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"A Christian, an Atheist and God"

Source: the Cal Poly Pomona Post
Date: April 26, 2005
Author: Lucian Fong

The Round Earth Society and Campus Crusade for Christ organized a debate to address the question of God’s existence Tuesday in the University Quad.

D.J. Grothe, program director of the Center for Inquiry, and Jon Rittenhouse, an adjunct professor at Biola University, argued the merits of their own beliefs while criticizing others’ to an audience of more than 400 people.

The debate began with each speaker introducing arguments in a prepared statement. Grothe—speaking on behalf of atheism—contended that the lack of physical proof of God and an immaterial soul was the strongest evidence against theism.

“In each of those areas, we can ask, what would we expect the world to be like if there were a supernatural being who is all knowing, all powerful, perfectly good, who created the universe and who seeks a loving relationship with humanity?” he asked. “In each area, we discover that the world turns out to be exactly like you’d expect it to be if there were no God.”

Rittenhouse, who represented the Christian faith, used empirical data from cosmology, physics, metaphysics and history in his case against atheism.

“If atheism is right, then you and I are simply accidents amid a mindless, purposeless evolutionary process that will cease when the universe dies,” he said.

Though the speakers were unable to cover all the related topics in the time allotted, many students found the two-hour debate stimulating.

“I found the discussion on faith the most interesting,” said Kyle Hiner, a fourth-year physics student.

“I agreed with Grothe when he said that someone who has no reason to believe in God, but does because they know in their heart—because they have faith—is a very beautiful thing.”

Richie Myers, a first-year history student, said the debate positively affected his faith in God.

“It changes my evidence for believing, it grounds my defenses for what [atheists are] saying,” he said.

The two scholars were also given the opportunity to ask and respond to questions. Among the most popular topics were faith in the existence of God and the basis for objective moral and ethical standards.

“Faith doesn’t go contrary to data or reason, but faith has an element of trust and confidence,” said Rittenhouse in response to an members question.

He expounded his conviction of believing in immaterial concepts like love and relationships.

Both scholars agreed that paranormal events, such as near-death experiences and faith healing, should not be used as a springboard to faith in a higher being.

“Just because you don’t have an answer for something doesn’t mean that you need to jump to a supernatural explanation,” said Grothe.

Rittenhouse invited Grothe to explain his foundation for morality and ethics.

“The non-religious ethical person believes in inquiry, not in a whole host of rights and wrongs handed down through the ages that don’t seem to involve evolving,” said Grothe. “I believe that morality should be able to be changed in light of new evidence.”

In his closing statement, Grothe challenged the audience to question each other’s belief systems.

“As a skeptic [and] as an atheist, I argue that you should only believe things for which there is adequate evidence and I think there is no adequate evidence for believing in God’s existence.”

Rittenhouse concluded by offering additional proof for the existence of God.

“Because of the personal experience of having a relationship with the God of the universe and seeing him work in my life, that counts as a piece of the evidence even though that doesn’t answer the question totally,” he said.

Misha Novini, the founder and president of the Round Earth Society, was motivated to organize such an event by his love for debate and discussion.

“A debate is the best way to get people to think about the arguments pertaining to a particular question and, of course, the question of God’s existence is one of the most important questions in any person’s life,” he said.

He hopes to hold other debates in the future to address other issues relevant to religion.

The Campus Crusade for Christ is a Christian group that seeks to help students with their academic and spiritual needs.

The Round Earth Society is an organization of free thinkers who promote tolerance.

This article was retrieved from the Cal Poly Pomona Post at  http://thepolypost.com/story.php?story=2452

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