I was already a Christian by the time I made it to university, but I had never seen the sorts of sophisticated arguments that could be presented for Christianity. Somehow, I stumbled upon a website called Leadership University, and that pointed me to a whole bunch of Christian professors who had written essays on a wide variety of topics. From there, I was able to locate actual lectures they had given to students on university campuses.
Although I grew up in a trashy communist country, I was still able to order campus lectures on audio cassette or VHS video tape. I got them from Veritas Forum, Integrated Resources, Access Research Network, etc. So I was able to listen to and watch lots of lectures by Phillip E. Johnson, Michael Behe, Walter Bradley, Henry F. Schaefer, J. P. Moreland and of course William Lane Craig. Some of these recordings were actual debates between a Christian and a non-Christian. That’s how I got serious about Christianity.
There is just something about watching a Christian professor get up on stage at a secular research university and deliver a lecture to non-Christian faculty, graduate students and undergrad students. And then take questions – that’s the key part that’s so different from church sermons and vacation Bible school. In the campus lectures, you can see hostile questions from non-Christian thinkers being handled gracefully by Christian scholars. Sometimes I wonder if the reason I stuck with Christianity this far is because of the non-traditional way that I learned about it.
Anyway, what made me think about this? Well, it was this interesting article written by physicist Dr. Brian Miller. We just had him on the Knight and Rose Show, to discuss fine-tuning and the multiverse. He just did some talks at a different universities, and I wanted to share what he wrote and the video of one of the talks with you.
Here’s what he wrote:
I recently had the privilege of speaking at High Point University, ranked the best-run university in the country, and at Duke University, my alma mater, on the cumulative case for God drawn from cosmology, the origin of life, and the centrality of information in biology.
I was joined by Dr. Rice Broocks, whose training in philosophy and history complemented my scientific expertise. Over the past several years, we have also addressed students together at several other universities, such as Berkeley and MIT, engaging in questions at the intersection of science, philosophy, and Christian thought. Last year, I spoke at the University of Washington, and the presentation, along with the Q&A, was recorded. The consistently positive response reflects a deep hunger among students to examine foundational questions of truth, meaning, and purpose.
Dr. Broocks and I labored to create an atmosphere in which listeners from any philosophical or religious background felt respected and safe to share their ideas.
So, the key part is that when you are on a non-Christian university campus then you really have to know your stuff. Because people who don’t agree with you are going to ask you questions, and this is in front of a live audience, and the recording is probably going on the Internet.
Brian listed some of the questions that he was asked:
- How can we infer that Earth was designed if we do not know the total number of planets? I addressed this question in a recent article (here).
- In what ways can evolutionary theory be integrated with faith, and which evolutionary claims conflict with traditional religious beliefs?
- To what extent is modern science consistent with various religious doctrines?
- If God is an all-powerful creator who is directly involved in the world, why does so much evil and suffering exist?
- What role does evidence play in Christianity, if religion is supposed to be grounded in faith?
- Why should anyone even pursue the ultimate truth? Isn’t skepticism the easiest option?
Have you ever heard any Christian leader in a church take questions from a non-Christian? Have you ever heard a Christian leader in a church even interact with non-Christian views? Have you ever heard a Christian leader in a church explain why people who go to church just assume that the Bible is authoritative? Most people who grow up in the church never hear questions, because most leaders in the church don’t know how to answer them. And that does send a message to young people about the sort of thing that Christianity is. As J. P. Moreland says, most Christians see Christianty as a “faith tradition”. But Moreland says that Christianity is actually a “knowledge tradition”. Young Christians dump Christianity because a “faith tradition” grounded in community is easily swept away when they arrive at university and have a new godless community. But if they were trained to see why Christianity is a “knowledge tradition”, then maybe they would be a bit more resilient.
Anyway, back to Dr. Miller. Here’s a lecture where Dr. Miller shares reasons and evidence for the core claims of his Christian worldview:
Here’s the summary:
- evidence for an origin of the universe
- evidence for cosmic fine-tuning
- evidence for habitability fine-tuning
- evidence from the origin of life
- refutation of naturalistic alternatives
So, there is a “show your work” approach to Christianity that is going on outside of the church / family environment. That’s how I learned about it, and I’m still taking Christianity seriously even in my wealthy early retirement years, where I don’t have any felt needs. People who stick with Christianity over the long-term don’t do it because of “needs” or “feelings”. They choose it because it’s true. Christianity actually makes life harder these days, because of the moral rules, the self-denial and the social disapproval. But real Christians like all that, because we want to suffer like Jesus suffered for obeying the Father. We like losing some of our autonomy for the sake of relationship and we like taking a loss to our reputations when we stick up for the Boss. Christianity is life on hard mode, and we like that. We want the deep vertical relationship more than we want the shallow horizontal relationships.
Let me know in the comments if you have any experience with campus lectures and debates contributing to your lasting faith.
WINTERY KNIGHT 