The Origin of Life: The Great God Debate
Fuz Rana vs. Michael Ruse
Michael Ruse and Fuz Rana square off to debate the question “Are natural processes sufficient to explain the origin and the complexity of the cell?” The debate will be moderated by Craig Hazen. Sponsored by The Well Christian Club at UCR, Come Reason Ministries, and Biola University.
May 16, 2013
Thursday Night
Time: 7:00 pm, PDT
Cost: $10 ($5 with student ID)
Parking $5
Live Stream: FREE
A debate about what marriage is, hosted by the Federalist Society at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, featuring Ryan T. Anderson and Alastair Gamble.
The debate took place at the law school at Arizona State University.
The speakers:
Ryan T. Anderson researches and writes about marriage and religious liberty as the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and a Free Society at The Heritage Foundation. He also focuses on justice and moral principles in economic thought, health care and education, and has expertise in bioethics and natural law theory.
Anderson’s recent work focuses on the moral and constitutional questions surrounding same-sex “marriage.” He is the co-author with Princeton’s Robert P. George and Sherif Girgis of “What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense” (Encounter Books, December 2012). The three also co-wrote the article “What is Marriage?” in the winter 2011 issue of Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.
Anderson received his bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa andmagna cum laude. He is a doctoral candidate in political philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, where he received his master’s degree.
Alastair Gamble is an attorney in the firm’s Litigation group and focuses his practice on Labor and Employment at both the trial and appellate level.
From 2008 – 2012, Mr. Gamble practiced in Los Angeles, California, where he focused on Labor and Employment and Securities litigation. Before that, he served as a law clerk to Hon. Andrew Hurwitz of the Arizona Supreme Court and as a judicial extern to Hon. Michael Daly Hawkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Gamble holds the J.D., Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and the B.A., History, Emory University, 2000.
The video is 70 minutes:
The format is 15 minute opening speeches, 5 minute rebuttals, then Q&A.
Looking for something good to watch tonight? How about a debate?
Details:
Jay Richards (Discovery Institute) and Jim Wallis (Sojourners) will address the question of Christian social engagement through the subject of the Common Good. Each will present a proposal (and response) on the question, “What is the common good? And how should the Church and Christians pursue it?”
The debate will take place Tuesday April 23 at 7:00 p.m., in the chapel at Trinity International University. If you cannot make it here, you will be able to watch the event live at stream.tiu.edu.
Note that Trinity International University is in the Central time zone, so the debate will go from 8 PM to 10 PM Eastern.
I asked Dr. Richards about the format of the debate, and he said it will be a formal debate, with 20-minute opening speeches, timed rebuttals, and possibly timed counter-rebuttals. There will also be a time of Q&A with the audience. So this is not going to be a free for all.
Dr. Richards is one of a handful of scholars I really admire. Although Ron Nash got me started on investigating Christianity and economics, it was Jay Richards who pointed me towards F. A. Hayek and Thomas Sowell. He also did quality work inventing a new argument for design in his work with Guillermo Gonzalez in the book “The Privileged Planet“. He also took on theistic evolution by editing a collection of essays on that topic, entitled “God and Evolution“. So he’s studied economics and intelligent design, and written on both. This will not be Richards’ first debate – he’s debated Christopher Hitchens before (audio, video).
My understanding is that Wallis is an Obama-supporter who just came out in favor of gay marriage. He is a registered Democrat, so that gives you an idea of what he thinks about abortion, as well. It will be interesting to see whether he is able to find in Biblical support for the idea of forced redistribution of wealth by a powerful central government in the Scriptures. I’m betting that he can’t. In addition, it’s worth pointing out that Jim Wallis has admitted that he takes funding from the prominent atheist and socialist George Soros.
Debate preparation
To get you prepared for tonight’s debate, why not check out this 51-minute lecture on Christianity and economics by Jay Richards?
For those who can’t see the debate, here is an MP3 that covers the same material, hosted by the Acton Institute.
If you like what you see, I recommend the books “Indivisible” and “Money, Greed and God” which both discuss Christianity and economics.
WINTERY KNIGHT 