‘Does God Exist?’ will be debate topic

A debate on the topic “Does God Exist?” will be one of the highlights of the Fresno Veritas Forum at Fresno State, Feb. 15-17, sponsored by Associated Students and a coalition of other campus and community groups.

 The debaters will be Dr. William Lane Craig, research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, and Dr. Austin Dacey, a philosopher and writer who has lectured and published widely on issues at the intersection of science, religion, ethics and society.

The debate will be held on Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Satellite Student Union.

The Veritas Forum (from the Latin words meaning “a public discussion of truth”) was founded in 1992 by a group of graduate students at Harvard University who sought to bring their hardest questions about life and truth before the campus community. Now a national organization, the Veritas Forum has been held at more than 50 universities across the United States.

The forum at Fresno State is locally planned and organized, with assistance from the national organization. The three days of meetings, lectures, debates and discussions among invited speakers, students and faculty are free and open to the public, said Neil Gibson, a Fresno State student who is among the campus and community organizers.

The “Does God Exist?” debate is one of several events that should draw interest, said Gibson. The complete program will be available soon at www.fresnoveritas.com.

William Lane Craig pursued his undergraduate studies at Wheaton College (B.A. 1971) and graduate studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.A. 1974; M.A. 1975), the University of Birmingham (England) (Ph.D. 1977), and the University of Munich (Germany) ( D.Theol. 1984). From 1980-86 he taught Philosophy of Religion at Trinity. In 1987 they moved to Brussels, Belgium, where Dr. Craig pursued research at the University of Louvain until 1994.

Austin Dacey works for the Center for Inquiry, a think tank affiliated with the State University of New York at Buffalo. He serves as director of research and education and executive editor of Philo, an academic journal specializing in philosophical naturalism. He is a regular contributor to the magazines Free Inquiry and Skeptical Inquirer and author of The Case for Humanism: An Introduction, an undergraduate textbook. In 2002 he earned a doctorate in applied philosophy from Bowling Green State University. He lives in New York City.