Editor’s note: I’ll be attending a faculty colloquium on Wednesday, May 11th with Dr. Plantinga and will try to tweet some of what happens there. Dr. Plantinga also agreed to sit down for an interview with me in which we’ll discuss his new book. I’ll be publishing that interview closer to the date of the book’s release (currently scheduled for October 2011). I’m also planning on doing a full review of the book for Philosophy News.

PFP

Noted Philosopher Alvin Plantinga to Speak at WWU May 10 and 12

Third of Bellingham Lectures in Philosophy and Religion

Contacts: Professor Dan Howard-Snyder, WWU Department of Philosophy, or Tracy Imbach, BLPR administrator, (360) 297-0640 or info@blpr.org

BELLINGHAM – Noted philosopher Alvin Plantinga will give keynote lectures on May 10 and May 12 on the Western Washington University campus as part of the Bellingham Lectures in Philosophy and Religion (BLPR).

Plantinga will provide free lectures at 7 p.m. both days in Arntzen Hall 100.

• On Tuesday, May 10 his theme will be “Religion and Evolution: Where the Conflict Really Lies.”
• On Thursday, May 12 the theme will be “Does Science Show that Miracles Can’t Happen?”

The public is invited and welcome to attend the lectures in person, or to view the lectures via streaming video at: www.blpr.org After each lecture there will be a question and answer time during which questions will be taken from both in-person and online audiences.

Plantinga, professor emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, was described by Time magazine in 1980 as “America’s leading orthodox Protestant philosopher of God.” He is the author of numerous articles and several books, including “God and Other Minds: the Rational Justification of Religious Belief” (Cornell 1967), “God, Freedom and Evil” (Eerdmans 1974),“Warranted Christian Belief” (Oxford 2000) and “Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism” (Oxford 2012). Among many honors, Plantinga is the past president of the American Philosophical Association, Central Division, and the Society of Christian Philosophers, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

“The BLPR arose in response to two visions: first, the vision of President Bruce Shepard for Western more intentionally to be by the people and for the people of the region and, second, the vision of President Barack Obama for our country to practice a more civil discourse over contentious issues. These naturally combine in what the BLPR is about,” said Western Philosophy Professor Dan Howard-Snyder.

The Bellingham Lectures in Philosophy and Religion (BLPR) are designed to facilitate informed, articulate thinking and civil conversation regarding the “Big Questions” present in philosophy, religion and science, and to inspire further study in these areas.

Sponsored by Western Washington University and made possible by a generous grant by the John Templeton Foundation, the BLPR is bringing together academics, students, religious leaders and community members to create an open and inspiring atmosphere in which to discuss topics such as God, Character and Free Will. Lectures are currently scheduled through 2013. The BLPR also is supported by the Western Washington University Foundation through private donations to “Philosophy-BLPR.”