Burke Community Bible Church will present a case for Christianity in an apologetics-type seminar aimed at discussing challenges made to religious views from atheists and scientists.

The church invites the community to join them for the free seminar called, Reason, Evidence and Christianity, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Foothills Higher Education Center. Doors will open at 8:30 a.m.

Napoleon once asserted, Men do not rule, ideas rule, said church pastor the Rev. David Doster. A survey of human history (which includes) Martin Luthers idea of grace, Rousseaus idea of the state and Gandhis idea of nonviolent resistance, validates this claim. There are good ideas and bad ideas. Consequently, it is reasonable to point out that ideas or concepts cannot be of equal value, especially when they contradict one another. The intent this Saturday is to provide an intelligent, cogent and well-reasoned case for Christianity that specifically addresses challenges from atheism, (including) their attempt to position science as necessarily adversarial toward religion and people of faith.

The church has invited Dr. Neil Shenvi and Patrick Sawyer to speak about the various objections atheists have to Christianity. They will give presentations on the following three topics:

Atheisms Ideological Noose

Science and Religion: Is it Either/Or or Both/And?

Why Believe? The Case for Christianity

A question and answer session will follow the presentations to facilitate discussion of the issues.

Shenvi earned a PhD in theoretical chemistry from UC Berkeley and is a former research chemist with Duke University. He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles on topics such as electronic structure theory, non-adiabatic dynamics, electron transfer, quantum computing and high model representation. He is a Christian with a particular interest in apologetics and the intersection of science and religion, which he has been speaking about publicly for the past decade.

Sawyer holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from UNC Chapel Hill and a Master of Arts in Communication Studies from UNC Greensboro. He is currently a faculty member and a PhD candidate in Education and Cultural Studies with a concentration in Philosophy at UNC-G. His work has been peer-reviewed and published and presented at a number of academic conferences in related fields. He has been involved in apologetics ministry for the past 25 years.

Doster encouraged people to attend the seminar, no matter what views they hold.

We welcome Christians and skeptics of all flavors to a civil, responsible and engaging discussion that will provide an objective analysis and evaluation of these issues using critical thinking, Doster said.

Those interested in attending should RSVP by contacting 828-448-2819 or dldbcbc@gmail.com.

Original post:

Church presents seminar to address challenges of atheism, science - Morganton News Herald