The hotly contested statement “God’s not dead,” was discussed in detail on Monday night in Mississippi State University’s Bettersworth Auditorium. The discussion was led by Rice Broocks, the author of the book and inspiration behind the movie series with the same name called “God’s Not Dead,” and Michael Guillen, Emmy-Award-winning journalist and former science editor of ABC News for 14 years.
Guillen and Broocks spent the evening talking to students and faculty members about the evidence for how God exists and how he is not dead. The debate on whether or not God exists has always been prominent. According to Guillen and Broocks, this debate is between people of faith and people of science.
During the presentation, Broocks talked about his past and how he was not always very religious. 
“It was on this campus that I had that moment of what I’d call ‘a lightning strike of spirituality,’ because before I was definitely not that guy,” Broocks said. “I grew up being forced to go to church, my older brother became an atheist and went on to get a master’s degree in psychology, and he made it his hobby to harass Christians, and try his best to get you un-baptized. So, when people ask me where the ‘God’s Not Dead’ books and movies came from, I’ll tell them that it all came down to an encounter I had at Mississippi State with a Christian at the Baptist Student Union.”
The Christian that led Broocks to this spiritual awakening, Greg Anthony, was also in the auditorium during the talk.
“My life changed after that night,” Broocks said. “The challenge after that was getting through to my family about my new Christian faith. My brother came home from law school to study the Bible and pick out all the mistakes. He eventually got baptized.”
Broocks started working on campuses and eventually went on to write “God’s Not Dead.”
Guillen made sure to say this presentation was not a seminar on the Bible. Instead, it was a cumulative case on whether or not God exists. He used the phrase “if everything came from nothing” frequently during his discussion. He said a lot of scientists use the same argument that the universe just appeared from nothing. 
“It’s been proven that the universe, specifically earth itself, was expertly designed and perfectly balanced to be able to hold life,” Guillen said. “There’s so much evidence that it all was crafted by an intelligent being, something of a much higher power.”
Guillen and Broocks went on to show the audience several different videos that broke down the evidence for God. The videos included information such as the existence of Jesus as a real person, the historical fact of his crucifixion, his followers claiming they saw Jesus alive after he rose from the dead and his  empty tomb found by his female followers early on Easter morning. They concluded the presentation by holding a question and answer panel for audience members that still had questions. 
Homs Callen, an MSU student attending the presentation, said he was happy he took the time to listen to Broocks and Guillen.   
“I really enjoyed this presentation,” Callen said. “I’m Christian anyway, and I believe in the theology of a lot of this stuff, and the scientific evidence that Dr. Broocks and Dr. Guillen provided was a little more reassuring of my faith, and how just one change, a tiny little shift in the balance, can make a difference in what’s happening right now.”
Callen said he hopes that people will give this presentation a chance in the future, even if they don’t believe in God or a higher power. 
“I would absolutely recommend this event to others,” Callen said. “If you’re an atheist, a deist, and whatever you believe in or don’t believe in, and have just two hours, it’s definitely worth it.”