Ratio Christi welcomed author and public speaker Dr. William Lane Craig to Kennesaw State University Tuesday, Feb. 2 to lecture and provide his evidence for the existence of God.
Both students and parents gathered in the auditorium of the social sciences building. The audience was large enough to warrant an overflow room with a live video feed as the auditorium reached capacity.
Before the lecture began, raffle tickets were distributed with a survey, asking for each attendant’s religious belief: atheist, theist or agnostic. Jonathan Mann, president of Ratio Christi, explained later that the purpose of this survey was to record student’s thoughts.
“We want to know what is going on in people’s minds,” Mann said.
After Mann introduced the speaker and gave his thanks to the event sponsors, Craig approached the podium and outlined his talking points. Specifically, he wanted to make special reference to previous arguments of world-renowned atheistic scientist and author Richard Dawkins, who visited KSU for his own question-and-answer session in November 2014.
Craig’s evidence for the existence of God covered five main points: the contingency argument, cosmological argument, the moral argument, teleological argument and the ontological argument. Four out of the five points made were accompanied by a video from his YouTube channel. Craig both educated and entertained listeners by mixing video with lecture.
After an extensive explanation of his evidence for God, a 20 minute question-and-answer portion was allowed.
“Mainly the questions at the end are what I liked about this event,” said junior and public relations major Sadie Flesher.
The question-and-answer portion exposed more personal responses from Craig. After a student asked about the intent of his presentation, he explained how he became a Christian. Craig said it was in his junior year of high school, mostly because of a classmate. After wrestling with it for six months, he decided to commit to the religion.
“If this is really the truth that there is a God who created you, who loves you, who wants to give you eternal life forever, this is the greatest news ever,” Craig said. “I love to share this news with people, and especially with university students who are around the same age that I was when my life was turned upside down.”
When asked why this topic is so important to him, Craig explained his belief that “the meaning and significance of human life hangs upon the answer to this question.”
One student, sophomore and mechanical engineering major Michael Strong, called Craig’s lecture “the most philosophical explanation toward the proof of a God I’ve ever witnessed.”
Mann said he was pleased with how the event turned out. Ratio Christi also calls itself the Campus Apologetics Alliance on its website. It was founded in 2013 and “seeks to equip and encourage Christian students with answers to life’s most pressing questions.” The group conducts several events for both Christians and secular students throughout the semester, which can be found on its Facebook page.
