{"id":58,"date":"2012-07-18T14:09:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T18:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skepticblogs.com\/justinvacula\/2012\/07\/18\/full-audio-and-some-text-from-my-hacs-talk\/"},"modified":"2012-07-18T14:09:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T18:09:00","slug":"full-audio-and-some-text-from-my-hacs-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/2012\/07\/18\/full-audio-and-some-text-from-my-hacs-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Full audio and some text from my HACS talk"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

On July 17 of 2012, I appeared as a special guest for a philosophy class titled “Atheism and the New Atheism” for students at Holy Apostles College and Seminary – an evangelical Catholic university in Connecticut. More details are here<\/a>. I delivered an opening speech and participated in a question and answer session which followed. The entire event lasted one hour and thirteen minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

As promised, the full audio of the event was released and has been made available to the public thanks to Dr. Mahfood. Stream the audio here<\/a> or download the ZIP file here<\/a>. The audio is\u00a0unfortunately\u00a0spotty at points. I may release a re-mastered version of the audio at a later date.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A text version of my speech can be read here:
\nHoly Apostles College and Seminary Atheism and New Atheism Speech<\/a><\/p>\n

Timestamps:
\n(0:00 – 0:25) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Introduction by Dr. Mahfood
\n(0:25 – 0:47) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Opening prayer by Dr. Chervin
\n(0:48 – 1:50) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Introduction of Justin Vacula by Dr. Mahfood
\n(1:50 – 17:50) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Opening speech from Justin Vacula
\n(17:51 – end) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Question and answer session<\/p>\n

Some of the questions and sentiments (paraphrased) in the question and answer session:
\n(18:13) Do you use science to determine what is true and false?
\n(20:33) What good reasons would be sufficient [for you to believe in God]?
\n(23:30) Do you only believe in something when all the contrary arguments have been resolved?
\n(27:06) Is there an objective standard for belief or do you have a personal standard?
\n(29:08) Do you believe something can be universally true?
\n(30:16)\u00a0Are you dogmatically opposed, given your commitment to naturalism, to supernatural explanations?<\/span>
\n(37:20) Would a supernatural experience lead you to belief in God?
\n(39:00) Are you looking for hard evidence to believe in God?
\n(40:52) What about faith?
\n(42:05) Discussion about the problem of natural evil and omni-attributes<\/em>
\n(46:55) Theodicy: This is a fallen world\/God’s goodness was evident, but is no longer<\/span>
\n(49:20) Theodicy: There is a good that\u00a0supersedes\u00a0an evil world. Perhaps suffering leads to good beyond \u00a0 this earth? Perhaps suffering is just a prelude to the afterlife? \u00a0<\/span>
\n(52:00) Theodicy: Evil serves a purpose. We see examples in this world in which suffering is required to achieve certain ends.
\n(54:00) Omni-attributes seem to be a different matter from God existing.<\/em>
\n(55:48) Are you an agnostic?
\n(59:40) Theodicy: Eternal happiness, in light of limited suffering in this world, seems not to be a problem.
\n(1:01:43) What about metaphysical arguments for God’s\u00a0existence?
\n(1:04:00) Your philosophical studies seem to start with the Enlightenment. What about before that?
\n(1:10:45) How do you know that your reason without faith fulfills you?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 17 of 2012, I appeared as a special guest for a philosophy class titled “Atheism and the New Atheism” for students at Holy Apostles College and Seminary – an evangelical Catholic university in Connecticut. More details are here. I delivered an opening speech and participated in a question and answer session which followed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10,30,37,41,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-thinking","category-epistemology","category-my-appearances","category-philosophy","category-problem-of-evil","category-responding-to-arguments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}