Kevin Sorbo<\/a>) demands that all of his students must sign a declaration that \u201cGod is dead\u201d in order to get a passing grade. Josh refuses and will go to any lengths to defend his belief in God, but he needs to take this class to meet his academic requirements. And so the professor strikes a bargain: Josh must defend his position that \u201cGod is Alive\u201d in a series of debates with him in order to stay in the class. If he loses, he flunks. When Josh accepts the challenge, he gets more than he bargained for\u2014jeopardizing his faith, his relationships, and even his future.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI\u2019ve been attending state universities as an undergraduate and now graduate student for almost a decade, and let me tell you, this is not how college works. Professors cannot require students to deny God\u2019s existence to pass a class.<\/p>\n
Actually, after hearing things like this growing up in an\u00a0evangelical\u00a0family, church, and community, I myself set off for university a decade ago expecting to come face to\u00a0face with liberal atheist college professors eager to attack my faith. And you know what? That\u2019s not what happened. To this day I do not know the religious beliefs of any of my professors, including those whom I found most influential. I do know some of their political beliefs, but even the most left-leaning professors always framed their classes in such a way as to allow for diversity of thought and opinion. No professor ever told me what to believe. Instead, they encouraged me to think. And that was it.<\/p>\n
In fact, I was so taken aback by the difference between what I\u2019d been taught to expect and what I actually experienced that I wondered out loud to a friend at one point whether my inability to detect my professor\u2019s attempts to brainwash me might mean I was actually being brainwashed. (Of course, the alternate theory was that my professors were not actually trying to brainwash me.)<\/p>\n
I was also told growing up that atheists are not really atheists at all, they\u2019re just angry at God. Or, they\u2019re denying the existence of God because they don\u2019t want to be held accountable for their actions. In fact, the idea that atheists might literally not believe in a God was foreign to me.<\/p>\n
And now I am one. Me, a dreaded atheist.<\/em><\/p>\nI don\u2019t believe in a god. Horrors, I know! But in contrast to what I was taught about atheists growing up, I don\u2019t disbelieve because I\u2019m angry or don\u2019t want accountability. Instead, I disbelieve in God in the same way that I disbelieve in fairies. I honestly don\u2019t think there is a god<\/em>. I have concluded, based on the knowledge available to me and my life experiences, that there most likely is no god. This isn\u2019t about a grudge or a vendetta, and this isn\u2019t something I could snap my fingers and change even if I wanted to.<\/p>\nI\u2019m not fully open to my parents and siblings about my lack of belief, though I\u2019m pretty sure they suspect it. I also know that my mother, at least, is unhappy with the length of time I have spent in academia. She sees this as me putting worldly wisdom over spiritual wisdom, and drinking at the font of secular knowledge rather than at the font of God\u2019s word. I also know that movies like this shape their perception of me, and that\u2019s discouraging. Will they ever be able to actually understand me and who I am if they view me through such distorted lenses?<\/p>\n
Ironically, I actually agree with the movie\u2019s title\u2014God\u2019s not dead. I would suggest that God\u2019s not dead because there never was a God to start with, but I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s not what they\u2019re going for. I would also suggest that God\u2019s not dead because the concept of God is alive both in people\u2019s minds and in many communities and societies, but again, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what they\u2019re going for.<\/p>\n
If anyone needs me, I\u2019ll be over here studiously avoiding discussing this movie with my parents and siblings. I dislike conflict, and even more than that I dislike one-dimensional caricatures and inaccurate stereotypes. I hate knowing what they think of me, hate feeling judged and looked down on. I\u2019m sick of the boxes, I just want to live. But apparently that\u2019s too much to ask.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If anyone needs me, I’ll be over here studiously avoiding discussing this movie with my parents and siblings. I dislike conflict, and even more than that I dislike one-dimensional caricatures and inaccurate stereotypes. I hate knowing what they think of me, hate feeling judged and looked down on. I’m sick of the boxes, I just want to live. But apparently that’s too much to ask. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,40],"tags":[391],"class_list":["post-20812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","tag-film"],"yoast_head":"\n
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