The Socratic Club at OSU will sponsor a debate on the topic, “Have Science and Technology Made God Irrelevant?” on Monday, April 9, in Gilfillan Auditorium on the OSU campus, at 7 p.m. The speakers are Kenneth Funk (Engineering) and Mark Walsh (Mathematics).
We live in a world where the technology exists to banish poverty and dramatically improve the lives of all. Yet for so many, our daily burdens are becoming heavier, while technology itself often seems to be an enemy. How do we make sense of this extraordinary contradiction?
Do we still need God or do our advances in science and technology make God obsolete? Can we rely solely on the power of our own ideas to prevail against health problems and mortality, relationship difficulties, social and political issues, and the other quandaries we now and will face, without help “from above”? With science and technology, can and should we finally take full charge of our own destiny? Do we need the intervention of God in our daily lives? Or, does a materialist conception of history give us a better chance for making sense of our world? Our two speakers will engage in spirited debate. Kenneth Funk will advocate a Christian perspective, while Mark Walsh will argue from a materialist point of view.
Kenneth Funk is Associate Professor of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at OSU. He received his PhD from The Ohio State University. He specializes in human factors engineering with a focus on human factors in aviation, health care, and systems engineering, as well as on engineering psychology and philosophy of technology.
Mark Walsh is a visiting Assistant Professor in the Mathematics Department at OSU. He is a native of Ireland who received his PhD at the University of Oregon. His research deals with geometry and topology, with particular interest in shapes of high dimension and how this applies to our understanding of the shape of the universe.
The debate is free and open to the public. For more information visit the OSU Socratic Club online at https://oregonstate.edu/groups/socratic/
The OSU Socratic is celebrating its tenth anniversary as a student organization at Oregon State. It sponsors 5-6 debates each year on subjects at the intersection of the Christian faith and contemporary culture. All debates are filmed and more than 20 of them are available on You Tube. See https://www.youtube.com/user/orstsocraticclub
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