Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA) hosted its fifth annual Faithful Witness Apologetics Conference, October 16-17, which offered students, faculty members, and the public a variety of perspectives on the validity and intellectual desirability of the Christian faith.
The event featured 10 speakers from across the country whose fields range from physics to art to combating spiritual abuse. Through four keynote presentations and six breakout sessions, students explored Christian apologetics—reasoned responses for the doctrines of Christianity—and how faith intersects with contemporary issues and popular culture. The topics included artificial intelligence (AI), The Chronicles of Narnia, God’s relationship with art, imagination in apologetics, and the impact of social media on Christians.
“It’s a special thing we get to do,” said Dr. Paul Gould, associate professor of philosophy of religion and director of the M.A. Philosophy of Religion program and the founder and organizer of the conference. “We get to show how firm we are in these beliefs we hold true.”
Reason and Faith
Dr. Erica W. Carlson, a professor of physics at Purdue University, gave a keynote address regarding her faith crisis as a young woman. Carlson struggled to balance her belief in science with her belief in Scripture. She gave her life to God at age 4 and never wavered in her commitment to building a relationship with Him. However, as she matured and studied the Bible, her mind became riddled with questions her church wasn’t equipped to answer. When Carlson studied physics at the California Institute of Technology, she questioned the Bible’s validity in a world she knew to be governed by the natural laws of science.
“It was one of the glass-shattering moments where I questioned if I really knew anything at all,” Carlson recalled.
Firm Foundation
Her faith crisis was resolved when she found other Christian scholars who offered different perspectives on how science connects with faith. More importantly, she allowed God to reprioritize the foundation of her faith. While Carlson still holds to Scripture’s inerrancy—the belief that every verse in the Bible is free from fault—she realizes that it’s not supposed to be the foundation of her faith. Carlson discovered it should be based on the love of Christ. At a young age, she became caught up in whether the Bible was true that she almost forgot the reason God gifted Scripture to people in the first place.
“Everything in the Bible is true, and the whole point of it is that God loves you,” Carlson said. “The point of Genesis one is not to tell you how God created the earth, it’s to say he created the earth out of love for you.”
Encouraging Questions in Christianity
To help young people navigate similar crises of faith, Carlson encourages local church leaders to be open to questions. Oftentimes, when she talks to atheists, she learns they were once a part of a church but were shut down when they asked questions. As a result, they had similar glass shattering belief experiences. “Questions are good,” Carlson said. “ Curiosity about God is good. They shouldn’t be treated as heretical…There should be spaces in Christianity for people to deepen their understanding of the natural world, themselves, and God at the same time.”
Carlson believes that having more complicated questions about God is a natural occurrence of maturing as a person of faith. The closer we draw to God, the more we have to learn. She hopes that, by changing how Christians approach hard questions, churches can create a safe atmosphere for people to explore their spiritual curiosity.
“There is a place to agree to disagree,” said Carlson regarding Scriptural inerrancy. “The point is that while I believe it, that is not the foundation of my faith, and it shouldn’t be. Our foundation and hope is in the resurrection.”
To learn more about PBA’s degree in apologetics, click here
