Fact or fiction?!

The fact that Jesus was not only born at christmas and died at easter 2000 years ago but also came back to life forms the foundation for the faith of millions of Christians. For others, according to today’s enlightened thinking, this is intellectual suicide or simply irrelevant. Humbug or the most important event in human history?


We want to challenge you to put your fake / fact check in a short video or text and send it in. The best three entries win up to € 200 after a public vote.

The public voting has finished. Join us for the award ceremony on Thursday 18 March 2021!

Why is all of this happening?

Usually we – the students of the ÖSM Graz – are happy to give you free coffee and cake at our annual coffee stands and look forward to talking to you. Since the situation unfortunately does not allow us to make coffee stands this year, we have launched this competition. On request, we will deliver a free coffee & muffin to the first 5 submissions by bike ;).

With this campaign we want to give a small incentive to deal with what we consider to be the most important event in Christianity – the physical resurrection of the person of Jesus after his death. You might be wondering why this is even relevant to the 21st century, not to mention the questionable credibility?


Here are two reasons

First, if Jesus was physically resurrected and this can be verified today, then there is reasonable hope for a better life after death. Good news for everyone who not only suffers from the corona lockdown or a serious illness, but who longs for more. Jesus promises:

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

Jesus to Martha after her brother died

Second, if there is indeed a resurrection after death, then our life choices are no longer meaningless, but gain eternal relevance!

[…] for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Jesus in a dispute with the Jews


If there really is such a thing as universal justice, then right now – in the 21st century of global injustice – it is almost imperative to look into it more closely.

So: Use the Lockdown for something else and maybe even get money for it! Are you in?


Competition Hard Facts

What should I do?

You formulate arguments against the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

How?

In a text with max. 400 words or in a video with max. 3 minutes in length which you send to us per E-mail. Texts and videos are published on YouTube for public voting.

How not?

Unobjective, discriminatory, missing the topic

How much can I win?

200 € for the 1st place
100 € for the 2nd place
50 € for the 3rd place

When?

Closing date for entries is January 24, 2021
Public voting on Youtube until March 14 2021
Award ceremony on March 18 2021

Who can participate?

You, a student at a university in Graz. Members of the ÖSM Graz are excluded.


Competition details

What is it about?

The aim of this competition is to question the most central event of the Christian faith: the resurrection of Jesus.

It is not just a much discussed and hotly controversial topic that many have racked their brains over. Rather, Christianity itself would have no foundation for existence if Jesus had not risen from the dead.

Since we as Christians may have a one-sided view on this topic, we want to know from you what speaks against the fact that Jesus was physically risen in your opinion. We look forward to your well-researched and well-founded arguments!

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile […].

Paul in a letter to the Corinthians

In order to know which arguments Christians commonly make for the resurrection, we’ve put together a few resources as a starting point for you:

Conditions of participation

  • You are a student: In order to receive your price, we will ask you to confirm that you are studying at a Graz university or university of applied sciences or that you have graduated within the winter term 2020/2021.
  • Only one contribution can be sent in per participant.
  • ÖSM members are excluded from the competition.


What should I do?

  • You write a short text (max. 400 words) with your arguments
  • Or you can make a short video (max. 3 minutes) in which you explain your arguments. You don’t have to be visible yourself.
  • In both cases you think of a catchy YouTube title consisting of a maximum of 5 words
  • You think of a pseudonym
  • You send your contribution, including the YouTube title and pseudonym, to us per E-Mail:

Closing date passed!

When is the deadline?

The closing date for entries is January 24, 2021. However, if we receive 50 valid contributions before then, there is a freeze on admission. This will be announced on the website.

Preselection

The 10 best entries for public voting will be selected from the first 50 valid entries. The following criteria are used:

  • Objectivity
  • Creativity
  • Quality (text quality, video quality)

Fair Play criteria

We want to guarantee you a fair, objective competition. We therefore ask that your post is factually focused on the topic and does not digress.

If we find discrimination or hatred in the submissions or if the topic is missed, they will be excluded from the competition.

When is the voting?

The public voting starts on February 14, 2021 and ends on March 14, 2021.

Of course, it helps if you invite many of your friends to take part in the voting;).

How does the public voting work?

The 10 best entries will be published on our YouTube channel under your chosen title and pseudonym.

Videos are loaded directly onto YouTube. Text contributions are read out by us, put into a video and also put on YouTube. This should enable all participants to have the same starting conditions.

Afterwards everyone can upvote videos via YouTube Likes. The entries with the most upvotes win. In order to enable fair play, downvotes are not counted and YouTube’s comment function is deactivated.

Who are the winners?

Those entries with the most upvotes will win the following amount of money that will be good for some student wallets:

1st place: € 200
2nd place: € 100
3rd place: € 50

Regardless of this, of course, each participant and voter gains insights into the best arguments of other students and thus broadens his or her perspective.

Award Ceremony

The award ceremony takes place on Thursday 18 March, 2021 at 7.00pm online. The Zoom link will be posted here. We will celebrate the winners appropriately and hopefully also learn some details in the making process of the videos.

Of course, there will be a subsequent get-together with plenty of (virtual) space for socializing, exchanging views, questions and (hopefully good) answers.

Regardless of whether you can be present at the award ceremony as the winner, we will either transfer the prize money to you or present it in cash (depending on your preference).