War of the Worldviews presents a spectrum of belief systems
Jan 31, 2008 - 12:11 PM
By Josie Newman
DURHAM -- When veteran broadcaster and journalist Michael Coren ascends the stage of All Saints Catholic Secondary School in Whitby on Feb. 22, he'll be ready for battle.
The battle won't be fought with swords and scabbards, but in an exchange of ideas and beliefs. Dubbed War of the Worldviews, the four debates Mr. Coren will moderate over two days will more likely feature a volley of heated exchanges over participants' religious convictions.
A promising panel of theological and intellectual experts will take centre stage, including University of Ontario Institute of Technology humanism professor Christopher DiCarlo; Frank Sherwin, a Christian biologist from Colorado who works for the Institute for Creation Research; Christian radio show host and author Dave Hunt; Hindu leader and cardiologist Budhendranauth Doobay; and Shabir Alley, an Imam and president of the Islamic Information and Dawah Centre International in Toronto.
Working behind the scenes, yet on the psychological frontlines, will be Paul MacGregor, an Ajax resident who started organizing similar religious debates four years ago because he wants to "defend the Bible scientifically, archeological, and textually.
"The reason we've adopted this format is because we want people to come out, hear the speakers and decide for themselves. This is an event for people to use their sense of reason, it's to examine the evidence," he said in a recent interview.
Although he holds no theological degree or title, Mr. MacGregor makes up for it in his degree of moxy. An auto worker and father of four who is convinced that Jesus Christ is the only truth, he single-handedly organized and moderated his first creationism versus evolution conference in 2005 at Sinclair Secondary School in Whitby. It went so well that two more conferences followed suit there in 2006 and 2007.
In 2006, Pickering resident Thomas Fairfull heard Mr. MacGregor speak at the conference after receiving a promotional flyer on his windshield.
"What he said was so inspiring that I asked him if I could help organize and pay for the following year's conference. He said yes and we've worked together ever since.
"We want to appeal to a broad range of people. That's why the debates, even the website, are called Decide for Yourself. We want to present things in an intelligent, non-threatening manner. We asked Michael Coren to host it because he's so well-known," said Mr. Fairfull.
Mr. MacGregor procured all the speakers although he knew none of them previously.
"I just asked around, asked Hindus who their best Hindu speaker is, looked on the Humanist website and found out who the best Humanist speaker is and so on," he said.
Decide for Yourself Debates start Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. and run at noon, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on the following day. See www.decideforyourself.net for more details.
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