September 14, 2007

Religion Briefs

Pair to debate existence of God

BRIDGEWATER — Douglas Geivett, professor of philosophy of religion and ethics at Biola University, and Michael Shermer, a columnist for "Scientific American," will debate "Does God Exist?" at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 26 in Cole Hall at Bridgewater College.

Geivett is the author of "Evil and the Evidence for God" and co-editor of "Contemporary Perspectives on Religious Epistemology and In Defense of Miracles: A Comprehensive Case for God's Action in History."

He is an executive member and former president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society.

He is a member of the Society of Christian Philosophers, the Society for Philosophy of Religion and the American Academy of Religion.

He also is a member of the committee on the status and future of philosophy for the American Philosophical Association.

He has served as a minister to college students at churches in the Pacific Northwest and in Southern California. He serves as guest speaker in churches and college campuses on subjects related to Apologetics and the Christian life.

He received a bachelor's degree from Multnomah School of the Bible and master's degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary and Gonzaga University.

He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.

Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, the director of the Skeptic Society, host of the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture series at California Institute of Technology and co-host and producer of the Family Channel television series "Exploring the Unknown." He is the author of several books, including "Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown," "In Darwin's Shadow" and "The Borderlands of Science and How We Believe Science, Skepticism and the Search for God."

He also has appeared on the television shows "20/20," "Dateline," "Charlie Rose," "Larry King Live," "Tom Snyder," "Donahue," "Oprah" and "Unsolved Mysteries" and during interviews on PBS, A&E, Discovery, The History Channel, The Science Channel and The Learning Channel.

Shermer received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Pepperdine University, a master's degree in experimental psychology from California State University at Fullerton and his Ph.D. in the history of science from Claremont Graduate University.

The event is open to the public at no charge. For more information, call 828-5486.

— From Staff Reports