During the first few weeks of class, I am sure we all saw the posters scattered across campus. Sometimes, it felt as if everywhere you looked, you saw the grayscale message of large, bold letters, accented with a bright shade of yellow. The papers announced a short, simple statement, “GOD’S NOT DEAD – EVIDENCE FOR GOD IN AN AGE OF UNCERTAINTY.” The message quickly caught my attention.

Growing up in central Alabama, surrounded by the culture of the “Bible-Belt,” very few people ever questioned the existence of a god. Whether they belonged to the Christian church, or they followed a different religion; nearly every person I knew claimed, in some way, to be a part of some sort of religion. In my younger years, I went along with the “status-quo” without thinking, but as I started into my teenage years, I saw how many of my friends had no foundation for their faith, and it caused me to walk away from it myself. I kept attending church and calling myself a Christian for several years, but I really didn’t care for anything the church, or anyone else, had to say about God.

After those years, however, I started to realize that I ignored the idea of a god, without actually proving the idea wrong. So I set out to do just that. I started looking into as many atheistic arguments that I could find. But, in the middle of trying to show myself why a higher power couldn’t exist, I ended up showing myself that it could. As time went on, I eventually started to truly believe that He does.

Because of my own story, I was excited to learn more about the “God’s Not Dead” event. Despite my own ideas, I went into the event with a critical mindset. Over time, I’ve heard many people make claims about things being “proof” of God’s existence, when those “proofs” prove nothing at all. In spite of this, I was encouraged by the backgrounds of both Addison Tweedy and Dr. Ming Wang, the speakers of the event. Tweedy’s background in Christian apologetics paired with Dr. Wang’s background in Medicine and Physics gave me hope for a well-studied presentation. With that being said, I was also on the lookout for any religious biases in their facts.

Throughout the event, I was happy to hear a very honest, open minded, and well organized presentation. In Dr. Wang’s own words, “The differentiating feature of this presentation is: Assume Nothing.” Given my worry of bias, I was excited to hear this.

As the night went on, I saw a well-structured presentation of Tweedy and Wang’s beliefs. While I didn’t agree with every point they made, I did enjoy the event. But what I enjoyed more was hearing people take the time to think critically about what they believe. They didn’t have a blind faith. 

With that being said, I’m not writing this just to promote my own beliefs or an event. I’m writing to ask a question. The “God’s Not Dead” event presented their answer; it’s a question that we should all answer for ourselves. Is God dead? I believe answering that question is one of the most crucial building blocks of our worldview. What’s your answer?