Center for Inquiry | Michigan

Panel Discussion: God — what is it good for?

Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Women's City Club, 254 E. Fulton, Grand Rapids, MI, View Map

Description

The Second of two panel discussion events between members of CFI Michigan and Christ Community Church on whether religious language and ritual should be revised and reclaimed by freethinkers, or be abandoned altogether.

Conceived by Ian Lawton, Executive Minister of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, and Jeff Seaver, CFI Michigan’s Executive Director. It occurred to them that both of the communities they help lead have at their core a naturalistic worldview, but are in other respects very different.

Why does one community of naturalists feel comfortable with “God talk” and the other does not? Is there an underlying difference in how each community sees themselves and their world – or just a difference in whether religious language is considered acceptable for expressing our relation to the natural world. When it comes to the idea of God – What is it good for?

As a result it was decided to host a dual panel discussion to address this topic head on. We hope that you will be able to join us at one or both of these panel discussions and hear members of each community share their perspectives on the idea of God, the use of religious/ spiritual language in their lives and what terms they use to define themselves and their values.

Both panel discussions will be moderated by Fred Stella, President of the Interfaith Dialogue Association.
C3/CCC Panelists: Ian Lawton, Alison Rockey and Howard Van Till.
CFI Michigan Panelists: Jeff Seaver, Jeremy Beahan, Bob Collins (CCC Panel on 21st) and Sherron Collins (CFI Panel on 24th).

About the Moderator and Panelists

Fred Stella

Panel Moderator and President, Interfaith Dialogue Association
Fred Stella was born, raised and educated in Detroit. He graduated the University of Detroit in 1977 with a degree in Communication Studies. His interest in world religions dates back at least that far. Fred became involved with Interfaith Dialogue Association by joining one of its long standing discussion groups in 1994. Shortly after, he was elected to the IDA board of directors. After a brief stint as vice president, his tenure as president began. During this time Fred has lectured extensively on matters of faith, spirituality and inter-religious cooperation. In 2005 he completed a 30 city tour of India where he spoke on meeting aggressive evangelical conversion campaigns with nonviolent resistance. Much of Fred’s work with IDA consists in producing the weekly radio program, Common Threads, which is aired on the NPR affiliate in Grand Rapids, WGVU. For over a dozen years this show has offered a forum for authors, clergy and lay people alike, as the various world wisdom traditions are explored. He also teaches Yoga at Muskegon Community College and is an entertainment broker and actor. He has contributed articles & essays to several publications over the years. He lectures locally at churches, schools & civic organizations as well.

Ian Lawton

Executive Minister, Christ Community Church
Ian Lawton moved to the U.S. in 2004 with his family to accept the position of executive minister at C3/ CCC. Ian oversees the CCC ministry and leads the community’s theological exploration. Ian was ordained in Sydney, Australia, in 1994 (one of the most conservative Anglican dioceses in the world). In seminary, Ian studied Calvinism by day, and Liberation Theology by night and managed to find some time in between for sports and surfing. It was Liberation Theology that resonated more deeply with Ian’s experience of life and his work. Ian went on to complete a second degree in sociology, so that his theological journey would always run close to an engagement with the world around him. In 2000, Ian left Sydney because of irreconcilable theological differences and moved to Auckland, New Zealand, where he became the Vicar of St. Matthew in the City. His world opened up during these four years through exposure to Maori language and culture, and being involved in a stimulating liberal community. Moving to the U.S. has continued to broaden Ian’s sense of sacred to an embrace of all things. Ian has taken up meditation and Zen training. Ian is now happy to call himself a progressive Christian. Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory has helped to reconcile the huge shifts in him and also in the history of Christianity.

