Wits University’s Origins Centre to host public God lecture

This landed in my inbox a few days ago:

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
Subject: [Origins-events] Does evolution really threaten religion?

‘Does Evolution really threaten Religion?’ is the question John Ostrowick asks in an Origins Centre public lecture on 11 September.

Ostrowick is a PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town, jointly supervised by the University of Edinburgh, writing on the existence of God. His talk will examine whether life on earth arose as a result of creation by an intelligent force — God perhaps — or whether it arose spontaneously by means of natural processes.

The presentation will cover viewpoints from both sides of the debate, including the currently-fashionable argument from Intelligent Design and Irreducible Complexity. Special attention will be given to claims made in the book of Genesis, with discussion as to whether this is an allegorical book or intended as literal truth. It will also query whether the Theory of Evolution is “just a theory” and if it threatens religion.

Date: Tuesday 11 September 2012
Venue: Origins Centre
Time: 18h00 for 18h30
Cost: R45/R35 Wits students and staff
Bookings essential: [email protected]

Please e-mail your request for seats to [email protected]. If you are a Wits student or Wits staff member, please include your student/staff number. We will then e-mail an invoice to you, which you can pay by eft.

I don’t know much about John Ostrowick but he does seem to have a rather high opinion of himself, as per his self-accorded depiction of “polymath, philosopher and IT specialist.”

It will be interesting to see what account John delivers. What’s equally interesting is what possessed the Origins Centre to host such a talk, which would have been more appropriately hosted by a university’s theology or perhaps a philosophy department.

Edit: Just found this, which paints Ostrowick in a considerably better shade of undecided. He rejects postmodernism (on the grounds that it’s logically self-contradictory, which isn’t per se a novel take) and he likes Victor Stenger’s thinking. So far, so good.

'Luthon64