From New Atheism to a New Openness to God

For years, Professor Doug Allen and other Christian faculty members at Simon Fraser University struggled to generate meaningful spiritual interest on their campus. At the height of new atheism, they bought potato chips and invited students to ask questions about the Bible. They discovered that the students were more interested in challenging whether God existed at all.

But over time, Doug began noticing a change. The aggressive skepticism that had once characterized many students was giving way to a new spiritual openness. Students were no longer necessarily rejecting the possibility of God; many were searching for something deeper and trying to understand what they were missing.

Jason Huang is a living example of that changing spiritual environment. When Jason arrived in Canada, he knew almost nothing about Christianity. A vivid dream prompted him to begin searching, and a Billy Graham message helped him recognize the emptiness of pursuing the things in the world without Christ. After discovering the faculty-and-student organization called God and Reason, Jason found Christian professors who welcomed his questions, connected him with a church, and helped him grow in his new faith. He was baptized and eventually became one of the group’s primary student leaders.

In this episode, Doug and Jason share how Christian professors and students can recognize spiritual hunger, create welcoming places for honest questions, and work together to help a new generation encounter Jesus. Their story is a hopeful reminder that God is already at work changing the spiritual climate of university campuses, and He invites both professors and students to join Him.

To learn more about their ministry, check out their official Website: https://www.godandreason.com/ and their Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/godandreason

Resources from Faculty Commons, a Cru ministry:

• Find 500+ Christian professors at https://meettheprof.com/
• Faculty Commons – https://www.facultycommons.org/
• A Grander Story – https://a.co/d/8VoYXSV
• EveryStudent.com – https://www.everystudent.com/

Watch MTP on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@MeetTheProfOfficial/videos

You can support Meet The Prof through Shane Hartley's work with Faculty Commons, a Cru ministry, at this link: ⁠⁠⁠https://give.cru.org/0424344⁠⁠⁠