The Academy was a great success. Many thanks to Mark Trujillo for everything he did. Please go to the facebook group created specially for this event and continue the dialog there.
To see the event on Google Video, check out these links, or see the embedded video below the fold:
Here are the videos at GV:
Part 1
Part 2
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Gator Freethought is a registered student organization at UF that provides freethinkers of any religious background the opportunity to discuss religion and nonreligion alike.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
LTE published by GF member
**UPDATE: Tuesday's Alligator followed this up with front-page coverage and an op-ed. Thanks, Alligator staff, for following an important story that has large ramifications for how we deal with church-state issues.**
There was a LTE published in Thursday's Alligator about the recent lawsuit filed by a religious organization on campus against the university. Read it here, or see the full-text below:
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There was a LTE published in Thursday's Alligator about the recent lawsuit filed by a religious organization on campus against the university. Read it here, or see the full-text below:
Letter to the EditorSee more on the story here, here and here.
Religious frat lawsuit not pious
By S. DANIEL MORGAN
7LS
Beta Upsilon Chi - "Brothers Under Christ" - has sued UF with the aid of an entity from the Christian Legal Society.
Religious student organizations should play by the rules like everyone else. If you want to get official status and/or university money, you have to maintain the non-discrimination policy. The point of sponsoring and funding these groups is to promote the university body as a whole and to offer opportunities for growth and learning to everyone equally. Religious groups are free (constitutionally) to discriminate and exclude whomever they want, just not facilitated by the university's resources. It's interesting to me how the ideal of "religious freedom" has come to be equated with entitlement.
While Scripture is replete with words admonishing believers to use persecution and unfair treatment as a testimony to their moral rectitude, believers today clamor loudly for special privileges. Paul scolded the Corinthians saying, "The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" (1 Cor. 6:7 NIV) and Jesus said, "And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well." (Matt. 5:40, NIV). How different religious ideals seem from their practice in reality.
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Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Debate: Robert Price and Michael Green
I confirmed yesterday Dr. Bob Price as Dr. Green's debate opponent. Bob is a leading scholar on historical Christianity, as his website spells out:
[If you are interested in Dr. Green's short bio, see here]
I shared this exciting development with Rev. Farmer and we're working on arranging Bob's travel expenses and still waiting to find out about the venue at this point. Bob also accepted the main format Michael proposed for the debate, adding a simple conclusion segment (3 mins) after each opening. You can read more details below in the email I wrote Rev. Farmer:
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- Professor of Theology and Scriptural Studies, Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary
- Founder and Editor, The Journal of Higher Criticism
- Fellow, The Jesus Seminar
- Executive Board Member, The Jesus Project
- Fellow, The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion
- Research Fellow, Center for Inquiry Institute
[If you are interested in Dr. Green's short bio, see here]
I shared this exciting development with Rev. Farmer and we're working on arranging Bob's travel expenses and still waiting to find out about the venue at this point. Bob also accepted the main format Michael proposed for the debate, adding a simple conclusion segment (3 mins) after each opening. You can read more details below in the email I wrote Rev. Farmer:
Rev. Farmer,More to come...
I just confirmed with Dr. Bob Price as the debate opponent on Aug. 24th. If you aren't familiar with him or his work, you can check out his website:
http://robertmprice.mindvendor.com/
I spoke with him by phone this morning concerning the debate format and his travel arrangements. He said he was content with Dr. Green's initial format, sans cross-examination, with a small add-on -- a simple 3 minute closing statement before opening up to the audience for questions. It would look like this:
Intro: moderator
Speaker 1: 20 min arguments
Speaker 2: 20 min arguments
Speaker 1: 3 min closing
Speaker 2: 3 min closing
Q&A: audience
Will you FW this to Dr. Green for his approval?
He said the Raleigh-Durham airport is 40mins away for him, so I checked flights out of RDU to GNV and they are not too bad -- $353 with taxes included. I attached a screen shot of this as a picture file (.jpg). I can get him a good room in Gainesville for $80 or so, and I will have someone provide him with a ride to and from the airport and hotel. I also thought throwing in a few bucks for his dinner would be honorable. I would like for at least a small group of us to go out afterwards for food and drinks, but it is a minor contingency. I am going to put in a special request with the student government to try to get the cost of his flight covered plus a small honorarium ($100 or so) for his time. I think $600 is a good figure to ask for to cover his costs.
You mentioned the possibility of helping out with the costs. If the SG doesn't approve my request, how much can you help with, do you think? Of course, all receipts will be provided and you may have a different idea for arrangements.
I will get back to you when I know more about room arrangements. In the meanwhile, we may want to have some "Plan B" arrangements, possibly with one of the many large churches in the area. I know you said you had made some inroads with those venues as well.
In addition, can you forward me a short bio for Dr. Green so that I can begin circulating advertisements as soon as possible?
I'm looking forward to it!
