of contact with them, however indirect, made me feel good. I think the reason it made me feel good is that if you are in an environment with those demographics for a long enough period of time you will probably eventually get a girlfriend. Sadly, in the Baha'i community, even women double their age are completely absent.

At one point a young girl from the Methodist booth came to our booth to debate us. She asked one of the Bahais if he believes the Bible where it says that God is the same today yesterday and tomorrow, and tried to argue that this implies that this implies the Bible is the legitimate scripture forever, and that there will never be a need for subsequent scriptures such as the Bahai writings. The Bahai basically turned her into a bumbling idiot by explaining that God never changes but humanity changes, hence the need for a new scripture, which also explains why God revealed the Old Testament to the Israelites first and then the New Testament to the world, because humanity was not ready for the message at first, but then humanity changed and the New Testament was revealed to them.

One thing I noticed was I was having trouble looking this girl in the eye, given that she was a young woman.  But as her questions became harder I found it easier. I guess it feels more natural to engage with women when there is a point to the engagement.

For whatever reason I left that gathering just feeling very good, even though nothing good in particular happened. I guess maybe participating in that fair kind of made me feel like I was part of a community which these young girls were also part of.