"I went into the debate believing in God, and I still believe in God. No amount of scientific data could change that for me," Richard Flynn said. "I didn't attend to be persuaded one way or another -- just to hear the other side, the atheist perspective. His points were impressive, I'll admit, but they couldn't sway me."

William Lane Craig, research professor of philosophy at Biola University's Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, Calif., and Austin Dacey, director of research and education at Amherst, N.Y.-based Center for Inquiry, presented their differing convictions to a crowd that filled the ground floor at the Elliott Hall of Music in a debate titled "Does God Exist?"

Speaking to the affirmative, Craig said God's existence is evident because of the existence of the universe, and all of its "fine-tuning" goes beyond just the Big Bang -- the theory that the universe began with an massive release of energy from a single point.

"God is the best explanation of why something exists rather than nothing," he said. "This is the deepest question in philosophy: Why is there anything rather than nothing?

"It seems plausible that if the universe has an explanation of existence, that explanation is an external, transcendent, personal cause. Why? Because the cause in this case must be greater than the universe."

Dacey, who said he became a born-again Christian in his teen years, based his current atheist position on scientific, logical and other evidence. He said God's hiddenness, the success of science without God's intervention, and faults in the evolution theory negate God's existence.

"The very idea of him literally makes no sense, like a round square," Dacey said. "Many have argued that God is like a round square, that some of his properties, like being all-knowing and transcending time and space, are incompatible. In light of the evidence, atheism is more reasonable to believe than theism.

"The natural sciences have been extremely successful in explaining our world. Every light switch you turn on or every aspirin you take, it's a reminder of it. Science has been very successful without taking God into account."

However, Craig said Jesus' resurrection and belief in objective moral values -- for example, that rape, cruelty and child abuse are moral abominations -- help to explain God's existence.

"Objective moral values are plausibly grounded in God. By objective values, I mean values that are valid and binding whether anybody believes in them or not," Craig said. "Many theists and atheists alike agree that if God does not exist, then moral values are not objective in this way."

Stephanie Carlson of West Lafayette said she attended the debate "because God's existence, I think, is increasingly being questioned among scholars and otherwise.

"I liked what they both had to say. Everything was well-stated and well-researched from Dr. Dacey and Dr. Craig.

"But, especially with this being a college town, you can't ignore science, as Dr. Dacey pointed out. It might be one of those things we'll never have an answer to because everyone is entitled to their opinion. In the end, that's what it comes down to."