Week 2 Exercises — Truth on Your Feet

Five reps to turn this week’s chapter from something you read into something you can do — kindly, out loud, under a little pressure. Budget about forty-five minutes total. Keep your answers in your Portfolio folder (a doc, a notebook, whatever you set up in Appendix A); they feed straight into Project 2. The keyboard and the mirror are the gym here — don’t just think these, write and say them.

Ground rules

• Write it in your own words. Don’t have an AI answer these for you — the point is your reflexes. (The one place you’ll use AI on purpose is Rep 5 and the project, and even there you’re the one practicing.)
• Say the hard ones out loud. A sentence you can write but can’t say gently at a lunch table isn’t finished yet.
• Keep it gentle. Every rep this week has a “did I stay warm?” test built in. Winning the point and losing the person is a failed rep.

Rep 1 — Define truth in one breath

Write a single plain sentence defining what truth is — no jargon, the way you’d say it to a friend who isn’t religious. Then write two examples of things that are true for everyone and two things that are genuinely relative (a taste, a preference).

Produce: the one-sentence definition + a four-item list. Check yourself: could a tired friend repeat your definition back after hearing it once? If not, cut a word and try again.

Rep 2 — Turn the slogan on itself

Take these four statements and, for each, write the one-sentence question that aims it back at itself: (a) “There is no absolute truth.” (b) “That’s just your truth.” (c) “You shouldn’t push your beliefs on others.” (d) “It’s arrogant to say you’re right about religion.”

Produce: four turn-it-around questions, plus one sentence each explaining why the statement fails its own test. Check yourself: each question should make the contradiction obvious without name-calling. If it sounds like a gotcha, rewrite it warmer.

Rep 3 — Feeling, sincerity, or reality?

Below are six things a real person might say. For each, label it a feeling report, a sincerity claim, or a truth claim about reality — and write the one gentle sentence you’d say next: (1) “I just feel like a good God wouldn’t allow that.” (2) “The tomb was really found empty.” (3) “I’ve always believed we all end up in the same place.” (4) “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere.” (5) “The Gospels were written in the first century.” (6) “Church always made me feel judged.”

Produce: six labels + six one-sentence responses. Check yourself: notice which ones you’d receive before you reason — did you lead with the ear on the wounds (1, 6) and the two questions on the claims (3, 4)?

Rep 4 — Write your 60-second answer

Draft your own spoken-length answer (about 150 words — roughly one minute out loud) to a friend who says, “I’m glad that’s true for you.” Include, in your own voice: one warm opener that receives them, the move that truth is true-for-everyone-or-not-at-all, and one of the two questions to hand the conversation back. Then read it aloud and time it. Revise anything that sounds like a lecture.

Produce: a ~150-word answer you’ve actually said out loud once. Check yourself: did you end with a question or an open door — not a mic drop?

Rep 5 — Warm up the two questions

Pick one real objection you’ve genuinely heard (“the Bible’s full of contradictions,” “all religions basically teach the same thing,” etc.). Practice responding using only the two questions — “What do you mean by that?” and “How did you come to that conclusion?” — for at least three back-and-forths, either by role-playing with a willing friend or by having a free AI assistant play the skeptic (see Appendix A; remember the house rule — verify anything factual it says). Write down where the questions took the conversation.

Produce: a short transcript or summary of three exchanges + two sentences on what the questions uncovered that you didn’t expect. Check yourself: did you find out the person’s real objection before answering it? End with your one-line AI usage note if you used a tool (what you asked, anything it got wrong, what you verified).

Check yourself

A good week-2 rep set looks like this:

• Your definition of truth fits in one breath and a non-religious friend would accept it.
• You can turn any of the four slogans back on itself gently — the contradiction shows, but nobody gets humiliated.
• You caught yourself receiving feelings and wounds before reasoning, and reaching for the two questions on the claims.
• Your 60-second answer has actually left your mouth at least once, and it ends with a door open, not slammed.
• You practiced the two questions live and can name what they uncovered — proof they carry a conversation further than a lecture.

Nail these and you’re ready to spar for real. On to Project 2 — The Conversation Lab.