The Essentials:
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 
7:00pm - 9:00pm
VCU: Commonwealth Ballroom in the Student Commons 
Richmond, VA

The Moderator:  Timothy Hulsey, Ph.D., is the Dean of the Honors College and Associate Professor of Psychology. Prior to coming to VCU, he was Director of the Honors Program at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.....

The Debaters:

Frank Turek is the founder and president of CrossExamined.org and its primary presenter. Frank is a coauthor of two award-winning books: I Don’t have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, and Legislating Morality.

Christopher Hitchens is an English-American author, journalist and literary critic.

Prof Daniel Dennett and Lord Winston present their arguments ahead of tonight's public debate

The debate on religion versus science will take place tonight at the British Council. This is the finale in the Rethink education public debate series, hosted by the thinktank Agora and Education Guardian. For details go to www.agora-education.org

Yes, says Prof Daniel Dennett
If religion isn't the greatest threat to rationality and scientific progress, what is? Perhaps alcohol, or television, or addictive video games. But although each of these scourges - mixed blessings, in fact - has the power to overwhelm our best judgment and cloud our critical faculties, religion has a feature of that none of them can boast: it doesn't just disable, it honours the disability. People are revered for their capacity to live in a dream world, to shield their minds from factual knowledge and make the major decisions of their lives by consulting voices in their heads that they call forth by rituals designed to intoxicate them.

No, says Lord Winston
Daniel Dennett would be unlikely to place a stake alongside Blaise Pascal, whose famous wager runs: "You cannot lose by professing belief in God - if He does not exist you lose nothing, and if He does exist, you will be rewarded in the afterlife." Dennett argues that it is better to live as if there is no God, attempting to make the world a rational and better place. He points out that it is costly building cathedrals and that churchgoing is a massive waste of time. An atheist will lose nothing if God does not exist - his or her memorial will be good deeds. And if there is a benevolent God, Dennett will find himself judged by the Almighty on his merits, not because of the disbelief he professes.

Outspoken atheists Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss engaged in an unmoderated dialogue in front of a packed Memorial Auditorium on Sunday, discussing science education in the 21st Century.

The pair was primarily concerned about the rise of religiously motivated threats to traditional scientific curricula in American high schools, as well as the inaccurate portrayal of scientific information in the media.

Dawkins, chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, discussed a variety of concerns surrounding evolution, religion and the public backlash against science. He debated methods of changing the public mindset with Krauss, a professor of physics and astronomy at Case Western Reserve University.

Saturday, February 9th, 2008 from 6:00-8:00 PM

Speakers:  Dr. Derward Richardson, pastor, Summit Baptist Church & Mr. Terry McDonald, Chairman of Metroplex Atheists

Sponsored by Summit Baptist Church.

For reservations, please RSVP: pastor@summitbc.org
Seating is limited.