Reason Review

J.P. Moreland is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Biola University and has written numerous books including "Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul". He is also a contributor to the popular Apologetics Study Bible. Clancy Martin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at University of Missouri-Kansas City and is author of "How to Sell: A Novel".

Moreland's opening statement consists of arguments from the origin of a finite universe, the fine tuning of the universe, biological information, objective moral law, and the historical reliability of the New Testament. Martin's opening statement contains arguments from the unfalsifiability fallacy, the localized activities of God, the impossibility of the moral standard, the problem of evil, and that the Christian faith should not have reason.

Alvin Plantinga is a champion on the philosophical forefront of modern Christianity. He currently serves as the John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Recently Joe Gorra of the Evangelical Philosophical Society made a post Honoring Alvin Plantinga: "Alvin Plantinga's ideas, and his leadership with those ideas, have been deeply impactful for a whole generation of Christian philosophers, Moreover, his work has also been significantly appropriated by theologians, scientists, historians, psychologists and other Christian scholars working in various disciplines and fields..." (Read the full article here)

If you're interested in checking out some of  Plantinga's works, check out his books here or any of these:

• Plantinga Page
• Papers by Plantinga
• Alvin Plantinga (ND)

William Lane Craig is author of numerous books and founder of Reasonable Faith. He is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology. Criag is one of the most widespread name for Christian apologetics in North America and is considered "the finest Christian apologist of the last half century.” Victor Stenger is the Emeritus Professor of physics at University of Hawaii and  the Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at University of Colorado. Stenger has written on everything from physics and quantum mechanics to cosmology and religion. His most recent book is "The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason".

In his opening speech, Craig presents his arguments from existence, fine-tuning, moral values, the resurrection of Jesus, and the personal experience of the Holy Spirit. Stenger's opening response consists of four main points: the attributes of the Christian God are self-contradictory, tributes of the Christian God are inconsistent with what we know about the world, naturalism is a better explanation than supernaturalism, and the actions of the Christian God should be observable but are not. My favourite point was a response Craig made on Stengers objection of justice vs. mercy; Craig points out that this is not a contradiction, but actually the great beauty of the Christian faith. Overall this was a pretty good debate, worth the listen.

Donald Prothero is a Professor of Geology at Occidental College and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. Prothero has written numerous books including "Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters".


Prothero is known for his expertise in the processes of geological evolution and for his evident disdain for anyone who supports an anti-evolution agenda. The talk is introduced by Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine and interestingly enough, Prothero starts out by suggesting how evolution is an easier choice than intelligent design--because it helps to take care of the "bad design" argument. Most of Prothero's talk takes place exploring the fossil record in which he lists seven "common lies and misconceptions" of evolution as propounded by Young Earth Creationists and supporters of Intelligent Design:

1. "Bushes" and "ladders"
2. Gradualism vs punctuated equilibrium
3. Fossil record is complete enough to show every transitional form
4. Faunal succession is a myth
5. "Cambrian explosion" is a creation event
6. No transitional forms in the fossil record
7. "Missing link" has never been found

Clay Jones is the Assistant Professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University. His areas of specialty include the problem of evil, theodicy, and the defense of the resurrection. You can visit his blog at www.clayjones.net.

Francis Collins is the founder of the BioLogos foundation, of which I am a big fan, and is currently the director of the National Institute of Health. He previously led the Human Genome Project to the scientific milestone of sequencing the human genome. His most popular book published to date is "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief".

Bruxy Cavey is the pastor of a popular Canadian church called The Meeting House and is the author of "The End of Religion: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus." From the end of 2007 and into early 2008 Cavey gave a series of talks titled "The God Debate."

• Our Common Ground - [video] [audio] [notes] [quotes] [extra]
• Adventures In Missing the Point - [video] [audio] [notes] [quotes] [extra]
• The Whys and Why Nots - [video] [audio] [notes] [quotes] [extra]
• Debating Darwin - [video] [audio] [notes] [quotes] [extra]
• God and Suffering - [video] [audio] [notes] [quotes] [extra]
• Cleaning Up the Mess - [video] [audio] [notes] [quotes] [extra]
• What Convinced Me - [video] [audio]

This debate took place on November 30th, 2009 and was hosted by the American Freedom Alliance. The topic in question was the origins of life and therefore discussions favoured heavily on the topic of evolution.

Stephen Meyer is the Director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute and author of books such as "Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design". Donald Prothero is Professor of Geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles and is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of hundreds of writings including "Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters". Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic Magazine and is the author of books such as "Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time". Richard Sternberg is a Research Scientist at the Biologic Institute and a Research Collaborator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

For some interesting follow up on this debate check out the links below:

• http://scienceblips.dailyradar.com/story/battle-in-beverly-hills-reflections-on-the-prothero/
• http://scienceblips.dailyradar.com/story/shermer-prothero-vs-meyer-sternberg-continues/

This debate between two giants of religious discussion took place on April 7th, 2010 at the University of Notre Dame. The debate topic is "Is Religion the Problem?" and is a continuation of "The God Debate". Dinesh D'Souza is the author of books such as "What's So Great about Christianity". Christopher Hitchens is the author of numerous books such as "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything".