On Friday at 8:30 p.m., Room 310b of the Student Center was sparsely populated by a motley group of students who convened to ponder the perennial question: Is there a God? The focus of the event was a PowerPoint presentation by Frank Turek, author of “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist,” followed by a Q & A session.
Turek’s approach to evangelism is unconventional in that it attempts to justify faith through science and philosophy.
“I think most college students today are modern,” Turek said. “What does that mean? That they believe science yields truth. And they’re right. Science does yield truth, so let’s take a look at some scientific arguments related to the existence of the second question, ‘Does God exist?’”
Turek’s presentation was held by New Life Church of Ann Arbor. John Allen, the church’s campus minister, oversaw the event. He argued it is especially important to approach college students with these ideas.
“College students are no longer under their parents’ control,” Allen said. “They’re at the point where they’re trying to discover what’s true. They can do whatever they want. They’re actually experiencing free will.”
During Turek’s hour-long presentation, he attempted to convince students modern scientific evidence irrefutably attests to the existence of a Christian god. He argued to believe in that god is not only logical, but reasonably denying that god’s existence is philosophically impossible. These views inform the title of his book and the nature of his presentations.
Commenting on this, Allen expressed the irony that science and religion are typically regarded as mutually exclusive.
“There is a comparable percentage of people in science who believe in God as in any other profession,” he said. “There’s just an illusion scientists don’t believe in God. Modern science began from Christians who believed studying science was a way to know God better.”
Tommy DeMarr, a junior at EMU studying athletic training, is a Christian who came to Turek’s discussion in hopes of learning new ways to explain his faith to his atheist peers.
“I know a lot of atheists,” DeMarr said. “It’s important to me to dig deeper and find out how I could respectfully communicate to them what I believe. I was raised Christian, but I had to figure out my beliefs for myself. I believe there is reason behind it.”
Glenn Moore, a junior at EMU studying business administration, is a Christian and found Turek’s presentation to be empowering.
“I thought it was a really good presentation,” Moore said. “It strengthened my convictions as far as understanding faith from a philosophical perspective.”
Moore said in his youth, his faith was due almost exclusively to his upbringing and argued forums like Turek’s presentation provide opportunities to openly discuss questions that ultimately strengthen faith and provide Christians with a deeper and more informed explanation of their faith.
“I always believed but there was that question, ‘How do I know for sure?’ At first I believed in God because that’s how I grew up,” Moore sad. “Once I started studying it, some questions came up and it really strengthened my faith. I came to feel that there is no question. There is so much evidence that there is a God.”
Among the students who came to Turek’s presentation, a handful were agnostic or atheist.
Anastasia Device, a transfer to EMU studying English linguistics, is an atheist and came to Turek’s presentation to
provide a dissenting voice. She said she found the people to be welcoming but took issue with Turek’s rhetoric. When asked her opinion of the presentation’s title, named after Turek’s book, Device couldn’t help but laugh.
“I think it’s kind of hilarious,” Device said. “Faith means believing in something despite a lack of evidence. People have faith in god despite that they can’t see god. That’s the nature of faith. So by [Turek’s] saying he doesn’t have enough faith to be an atheist, I think he’s trying to imply atheists have faith in nothing. But really, atheists simply have no faith in
a god. That’s the point of being an atheist.”
Many of the Christian students seemed to disagree.
“I do believe it takes way more faith to be an atheist,” Moore said. “To me, it’s scarier. As Dr. Turek said, if just a few cosmological factors changed, we wouldn’t even exist. I believe God keeps that in order. Otherwise we could have been wiped out by asteroids. To me, it just shows how great and awesome God is.”
Daniel Randau, an international student from Germany, is an atheist who attended the presentation out of interest in
apologetics and theology.
“Apologetics and theology are hobbies,” Randau said. “I was curious to see apologetics in action. We don’t have discussions like this in Germany. There aren’t any people writing apologetic books making book tours.”
Upon commenting on the presentation’s title, Randau found it to be misrepresentative of atheists.
“I’m an atheist because there is absolutely no conclusive evidence pointing to the existence of a supernatural entity. So why would I assume that there is one?” Randau said. “It seems like common sense to say supernatural things do not exist.”
The perspective of Turek and his Christian supporters was quite the opposite.
“There must be a God,” Allen said. “It’s not just a nice idea. The universe wouldn’t make sense without a God. I don’t believe the universe could have happened by chance. The mathematical odds are outrageous.”
Mary Scott, a sophomore at EMU studying speech pathology, is a Christian. She admired Turek’s presentation but also questioned the effectiveness of these forums at meaningfully communicating to people who aren’t Christians.
“In my experience, I’ve never seen this to be especially effective,” Scott said. “These are the same arguments people who don’t believe in God have heard. That’s not to say people shouldn’t hold events like this, because this kind of discussion is good for having people think about why they believe what they believe. But as far as changing minds, afterwards one side is saying, ‘Let’s convince that side,’ and the other side is saying, ‘We’re not going to be convinced.’ It seems to inflame conflict more than resolve it, because both sides are posing hackneyed self-perpetuating arguments to each
other.”
Evidence of Scott’s point was plentiful during the Q & A section of the event. Atheist and agnostic students openly asked questions that opposed Turek’s arguments. Turek attempted to answer their questions in ways that would erode their skepticism and refute their objections, but the philosophical divide was never bridged.
Turek often seemed frustrated, ending discussions to move onto a different question, usually citing time constraints.
The discussions were manifestly diplomatic but latently tense. Turek interrupted dissenting students just as quickly as he protested their interruptions. Ultimately, the dissenting students seemed unsatisfied with his attempts to answer their questions and unmoved by his presentation.
“I noticed he generally responded to all hard questions with non-sequiturs,” Device said.
Further exemplifying Scott’s point was the presentation’s effect on Randau.
“It certainly was a very interesting event,” Randau said. “I learned a lot but it was hard to understand what he was driving at. To go from the physical fact that the universe must have an existence, to arrive from that at the fact that the universe must have a personal creator, I don’t get it. The presentation was not very helpful in going into this specific point and making this any clearer to me how you would arrive at this conclusion.”
Despite dissent among the students who attended the event, both about the existence of a Christian god and the quality
of Turek’s presentation, it is clear this was an important topic to all. The question of this god’s existence seems one that many students, on either side of the philosophical schism, are passionately interested in discussing. Allen argued it is the most important question, and a student’s entire life is based on how he or she personally answers that question.
“That changes the whole story,” Allen said. “If there is a God, there is such a thing as hope; there is such a thing as meaning; there is such a thing as purpose; there is such a thing as life after death. If there is no God, all of those things don’t exist. So it has to be the most important question. From that comes everything else. Whether you believe in God is going to affect your entire life. That’s why we’re here. It’s that important to talk about.”
