Chris Swanson
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
A six-part series during IAP exploring some of the top questions and objections to belief in God and Christianity. Each session will start with a free dinner, followed by a guest speaker and then a time of Question and Answer, and discussion. Dessert and Hot Chocolate provided too!
Check out www.reasoningforgod.com for more details.
Sponsor(s): Cru
Contact: Chris Swanson, 515-451-9542, CSWANSON@MIT.EDU
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Jan/16 | Tue | 06:30PM-08:00PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge |
Human beings possess an incredible array of meaningful characteristics. We seem to exist as individual selves capable of relationships, art, language, creativity and beauty. How can we best explain these phenomena? Are we capable of self-definition? Is God needed to understand who we are and what it means to be human? Do we need God, something external to the human experience, to truly know ourselves?
| Jan/18 | Thu | 06:30PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge, Dr. Troy Van Voorhis, MIT Professor of Chemistry |
Can any thinking and science-minded person believe in the miraculous claims of religion? How can science and miracles co-exist?
| Jan/23 | Tue | 06:30PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge |
Our world is filled with complex moral challenges. What best explains our experiences of morality? Are our moral intuitions reducible to a set of evolutionary processes? Can genuine moral reasoning exist without God? Can't we be good without God, and isn't that all we need to be concerned about?
| Jan/25 | Thu | 06:30PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge, Dr. Ian Hutchinson, MIT Professor |
What is faith? Isn't blind faith the problem and critical thinking the solution? Isn't there a difference between accepting expertise and bowing to authority? Is a faith-based view a liability in science? What is the relationship between faith and science?
| Jan/30 | Tue | 06:30PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge, Dr. Tom Rudelius |
The fundamental laws of nature in our universe appear to be "fine-tuned" to allow for intelligent life. Are there clues for God's existence evident in the cosmos? In this talk, we'll explore possible explanations for this phenomenon and speculate on the possible role of a designer.
| Feb/01 | Thu | 06:30PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge |
How could a good God, who is also all-powerful, allow evil and suffering? Does the existence of evil and suffering disprove God?