It's a challenge to keep the faith in college. Five exams in a week here, relationship and friend crises there, and frustration everywhere. And amid all this chaos, the last thing many of us have time to do is spend time thinking about our relationship with God.

Upon coming to college, each faithful student must make the choice to stand for the faith he or she believes in individually or accept the fact that going to services each week for 18 years was just their parents' way of torturing them. For many, it seems that with all the temptations around, many would take a rain check on learning about faith and enjoy college without the intervention of God.

When it comes down to it, college students are generally lazy. Sunday comes around and you can either go to services or sleep in. Odds are Joe Penn State Student, especially after drinking the night before, won't make early services. After a week of classes, the last thing students probably want to do is pass up an opportunity to get more than four hours of sleep and get dressed up to sing hymns and listen to sermons. While I'm sure many of us, myself included, wouldn't mind attending a religious service on occasion, we use the excuse that we are too busy doing homework or having a social life.

But to say that a lot of students are not interested in exploring their faith would be false. The university currently recognizes 59 religious student organizations ranging from Judaism to Buddhism to Atheism. A March 2004 Penn State Pulse survey found that about 45 percent of Penn State students said they had been to the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on campus. It's a great thing to see students interested in their spirituality, but it also seems students have become more intolerant of other students' religions and moral beliefs.

College is a natural time to question things. Most students are on their own for the first time in their lives, free to judge and make their own decisions. It's surprising to see the number of students who aren't sure if they believe in God because they have lost faith in their church, their pastors or priests, or their seemingly quiet relationship with God.

In your years at Penn State, professors and students alike will challenge your beliefs. In time, you may change your views on faith. The last thing a college student should be is too stubborn to listen to others' opinions and views when it comes to faith. To believe every passage in the Bible or the Quran at face value would be impractical. People with overwhelming amounts of faith can easily intimidate those with little faith.

The face of religion in college is much different than the face of religion in our younger years. This is likely not because we must develop our faith by ourselves, but because many of us encounter religious extremists we haven't seen previously.

It also seems we have come to a point that we can't even have discussions about religion or faith in public anymore thanks to political correctness. Instead of listening to others' viewpoints, many people attack them and attempt to influence the religious views of others.

It seems that those who have the most faith often misrepresent it the most. As a Christian, I get embarrassed when I see evangelists chasing after students to give them a pamphlet about finding Jesus. What kind of message does that send to non-Christians? Who am I to say Jews are going to hell just because they don't believe Christ has come yet? I don't want to be "that Christian" who gives the religion a bad name. So instead, I am forced to keep my beliefs to myself. The actions of a select few extremists ultimately shy many away from exploring their own faith.

Keeping your faith in college is a difficult thing because the average student doesn't want his or her values challenged by those with outstanding religious views. Few of us have the motivation to attend services and exercise our faith without nagging from our parents. It is difficult to stand up for your own religious beliefs when the typical college student is happy not believing in much of anything.