Speaker Defends Christianity

In an attempt to return the "Christo et Ecclesiae" the University's original "Veritas" motto, the Graduate School Christian Fellowship launched its first Veritas Forum this week.

Ravi Zacharias, a philosophy scholar and a Christian apologist, drew crowds of more than 350 Thursday and 500 last night to the Law School's Ames Courtroom.

The scholar argued against the logic of atheism and attempted to prove the reasonableness of Christianity and of Jesus' claims to "the exclusivity of truth."

He covered the philosophies of a spectrum of thinkers, emphasizing in particular Frederick Nietzsche's search for the Superman and his "God is dead" statement. Zacharias said Nietzsche rendered moral law and standards of meaning rationally indefensible.

But in an interview after the speech, Zacharias warned of the limitations of using logic to explain the existence of God.

"God has put enough into this world to make faith in him a most reasonable thing. But he has left enough out to make it impossible to live by sheer reason alone," Zacharias said.

Time E. Benson, a second year student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said he was amazed by Zacharias' thoroughness and force.

"I think it's rare the way he approached the whole issue...he's very certain."

Kelly K. Monroe, the forum coordinator for the Graduate School Christian Fellowship, said that the questions of meaning, purpose, and the relevance of Veritas are sometimes discouraged in an academic setting.

"The Harvard Veritas Forum is a grassroots idea in that it is organized by students who still care about defining Truth....It is the trail map of those who founded the college."

The conference will continue today with a series of lectures on Biblical feminism, the interaction between science and religious faith and other topics. The forum will conclude tomorrow with an all-day film festival at Phillips Brooks House.