Ratio Christi at Kennesaw State University will be having a “Worldview Panel.” We will have a theist, an atheist, and a panentheist present their worldview and why they believe it. This will be followed with a time of Q and A. Our panelists will be philosopher Dr. Richard Howe (theist), Board of Directors, Former President of American Atheists Dr. Ed Buckner, and KSU professor Tom Pynn (panentheist). This event will be held in the Clendenin Building room 2008.

Free Pizza will be served outside the room at 7:30 pm and the event starts at 8:00 pm. More about our speakers:

Dr. Richard Howe:

Richard G. Howe is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Apologetics at Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dr. Howe has a BA in Bible from Mississippi College, an MA in Philosophy from the University of Mississippi, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Arkansas. Both his master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation focused on the issue of the existence of God. His master’s theses is titled “An Analysis of William Lane Craig’s Kalam Cosmological Argument” in which Dr. Howe defended the argument against objections that had come out against the argument subsequent to the publishing of Dr. Craig’s important book on the subject.

Dr. Howe’s doctoral dissertation is titled “A Defense of Thomas Aquinas’s Second Way” in which he defended Aquinas’s efficient causality argument for the existence of God against criticisms of theistic arguments in general, against criticisms of causal theistic arguments more narrowly, and against specific criticisms to Aquinas’s version of the efficient causality argument for God’s existence—the second of Aquinas’s famous “Five Ways.”

Dr. Howe is the Vice President of the International Society of Christian Apologetics (ISCA). He is a writer as well as a public speaker and debater in churches, conferences, and university campuses on issues concerning Christian apologetics and philosophy. He has spoken and/or debated in churches and universities in the US and Canada as well as Europe and Africa on issues relating to the defense of the Christian faith.

Dr. Ed Buckner:

Ed Buckner received his B.A. from Rice University in 1967 and his M. Ed. and Ph.D. from Georgia State University.

He has edited Freethought Press books by Massimo Pigliucci, Keith Parsons, Carol Faulkenberry, and Edwin Kagin. With his wife Diane, he co-edited freethinker and retired FBI agent Oliver G. Halle’s Taking the Harder Right. With his son, Michael Edward Buckner, he co-edited Quotations That Support the Separation of Church and State (1995). He has written chapters in a number of books, as well as many reviews, essays, blog contributions, and letters to the editor, in the US, India, the UK, and elsewhere.

Now retired, Buckner has served as executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism (2001-2003) and as president of American Atheists (2008-2010).

In addition to writing, Buckner has debated and spoken all over the United States and in the United Kingdom about freethought and secular humanism, often about the Treaty of Tripoli and about secularism. Buckner and his son, Michael, wrote In Freedom We Trust: An Atheist Guide to Religious Liberty, published by Prometheus Books in December 2012.

Professor Tom Pynn:

Tom Pynn is Senior Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Studies at KSU. He holds an M.A. in Literature and an M.A. in Philosophy both granted by the University of Mississippi in 1992. His thesis in Literature is about the themes of Love, Marriage and Place in the poetry and non-fiction essays of Wendell Berry. His thesis in Philosophy is entitled, “Merleau-Ponty’s Theory of Perception.” His interests in Literature include post WWII American poetry, especially the writings of the Beats; the novels of Henry Miller; and ancient Chinese and Japanese poetry. In philosophy his interests include phenomenology and existentialism, aesthetics, Classical Indian philosophy (Yoga and Vedanta), Daoism, Buddhism, cross-cultural philosophy, and indigenous philosophy (especially North America). Recent publications include both essays and book review essays on such topics as Jack Kerouac’s Buddhism, yoga philosophy, Zen ethics in leadership, the ethical implications of karma, and Bob Kaufman’s aesthetics. He is currently an associate editor of the Southeastern Review of Asian Studies. Tom has been active in various forms of peace work for more than twenty years. Some of his activities include, founder of the Athens, Ga. chapter of Pax Christi, activist for Greenpeace, U.S.A., activist on the Nuclear-Free Athens Campaign, Board Member of Alternative in Action!, and Green Party organizer and activist. He is currently the faculty advisor to the KSU Peace and Justice Coalition. Tom’s creative interests include composing poetry, playing music, hiking, and gardening. In his spare time he collapses.