Veritas Forum brings discussion of religion, knowledge

Organizers hope to attract hundreds of students to event

By REUBEN CONTRERAS

Scholars from Yale, Duke and Oxford universities will visit Fresno State on Tuesday to participate in an event featuring public discussions on the relationship between faith, truth and the pursuit of knowledge.

The Veritas Forum is a three-day event that will take place on campus. There will be meetings, lectures, debates and discussions featuring invited speakers, students and faculty.

“Our goal is to spark discussion of truth in various forms here on campus,” anthropology professor and event adviser Hank Delcore said. “People can see truth and faith and the relationships to the intellectual lot.”

Delcore said the idea to have the Veritas Forum at Fresno State came after learning about the success the forum had at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Then Delcore got Associated Students at Fresno State to sponsor the event.

“We really want to spark something here at Fresno State,” forum communication director and agricultural business major Neil Gibson said. Gibson said the forum is geared toward college students. Invitations were sent to students at Fresno City College and Fresno Pacific University, as well. Free radio and television advertisements and a mailing list of 200 community members were used to invite the public.

“One person or 100,” Gibson said, “it will still be awesome to get the discussion going. The goal is to get the word out. We want everyone to search for answers by bringing questions to the forum.”

Gibson said topics for the Veritas Forum will include “Body Bound: Women and Spirituality,” “Time For Truth: Living Free In A World of Lies,” “Hype and Spin” and “Does God Exist?”

Gibson is looking forward to the last topic.

“There will be a great argument between the speakers and the audience,” Gibson said. “It will be something that is deep and meaningful. I am actually afraid that event might overflow.

“Both sides of the issue will certainly be heard.”

Daniel Schultz, a graphic design major, is excited to hear guest speak William Lane Craig on the topic of “Does God Exist?” A research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, Calif., Craig will argue that historical evidence points to the conclusion that Jesus rose from the dead.

“That is going to be something deep and meaningful,” Schultz said. “I am looking forward to the arguments for and against it.”

Janna Mahfoud, a natural sciences major, is looking forward to the topic of “Body Bound: Women and Spirituality.”

“In today’s society, women feel pressured to be attractive,” Mahfoud said. “A woman needs to have their own spirituality views.”

Linda Barger, the author of “Eve’s Revenge,” will be the guest speaker on “Body Bound.” She will discuss the role of the female body in 20th-Century American society.

Other speakers for the Veritas Forum include Oxford scholar Os Guinness and Yale University assistant professor of business ethics David Miller.

The Veritas Forum was founded in 1992 by a group of graduate students at Harvard who sought to bring their hardest questions about life and truth before the campus community. Now a national organization, the Veritas Forum has spread to more than 50 universities across the United States, engaging more than 200,000 students, as well as faculty and community members. In recent years, Veritas Forums have been held at UCLA, UC-Berkeley, Stanford and UC-Santa Barbara.

Gibson said when the forum is over, the Veritas committee will meet to discuss the success of the three-day event. Gibson said the Veritas committee hopes to have the event return to Fresno State in the next few years.

“It is more likely to be every other year, not yearly,” said Gibson, who noted that planning for the Veritas Forum began last February with brainstorming for topics and speakers. “We are nearly exhausted before the event starts. But we are looking forward to the spark of student interest that will last for a long time.”