God's Not Dead (He's Surely Alive)

God's Not Dead is a Christian movie about defending the veracity of the existence of God, and accepting him. The movie is told from 5 perspectives. Josh, a firm believe in Christ, Amy, an animal activist, Ayisha, a girl who's hiding her faith from her dad, Mia, a christian who's dating an atheist that degrades her and Dave, a pastor.

Each character's perspective talks about different kinds of situations involving faith. Josh, dealing with an atheist professor who is later on shown as someone who believes in antitheism. Amy, someone dealing with cancer, realising that she cannot escape from death, and that worldly treasures are temporary. Ayisha, a girl from a strict muslim family who is a closeted Christian, Mia, who's dating Josh's professor who disparage her because of her faith and Dave, a pastor who's car won't work. This may seem unimportant, but it's a huge reason why the other people's faith in God increases throughout the movie.

The movie talks about many controversial issues, such as the beginning of the universe, being born into your religion, prioritising God or other people, self proclamations as God and more. My favourite part of the movie was when they talked about how proving God is easier than disproving God. It's amazing how people can focus so closely on what particular side of things, that they completely miss the other.

The whole movie was weaved so well that each story connected even if the people didn't know each other. The character development was noticeable as some find Christ, and others faith increased. The movie portrayal of atheist was a bit of a concern to me. I personally thought that they made the atheist way too condescending and rude, mocking other people's religion and discriminating against other people because of their faith in God, calling Christianity the epitome of evil, saying it's propaganda, and going as far as calling God a "Supreme Dictator."

Overall, the movie had a great portrayal of Christianity and made me think a lot about my faith. It reminded me of how great God is, and how God is always here for us. The only problem with this was the overly misrepresented portrayal of atheists (although there are some atheist like this), but besides that, everything was fantastic.

- Tehsin Hsieh (17/09/18)