(Note: I’m pasting this from an e-mail that’s going around.)

Yes: Mark Hausam
No: David Keller
Moderator: Deen Chatterjee

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Meet & Greet: 1:45 pm • Presentation: 2:00 pm • Meeting Closes: 3:30 pm
Salt Lake Main Library, 210 East 400 South

Salt Lake Main Library Auditorium
Free and Open to the Public

“The forum debates the question of God’s existence by looking at historic as well as recent and contemporary developments in science and philosophy. The focus of the debate is whether God exists and how we claim to know about it. If one were to rationally believe that God exists, such belief needs to be supported by good arguments. The debaters are invited to look into a host of arguments to examine the validity of such belief claims. The forum also explores whether an atheist can rationally prove that God doesn’t exist. Just to show that something cannot be proved to exist is not the same as proving that it doesn’t exist. To establish God’s non-existence, one needs a different set of arguments. The forum aims to explore whether such arguments are possible.”

Mark Hausam is an adjunct instructor in philosophy at Salt Lake Community College and an elder at Christ Presbyterian Church. He has an interest in formulating and articulating the evidence for the existence of God and the truth of the Christian religion and exploring how the Christian world-view impacts all of life.

David R. Keller is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Utah Valley State College, where he also serves as Director of the Center for the Study of Ethics and Chair. He is particularly interested in the relationship of religion and public policy in pluralistic societies.

Deen Chatterjee teaches philosophy at the University of Utah and is the editor-in-chief of the forthcoming multi-volume Encyclopedia of Global Justice and the series editor of Studies in Global Justice. His publications include, most recently, Democracy in a Global World: Human Rights and Political Participation in the 21st Century (2007).

Suggested References & Resources

Books suggested by Hausam:

• R. C. Sproul, Not A Chance: The Myth of Chance in Modern Science and Cosmology
• William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics
• Greg Bahnsen, Always Ready
• Phillip E. Johnson, Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law, and Education

Books suggested by Keller:

• David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
• Bertrand Russell, Why I am Not a Christian
• Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
• Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything