I am going to be on an interfaith panel talking about “Who Is Jesus? Did He Exist? Did He Rise from the Dead?” at the Rancho Community Church in Temecula, California (31300 Rancho Community Way), on Sunday, May 27 (2012), from 7pm to 9pm. I will represent the doubters-of-all, but joining me will be an Imam and a Rabbi and a Christian pastor working on his doctorate. Child care will be available for parents who want to attend. I believe it’s free, but donations might be asked (and I’d give something for their expenses, since they are going out of their way to bring other faith perspectives into their church and that’s cool).
It might devolve into a debate, it might just be a conversation, I don’t know, but it should be an interesting discussion either way. The sponsor is the Antioch Church community, which usually gives church services or events like this Sunday nights. They seem to be a kind of progressive Christian mission (albeit on the conservative side, reminds me a little of Saved), and this “debate” caps a series they’ve been running on questions about Jesus and faith (check out their Facebook page on this event). They might stump a bit for Jesus at the event, but I’m sure you can handle it.
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Dave Bruemmer
April 7, 2012 at 6:03 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This is gonna be cool. It’s right down the street from my house. One thing I can tell you about Rancho, which if the local megachurch, is during the prop 8 voting they literally had the entire street lined up with people holding signs to get gay marriage banned. They had elementary school and teenage kids out there picketing.
Perhaps my favorite sign some old fool was holding: OPPOSING GAY MARRIAGE = RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. At least he wasn’t trying to pretend his position wasn’t religion-based the way many do. So be aware you are entering hostile territory over here, though I’m sure you’re used to that.
Dave Bruemmer
April 8, 2012 at 12:18 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
It’s being marketed as a debate, so expect the de-evolution and be ready. I’m letting the local atheists know about this and telling them they need to attend.
Dean
April 11, 2012 at 11:35 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Dave, the meeting is taking place at the Rancho Community Church building but the actual church that is presenting this is Antioch. Antioch church just recently invited a Alan Chambers to speak on homosexuality and held a follow up teaching where the main consensus was that in general church congregations should not waste there time protesting movements such as the one that you mentioned as they would just be employing empty morals on people which is not a scripture centered action, emphasizing that they should just focus on caring for individuals themselves. This was followed up by a Live Q/A as is every service this church holds which was bombarded by valuable discussion engendered by regular members of Antioch who were Gay/Lesbian/Agnostic. So for the record Antioch hasn’t participated in any protest that I know of and this doesn’t sound hostile environment to me…
Just wanted to get the facts straight. Either way I’m excited for this debate and I can’t wait to hear Richard and Andrew.
Richard Carrier
April 13, 2012 at 8:34 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Thanks, Dean! I very much appreciate that information.
Neunder
April 8, 2012 at 11:40 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
You might be interested in this CNN Story,
The Jesus debate: Man vs. myth:
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/07/the-jesus-debate-man-vs-myth/?hpt=hp_c2
Richard Carrier
April 8, 2012 at 6:55 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Way ahead of you.
Neunder
April 8, 2012 at 11:50 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Ah, I just read it. I see you were quoted.
I’m sure your readers would like to see you respond to some of the critics in this story. I know I would.
Richard Carrier
April 8, 2012 at 6:58 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Why? They aren’t even responding to anything I’ve said, except things I’ve already answered. And what they do say is just lame (like Evans’ “argument from crying”).