Review
of Veritas Forum
on
Intelligent Design with Dr. Michael Behe
12 April 1999
At The Ohio State University
Main Participants
Panel Members
The Veritas Forum was formed in 1992 at Harvard University. It consisted of students, faculty and friends who "came together to discuss how the truth claims of Jesus Christ related to the pursuit of knowledge in the university" (this is quoted from the brochure they gave out at the event). This particular forum was called:
Science and Religion: Exploring the implications of frontier findings in science and religious significance of scientific knowledge
This event was held in the Ohio Union Ballrooms on the Columbus campus of the Ohio State University. The event drew a large crowd, filling the entire ballroom and probably including at least 1,000+ people. It is interesting to note (at least to me) that many of the audience members were bused in from various locations around the city, including several churches and Christian schools. It is also interesting to note that almost without exception, the sponsors of this event were Christian organizations. This isn't in and of itself a bad thing, but since the discussion was supposed to feature two theologians "responding" to Dr. Behe, I thought that maybe they could have found some sponsors that might have disagreed with Dr. Behe's opinion. (It's possible that they tried and were refused, I have no way of knowing either way). I expected this to be pretty much a one sided discussion (and for the most part it was) with everyone trying not to hurt themselves while they were patting themselves on the back. I was not completely right, as one of the theologians didn't have the attitude I expected. I had figured that everyone would agree that the "intelligent design" theory of Behe and others would be supported by all the main presenters. I was wrong, and it was quite pleasant to be so, I might add...(read my actual reviews by clicking on the links below)
The forum was being broadcast live on the web (I’m not sure of the website) as well as being sent to a few specific colleges by t.v. The format of the meeting was to give Dr. Behe ~25 minutes to present his case. Then Dr. Hefner spoke for about 15 minutes, and then Dr. Collins spoke for about 15 minutes. After this, the panel members came up on the stage and each had a few minutes to ask questions. The main participants then responded. This section lasted for 30 minutes. At the end, the broadcast of the program ended, and in the final part of the program the audience was given the chance to ask questions of all six participants.
Because a single HTML file was too slow to load, I've broken my review down into four parts. Click on any of the links below to read them.