With warmest regards,
--
http://www.gatorfreethought.org
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Sunday, July 01, 2007
Debate: Christian author and professor Dr. Michael Green, Aug 24th
Dr. Michael Green is a well-established scholar on historical Christianity, and he is coming to UF to debate Christianity on Aug. 25.
I was contacted about this by Rev. Alex Farmer [alex@servantsanglican.org] to host a debate in August. As of now, the Christian professor plans debate the topic, "Is Christianity based on a lie?" I think he is a professor of religious studies, but I am not sure b/c I cannot find his website. Dr. Green has written a plethora of books on religious studies in general, and Christianity in particular, and he has already been slated to come here that Friday to debate anyone who will. You can view his expansive publications HERE.
I think he would take the historical angle on debate [given his background and the statement of topic]: it doesn't seem that I have a lot of people who would be well-matched to him on that front, as most of these sorts of debates (and thus the seasoned debators) are "purely" philosophical in nature. But, I have written the few people I know would be fairly well-equipped to deal with his arguments: Dan Barker, Robert Price and Frank Zindler. As of now, I'm waiting for their replies and continuing to look for someone with pretty solid background in historical Christianity in the event that these three are unavailable. I contacted Debbie Goddard at the CFI and asked her to help me with suggestions for other potential speakers.
I have already put in a room request with the registrar's office, and with Shands for the HPNP facilities. Alex has contacted some resources with Touchdown Terrace and others. As of right now, we're working on a venue and on the debate opponent. That's where we are.
For more details on the event, I have copied & pasted the email that I sent those three potential speakers for you to look over below.
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I think he would take the historical angle on debate [given his background and the statement of topic]: it doesn't seem that I have a lot of people who would be well-matched to him on that front, as most of these sorts of debates (and thus the seasoned debators) are "purely" philosophical in nature. But, I have written the few people I know would be fairly well-equipped to deal with his arguments: Dan Barker, Robert Price and Frank Zindler. As of now, I'm waiting for their replies and continuing to look for someone with pretty solid background in historical Christianity in the event that these three are unavailable. I contacted Debbie Goddard at the CFI and asked her to help me with suggestions for other potential speakers.
I have already put in a room request with the registrar's office, and with Shands for the HPNP facilities. Alex has contacted some resources with Touchdown Terrace and others. As of right now, we're working on a venue and on the debate opponent. That's where we are.
For more details on the event, I have copied & pasted the email that I sent those three potential speakers for you to look over below.
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Dear Dr. (Mr.?) Zindler,More details as they come in.
I am writing you today because I wanted to find out if your busy schedule would allow you to participate in a debate at the University of Florida with Prof. Michael Green (PhD). We would arrange travel for you such that you would bear no out-of-pocket expenses, as well as give you an honorarium. I picked you from the atheists.org speakers bureau because you claim to have some background in the origins of Christianity.
I was contacted about this by Alex Farmer [alex@servantsanglican.org] to host the debate in August. As of now, the Christian professor plans to come here August 24th to debate the topic, "Is Christianity based on a lie?" I think he is a professor of religious studies, but I am not sure b/c I cannot find his website. Dr. Green has written a plethora of books on religious studies in general, and Christianity in particular, and he has already been slated to come here that Friday to debate anyone who will. I think he would take the historical tack [given his background and the statement of topic]: it doesn't seem that I have a lot of people who would be well-matched to him on that front, besides yourself, Bob Price and perhaps Dan Barker. You can view his expansive publications here:
http://tinyurl.com/3b2c95
I have already put in a room request with the registrar's office, and with Shands for the HPNP facilities. Alex has contacted some resources with Touchdown Terrace and others. As of right now, we're working on a venue and on the debate opponent. That's where we are.
It is very important to us to have the debate. UF is the third largest school in the nation and the turnout should be great. We will be doing lots of PR and advertisement, and I will video-record the debate and distribute it for free via Google Video, as well as sending the participants a DVD hard copy.
I wanted to FW the below email between myself and Alex to you. The subject involved the terms of the debate, and Alex and I spoke by phone later and agreed that a cross-examination period should be proposed to Michael, as yet no response has been reported to me. I would predict that he will allow/want the cross period. Please reply, if you'll be available and are interested, with your preferred terms of the debate / format.
Don't hesitate to call me with questions, or I can call you to save you the toll charges. Also feel free to write Alex if you have anything for him [alex@servantsanglican.org].
Warmly,
--
President of Gator Freethought
http://www.gatorfreethought.org
Alex Farmer wrote:
>
> Michael said each speaker should speak for 20 min. then take questions from the floor with an opportunity for each speaker to respond to each question. Finally, each speaker should have 5 minutes to do a wrap up summary of their position.
>
> In addition, he suggested a possible topic of “ Is Christianity based on a lie?” . Let me know if this information is helpful and what other questions your speaker might have. I should add, that we, of course, are willing to help fund the cost to bring your speaker in. I should have mentioned this earlier.
>
> Alex Farmer
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