God ain't dead? Prove it...

In the past 20 years or so, a frankly contemptuous tone about faith has emerged. I'm not sure anyone would actually argue that, but I believe that one would find -- without much research -- that the New Atheists who have appeared on the scene are polemicists, and, like all polemics, they are designed not to persuade but to stiffen the spines of their supporters and irritate the stomach linings of their enemies. Instead of being mushy and marginalized, new atheism has begun to proclaim its creed, to push God out of the public square, to command the culture.

If indeed atheism has had its moment, and if indeed atheism has begun to sprout and run freely like then so much wasted vegetation, I wonder when those of the faith community will have their moment. When will those, liberal and conservative both, have a brief dialogue that helps them decide that they must respond not because of their politics or such but because Jesus commanded us to?  Perhaps it's next month when the movie God's Not Dead arrives in theaters. Perhaps it will be the month after that or the one after that.

This is the movie synopsis:

"Present-day college freshman and devout Christian, Josh Wheaton (Shane Harper), finds his faith challenged on his first day of Philosophy class by the dogmatic and argumentative Professor Radisson (Kevin Sorbo). Radisson begins class by informing students that they will need to disavow, in writing, the existence of God on that first day, or face a failing grade. As other students in the class begin scribbling the words “God Is Dead” on pieces of paper as instructed, Josh find himself at a crossroads, having to choose between his faith and his future. Josh offers a nervous refusal, provoking an irate reaction from his smug professor. Radisson assigns him a daunting task: if Josh will not admit that “God Is Dead,” he must prove God’s existence by presenting well-researched, intellectual arguments and evidence over the course of the semester, and engage Radisson in a head-to-head debate in front of the class. If Josh fails to convince his classmates of God’s existence, he will fail the course and hinder his lofty academic goals. With almost no one in his corner, Josh wonders if he can really fight for what he believes. Can he actually prove the existence of God?"

I ask all readers this: If you were commanded to prove the existence of God, where would you go to do so, what would you do, how would you go about it?

Or, what the heck, do you even have to do this?

Much of life may seem uncertain, but look at what we can count on day after day: gravity remains consistent, a hot cup of coffee left on a counter will get cold, the earth rotates in the same 24 hours, and the speed of light doesn't change -- on earth or in galaxies far from us. How is it that we can identify laws of nature that never change? Why is the universe so orderly, so reliable?

"The greatest scientists have been struck by how strange this is. There is no logical necessity for a universe that obeys rules, let alone one that abides by the rules of mathematics. This astonishment springs from the recognition that the universe doesn't have to behave this way. It is easy to imagine a universe in which conditions change unpredictably from instant to instant, or even a universe in which things pop in and out of existence."

Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner for quantum electrodynamics, said, "Why nature is mathematical is a mystery...The fact that there are rules at all is a kind of miracle." When I was an agnostic, these types of statements would drive me batty. In other words, I can't find any explanation for this or that, so clearly this must be God.

But the truth is that most of the answers I sought could only be answered by God. He is what makes us who and what we are.

Can I prove the existence of God? I can't even prove I exist, except the obvious. I have done things, You can see those things I have done, thus there is proof, historical evidence. Therefore, I am. He is. We are. None of us need this movie, which debuts March 21, to know this. We see the evidence of the existence of God every single cotton-picking day. He pursues us, and the truth is He ain't all that sneaky about it.

My main man, C.S. Lewis, said he remembered feeling night after night, "whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England."

Proof? Heck, I have eye witnesses.