Wednesday evening January 30, 2019 the Cal Poly Veritas Forum tackled the question “Would Society Be Better Off Without Religion? An Atheist and a Christian Discuss.”

Our guests were Dr. Herb Silverman (Mathematics, College of Charleston, and Founder of the Secular Collation for America) and Dr. Karen Swallow Prior (English, Liberty University, and author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books).

Many thanks to Religious Studies Professor, Dr. Stephen Lloyd-Moffett, who did an outstanding job moderating the event. 

The goal of the Veritas Forum is to “engage students and faculty in discussions on life’s most important questions – and the relevancy of Jesus Christ to all of life.” While the Veritas Forum is, of course, a Christian student organization – the desire is to help students and faculty engage with different beliefs and worldviews. 

If you’ve never been, we encourage you to consider attending. 

“A super thoughtful UCLA student was here at Cal Poly visiting friends, and decided to come. He really liked the Veritas Forum, and had a cool conversation afterwards. He and his friends met for coffee afterwards, continuing to talk about God and the Bible. He loved the Veritas Forum, as well as the Cru ministry tool “Perspectives” cards. He would not consider himself religious, but wanted to share this ministry tool with his roommates.” – Lizzie, Cru intern

“Our students love the Veritas Forum. What a great opportunity to engage with the campus! I just randomly invited a student named Daniel to the Forum. He said he couldn’t attend – but instead said he could come to our weekly student meeting. He came up to me after Cru, and thanked me. He was so grateful for the invitation.” – Jordan, Cru Cal Poly Campus Ministry director 

“I invited invited all my students to the Veritas Forum. It was wonderful walking around, seeing some of them there. Thank you again for hosting this event. It’s so critical to bring different perspectives onto campus, and to connect with the larger campus.” – Cal Poly professor 

Tuesday February 26th students will be hosting a smaller follow up meeting (which we call “Delve”), hearing some additional perspective from Religious Studies Professor Dr. Lloyd-Moffett. 

Many thanks to everyone who worked to make this event possible. Please let us know if you have suggestions for topics or speakers for future Forums. 

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