Religion, academia collide in Veritas Forum events

A week of forums aimed at bringing together the community of
faith and the intellectual culture of the university started
earlier this week and will conclude Friday with an informal panel
discussion with the UCLA community.

Sponsored by the student-led Veritas Forum, “Jesus.
Where’s the Forum?” is aimed at helping students
explore, through multiple viewpoints, the issues surrounding
religion.

“We hope the university will warm up to the idea of
integration of religion and scholarship,” said Tim Schulz,
financial coordinator for the Veritas Forum and a fourth-year
classical civilizations and philosophy student.

The week will include debates, presentations and discussions by
scholars, historians, professors and others who have had both
education and experience in some of the controversy surrounding
religion.

“A lot of students come to the university with a certain
belief that is very dear to them,” said Craig Nishimoto,
event coordinator for the Veritas Forum and fourth-year philosophy
and linguistics student.

Students’ beliefs are seen as irrelevant to life outside
religion by some members of the university, but students do make
decisions based on these beliefs, Nishimoto said.

The Veritas Forum tries to show that students’ beliefs are
important to their academics, he said.

“Jesus. WTF?” officially began Monday with a
three-hour panel discussion called “Debating the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ.” Two distinguished historians came to UCLA
to debate the issues surrounding the validity of Jesus’
resurrection to an audience of 100 people.

Historian Mike Licona argued that Jesus’ resurrection
occurred by providing examples of Jesus’ empty tomb after his
crucifixion.

Historian Richard Carrier rebutted Licona, saying there is no
good evidence from the empty tomb and that the only documents that
exist are from later, biased secondary accounts.

When people said they saw Jesus after his crucifixion, it was
only hallucinations, not visions they had, Carrier said.

The topic surrounding Jesus’ resurrection is a
never-ending debate that needs more discussion than one night can
hold to educate people on the issue, Carrier said.

Some members of the audience did not have the knowledge to
understand the many biblical references that were given in the
debate.

It was difficult for some in the audience who did not have a
strong religious background to understand the debate, but it was
also difficult for others who actually had a strong religious
background, Schulz said.

“Not all forums would be like this, so students should not
feel discouraged to attend the other forums,” he said.

Topics range from the possibility of political reforms in the
Islamic Middle East to questions of Christianity being a reasonable
faith and ethics in the global economy.

“I hope that people will listen and continue to question
and look for the truth,” said Faith St. Jean, staff adviser
for the Veritas Forum. “I hope that it challenges
people’s minds no matter what their religion.”

The Veritas Forum plans all year for the event. The committee
consists of both Christian and non-Christian UCLA students and
community members.

Tonight’s event features two debates surrounding the
relationship between science and religion. The event will be
broadcast by C-SPAN.

The week will end with an informal panel discussion where
students can respond to the events and share their experiences with
integrating faith with scholarship on Friday night.

Tonight’s event, “The Spirit and Nature of
Science,” will take place in Ackerman Grand Ballroom at 7
p.m.