The University will begin hosting today a week-long forum designed to allow an open discussion of questions students may have about Christianity and its place on a college campus.
The Veritas Forum is a national program that invites professors, scientists and other experts to lecture on questions of Christianity and provides a forum for students to voice their opinions.
The forum will probe issues including evolution and human origins, the role of women in Christianity, cloning and doctor-assisted suicide. It will also discuss the Christian beginnings of rock ‘n’ roll and jazz.
“We want to create an intellectual environment in which questions regarding truth and life can be asked in a completely open discussion,” said Sung Joon Jang, Veritas Forum campus adviser and associate sociology professor.
Jang said the Veritas Forum — the first to be held in Louisiana — has been held at more than 80 universities throughout the country and has met with great success.
“It’s a good thing for us to do the forum now, because now we can look at other schools and decide which topics we want to address and invite the speakers we feel would best address our topics,” Jang said.
Each speaker will make a presentation, expecting disagreements from the audience, Jang said. The speakers will then open the discussion to the audience and ask audience members to voice their ideas on the speaker’s topic.
“It’s about having conversations in which people do not feel pressured in any way,” Jang said.
Heather Monroe, a University graduate student, said she is excited to participate in Louisiana’s inaugural Veritas Forum.
“When I first came to college, I stopped going to church altogether, and I am sure that’s the case for a lot of students,” Heather Monroe said. “Now, I do go to church, but I can relate to those who don’t because a lot of people struggle in finding a balance between science and religion. This forum is interesting because it’s bringing together all of the churches here on campus to discuss that very question in a safe environment.”
Her husband Will Monroe, a member of the Veritas Forum planning committee, said he hopes the forum will broaden students’ perspectives of the issues discussed.
“The presenters truly respect their audiences, and they feel that students are intelligent enough to examine these ideas in a way that is less threatening than similar presentations,” he said. “I’ve never seen a discussion of this nature that is as dedicated to being so free.”
Will Monroe said he thinks nonreligious students will benefit as much as religious students will in the discussions.
“People of different faiths or those with no faith at all will have a chance to hear different ideas and form their own opinions,” he said