The Veritas Forum

In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries named ‘post-truth’ the international word of the year, leading the Washington Post to declare that “truth is dead.” But, as author and social critic Os Guinness argues, “Without truth, there is no freedom." Guinness sees the fallout of the ‘post-truth’ era as the consequence of seeking freedom with no strings attached. At...

From the Crusades to the conflicts in Northern Ireland, Christianity’s relationship to violence is troubling. How can we make sense of Jesus's call to "love your enemies” when so much violence has been committed in his name? Yale theologian Miroslav Volf believes that blaming religion for violence ignores the larger problem. At a Veritas Forum from UC Santa Barbara,...

The data says we’re lying to each other about a third of the time. Philosopher Christian Miller (Wake Forest) thinks that number is actually higher. After years of researching hundreds of psychological studies that put people’s character to the test, Christian concluded that a gap exists between how good we should be and how good we actually are. On our latest podcast episode, we sit d...

Some say that claiming to know God or truth is too exclusive in a pluralistic society and too divisive in a free democratic one. People who hold such exclusive beliefs, they say, tend to impose them on others and oppress those who disagree. How can Christians, then, justify their faith that says Jesus is the one true way to God? Can they fit in and operate in a free society? Some say Christianity...

Are we more than our biology? At a Veritas Forum from Cornell, Praveen Sethupathy (Cornell) and Roald Hoffmann (Cornell) explore how genetics influences how we think about personal identity and what, if anything, is beyond the scope of science. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, y...

As the wounds of racial injustice—old and new—continue to grip America, where can we find healing? At a Veritas Forum from Claremont, Andra Gillespie (Emory), and Sumun Pendakur (USC) discuss the intersection of race, faith, and reconciliation. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each m...

When Mary Poplin met Mother Teresa, Poplin was looking to understand Mother Teresa’s work in purely secular terms. But the life of this mystifying nun refused such categorization. When Poplin returned from India, she realized that a secular telling of Mother Teresa’s story would radically distort the reality of her life. At a Veritas Forum from the University of Michigan, Poplin recoun...

The project of pluralism promises inclusiveness, tolerance, and peace, but it rarely satisfies. At a Veritas Forum from Harvard, Diana Eck (Harvard) and Vinoth Ramachandra (IFES) discuss the nature of pluralism and the challenges that keep us from genuine dialogue. How can we maintain our deepest core beliefs while also engaging with the beliefs of others? • Please like, share, subscribe to,...

As we continue to wrestle with the reality of a changing climate, Wendell Berry’s invocation—”Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts”—is a great challenge. At a Veritas Forum in 2016, Dorothy Boorse (Gordon College) and John Nolt (University of Tennessee) discussed the nature of climate change and the hope that can guide our action. • Please lik...

Beethoven’s presence and music still looms in our modern imagination, but we rarely think about the man behind the music. Mia Chung, a world-renowned pianist at the Curtis Institute, says that, in order to appreciate Beethoven’s genius, we must examine his relationship with suffering and faith. In this performance-presentation from Veritas at the University of Michigan, Chung explores...

In the modern age, skepticism is often equated with intelligence. But is there room for belief in the contemporary mind? At a Veritas Forum from Claremont, the late philosopher Dallas Willard discusses both the dangers and benefits of doubt in our society. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each m...

The line between science fiction and reality grows increasingly thin as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prominent. While some fear an impending robot apocalypse, others wonder what this new technology means for everyday life. At a recent Veritas Forum at Brown University, Rosalind Picard (MIT) and Michael Littman (Brown) discussed the implications of AI for our understanding of what it m...

Dr. Francis Collins, world-renowned geneticist, physician, and Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is uniquely positioned at the intersection of science and faith. Formerly an atheist, his New York Times best-selling book, The Language of God, chronicles his conversion to Christianity and its impact on his scientific practice. In this talk, given at a Veritas Forum at Caltech, Col...

What do you want? Our answer to this question, argues author and philosopher James K.A. Smith (Calvin), reveals the habits that shape our lives. Yet we often remain unaware of those habits and how they motivate us. In this talk, from a recent Veritas Forum at the University of Michigan, Smith helps us to recognize the structure of desire and reorient its place within the human person. • Pleas...

This October, over 1,000 students and community members packed out Shannon Hall at the University of Wisconsin in Madison to hear John Lennox (Oxford) and Larry Shapiro (UW-Madison) discuss, "Is There Truth Beyond Science?” In a conversation that featured as much humor as sincerity, Lennox and Shapiro fostered a unique space for honest dialogue and reflection, even in places of disagree...

In 2011, The Veritas Forum at Caltech hosted Satyan Devadoss, who, at the time, was an associate professor of math at Williams College. Devadoss talks about String Theory the way most people talk about their favorite piece of art. In the numbers and symbols of mathematical equations, he experiences beauty, unity, and wonder. In our post-Enlightenment world, we forget that the beauty in Michelangel...

Earlier this year, we hosted New Testament theologian N.T. Wright in dialogue with professor of philosophy Heidi Lene Maibom at the Veritas Forum at the University of Cincinnati. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, you'll receive thoughtful content about the ideas that shape our liv...

Madeleine L'Engle, award-winning author of A Wrinkle in Time, defines "fantasy" as that which "pushes us, opens us, makes us aware of who we are and who the other is.” In this recording from 1998 at a Veritas Forum at UC Santa Barbara, L’Engle draws from her experiences in school, church, and life to explore the relationship between fantasy and truth. • Please l...

Last Spring, Ian Hutchinson (MIT) and Robert Lue (Harvard) sat down at Harvard’s Science Center with Anne Harrington (Harvard) to discuss miracles. Do they happen? Does scientific thinking undermine belief in them? What does the existence (or non-existence) of miracles mean for the larger discussion on science and faith? • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank...

Can Christians and Muslims get along in America? That’s the question we asked Christian intellectual and Princeton law professor Robert George and Islamic scholar and Zaytuna College president Shaykh Hamza Yusuf at the San Francisco Jazz Center this Spring. George and Yusef, who are good friends, believe that unity across religious backgrounds is not only possible but also necessary, and the...

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans teach the most popular class at Stanford, "Designing Your Life." It helps students reframe the question, "How do I live a meaningful life?" Burnett, an atheist, and Evans, a Christian, believe the key to a joyful and fulfilling life starts with thinking like a designer. At a recent Veritas Forum, Burnett and Evans, co-authors of a New York Times...

This week on The Veritas Forum podcast we’re featuring a conversation with Rosalind Picard, an internationally-recognized researcher in affective computing. Rosalind is the founder and director of the affective computing group at MIT, a co-founder of Affectiva, Inc., a co-director of the MIT Autism and Communication Technology Initiative, and the author of over two hundred peer-reviewed scie...

This week on The Veritas Forum podcast we’re featuring a conversation with Ian Hutchinson, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT. A powerful advocate for the compatibility of scientific inquiry and religious belief, Ian has been a featured speaker at Veritas Forums since we began in 1992. In this interview with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, Ian discusses his work in...

This week on The Veritas Forum podcast, we’re featuring a conversation with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat and Nancy Hill, a developmental psychologist and professor of Education at Harvard. Nancy’s work focuses on the relationship between adolescents and their parents, and specifically, how the beliefs of adolescents are shaped by their parents’ beliefs. In this conversat...

In 2015, during the fallout of Ferguson, three Black women took the stage at UC Berkley to discuss faith, race and non-violence. Andra Gillespie, associate professor of political science at Emory, Na’ilah Suad Nasir, professor in the graduate school of education at UC Berkley, and Claudia May, who, at the time of this Forum, was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of African American Studie...