Allison Rockey

Director, Outreach and Communications Ministry, Christ Community Church
Allison Rockey graduated from Hope College in Holland, Michigan with a degree in Religion in 2004. It was during her time at Hope that Allison started questioning a literal interpretation of the Bible, began exploring the theological position of pluralism and began examining the cultural implications that a pluralistic society brings. Her current area of study is Integral Theory, focusing on the work of Ken Wilber. Allison began her employment at Christ Community Church in 2004 and now serves as Director of Communications. In May of 2008, Allison graduated from Union Yoga Teacher Training Program as a certified yoga teacher and offers gentle vinyasa yoga at Lakeshore Yoga Center in Grand Haven.

Howard Van Till

Member, Christ Community Church and Member, CFI Michigan
Howard J. Van Till is Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at Calvin College, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After graduating from Calvin College in 1960, he earned his Ph.D. in physics from Michigan State University in 1965. His research experience includes both solid-state physics and millimeter-wave astronomy. His current interests include the assessment of belief systems and the processes by which we construct them. Professor Van Till is a Founding Member of the International Society for Science and Religion, has served on the Executive Council of the American Scientific Affiliation and the Advisory Board of the John Templeton Foundation, and is a member of the editorial boards of both Science and Christian Belief and Theology and Science.

Jeff Seaver

Executive Director, CFI Michigan
Jeff Seaver has served for 11 years as the Executive Director of Center for Inquiry | Michigan, a nonprofit educational organization that promotes science, reason, and secular values. He is a partner in a local marketing and design firm where he has been for over 15 years, and he has served on the ACLU of Western Michigan board for 8 years. Jeff was a committed, born again Christian for 20 years. His deeply held Christian beliefs led him to study the Bible, philosophy, apologetics, and comparative religion. These studies, motivated by his ardent faith, were ultimately its undoing. He resides in Allendale with Cathy (his wife of 17 years) and their two teenage children.

Jeremy Beahan

Member, CFI Michigan and Producer, Reasonable Doubts Podcast
Fundamentalist raised and educated, Jeremy Beahan graduated from Grace Bible College and Cornerstone University with a dual degree in social studies and religious education. While training for ministry Jeremy underwent a dramatic de-conversion as a culmination to many years of questioning. Today Jeremy works to promote critical thinking and skeptical inquiry in his local community – he has been an active member of the Freethought Association (now CFI Michigan) since 2002. When not hiking on Michigan’s beautiful trails and beaches Jeremy teaches college classes in Philosophy, World Religions, Biblical Literature, Aesthetics, and Critical Thinking at Kendall College of Art and Design/Ferris State University. Jeremy is also a co-host and producer for the Reasonable Doubts podcast providing a skeptical guide to religion with a focus on counter-apologetics.

Bob Collins

Member and Advisory Board, CFI Michigan
Dr. Collins is a psychologist who received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University. He is very proud that the Psychology Department at IU has been renamed the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences which is in full accord with his views of the mind and soul as material realities. He has been a professor at GVSU and the University of Western Australia in Perth, Australia. He still practices professionally over the internet as the author of two treatment manuals and describes the World as his “catchment” area.

Sherron Collins

Member and Volunteer, CFI Michigan
Growing up Presbyterian, as a young adult Sherron realized that reciting the whole of the Apostles Creed was hypocritical. This realization set her off on the journey that brought her to naturalist atheism and CFI. She also attends Fountain Street Church and co-convenes the Exploring Beliefs and Questions discussion group that has led many of its members to CFI. Sherron is the first person in her family to earn a college degree. She received a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry, with minors in Education and German, from Wilmington College, a Quaker school in southwest Ohio. She taught chemistry and math for a year, then retreated back into the ivory tower as a research assistant in a project to establish Boron as a necessary trace element in human nutrition. Marriage and motherhood came next, along with years of experience in the trenches of non-profits. After 11 years of office work Sherron has resumed her career as a volunteer focusing on school libraries, La Leche League, the Spring Lake Heritage Festival, and religious education. She has been accompanied on the journey by her husband Bob for over 44 years, and has been joined by her son Greg, also a CFI member and her daughter Sukie who has gotten stuck at the Unitarian-Universalist level.