Life, The Universe, and MIT
As MIT celebrated 150 years, the Veritas planning team at MIT decided to delve into the personal and faith dimensions of some of their top professors. The team hosted 4 MIT professors in a conversation about their life and research at MIT, and how their worldviews interact with their work. The event was co-sponsored by the philosophy and linguistics program, as well as the United Christian Organization, a group of approximately a dozen Christian groups. The Forum featured two Christian professors, Dr. Troy Van Voorhis, Prof. of Chemistry and Dr. Daniel Hastings, Prof. of Engineering and Undergraduate Dean, and two atheist professors, Dr. Alex Byrne, Prof. of Philosophy and Dr. Alan Lightman, Prof. of Humanistic Studies. MIT Professor and Veritas veteran Rosalind Picard moderated the dialogue and the Q &A session, during which she received audience questions through an iPad.
—Graduate Student in Natural Sciences & Math, Atheist
Over 600 people attended the event, which filled MIT’s largest auditorium. All four professors spoke honestly, humbly and often humorously about their lives. Atheist Alex Byrne was witty and winsome, arguing that we do not need God to find meaning. Alan Lightman, striking another tone, suggested we can all find our own meaning, even though we are just collections of matter. Christians Troy Van Voorhis and Daniel Hastings argued that meaning must be found in a religious sense, either through a personal relationship with Jesus or through being created in the image of God. Van Voorhis shared his personal story of faith, while Hastings focused on his sense of calling and how it has shaped his commitment at MIT. Just as 50% of the presenters were not Christian, around 50% of the audience did not identify as Christian. In fact, some non-Christian students reported that they had almost left upon seeing Veritas’ mission, but stayed because they recognized the dialogical nature of the event.
For days afterward, the MIT community was buzzing about the event. Indeed, the planning team has been nominated for the “Outstanding Event” award as part of MIT’s undergraduate leadership awards. MIT chaplains discussed the event at their roundtable and it prompted other prominent community members to recognize that the missing conversation about faith is still compelling, even in a nominally “secular” place such as MIT. The MIT planning team also provided several opportunities for conversations centered on the forum. The team hosted a reception immediately following the event, and partnered with their local Cosi to land a 10% off deal for audience members who brought their programs on the night of the event! Fellowships hosted ice cream socials and other gatherings in the days following to continue the discussion.
To view the MIT Forum, click here.
Interview with Oxford Professor John Lennox
This spring Dr. John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, presented at Veritas Forums on four West Coast campuses: Stanford, UCLA, UC Berkeleyand the University of Southern California. We caught up with him to ask just what he found most compelling about his time with Veritas.
Your talk at Berkeley was entitled, “Is Anything Worth Believing In?” Why is this such a relevant question to today’s university student?
I think many students have gotten fed up with the materialism of their parents. They feel the previous generation has not offered them anything solid in which to believe and when they hear something that makes sense to them they get interested in it. I find there is a tremendous appetite for listening to scientists talk about this because they think science is the great guru of their age. Some make the mistake of thinking science is the only way to truth and because of that scientists have great cultural authority. Of course there are things worth believing in and that is why students are at university. Yet is there transcendence beyond the material? Just as in science we look to an evidence base, so Christianity is an evidence-based religion. We make a faith commitment based on evidence.
Please share about your involvement with The Veritas Forum. Why Veritas?
I’ve known of Veritas for some time and have witnessed several of the events Veritas has staged at major Ivy League universities and have been impressed by the format. When they approached me I felt it was worth doing because they would be likely to put on the event very well. It also appealed to me that it would be a united effort among student groups because I am busy and do not like to reinvent the wheel with each group. Veritas transcends the divide between various groups on campus.
You remarked on stage that the discussion event with Daniel Lowenstein at UCLA was the best event of that kind of which you’ve ever been a part. What made it so special?
This was a marvelous event because Daniel Lowenstein, a self-described agnostic Jew, did not come to debate but to facilitate a discussion. I was not trying to score points over him or he over me. Rather he teased out of me what he felt the public ought to hear. When I met him for tea before the forum he said, “We are not going to discuss the specific questions to be asked tonight but only what the big issue is going to be.” I thought that made it real, as he did not want to stage an interview but a discussion about real issues that was not contrived or artificial. It was a sheer delight to engage someone of that intellectual capacity who was so honest and open.
What was your most memorable experience at the four Veritas Forums in which you participated this year?
Undoubtedly it was the public discussion with Lowenstein because I felt that Veritas was prepared to take a real risk. When Veritas suggested the format to me, they told me they did not want a debate. I welcome that because I have done several major debates with Richard Dawkins and others, and debates can be artificially confrontational. A discussion, on the other hand, brings the best part of an argument out. It is civil and it is public square; there is no default position. We let the people judge. I feel that The Veritas Forum is offering that from a Christian perspective.
What is Love?
Secretary General of Les Groupes Bibliques Universitaires (GBU) David Brown shares about the latest Veritas Forum in France
This March, 570 students, faculty and community members attended the fourth Veritas Forum in France. Held over the course of four evenings at the University of Nice, the event focused around the question of love. The forum opened with a conversation between French intellectual Pascal Bruckner and Secretary General of the GBU (the French arm of Intervarsity) David Brown about the relationship between love, sexuality and marriage. The forum also brought together philosopher Luc Ferry and theologian Henri Blocher to discuss whether the notion of neighbor-love is utopia or reality. Discussions centering on the role of humanitarian aid and on Islam, a hot-button issue in France, rounded out the event.
The event was an enormous success in a highly secular cultural context that often engenders only hostility toward faith. Conversations between Christian and secular academics are rare in France, and the forum proved to be a unique instance of bridge-building and fruitful, mutual dialogue. French evangelical Christians have been growing in numbers over the past few decades (from 50,000 in 1950 to 460,000 today), but evangelical churches often lack credibility in French society. The Veritas Forum in Nice was a huge step in the right direction toward engaging and captivating French university students with the person and story of Jesus Christ.
Media Spotlight: Veritas YouTube Channel
In addition to our media library at www.veritas.org, our channel on YouTube has taken off, with almost 40,000 views, 200 subscribers, and over 70 uploads. Check out these fan favorites!
A Place for Truth
Veritas Books, in partnership with InterVarsity Press, presents its 6th book, A Place for Truth, featuring presentations by Os Guinness, Tim Keller, Alister McGrath, Dallas Willard, N.T. Wright, Ronald Sider, Mary Poplin and others. Pick up your copy today!
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