The Veritas Forum

It’s the one universal on which we all agree: everyone dies. How we deal with death determines much of what we spend our lives trying to accomplish and become. At a Veritas Forum from Yale, theologian N.T. Wright (University of St. Andrews) and philosopher Shelly Kagan (Yale) discuss the reality of death and whether we should hope for something beyond it. • 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 lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

In January, The Veritas Forum convened 170 student writers to learn from leading Christian scholars and to write essays for their campus publications, and we devoted one writing track to the legacy of philosopher Alvin Plantinga. Widely credited with making belief in God credible in academic philosophy, Plantinga continues to influence the next generation of Christian thinkers—from philosophers to plumbers. In this podcast episode, we discuss the influence of Plantinga's life and thought with Notre Dame’s Meghan Sullivan. • 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 lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

Before we believe that Christianity is true, philosopher Greg Ganssle thinks that we should want it to be true. He says that our longings for beauty, goodness, and freedom, are “at home in the Christian story.” At a Veritas Forum from the University of California-Irvine, Ganssle examines how our desire to flourish can lead us to faith in Jesus. • 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 lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

We have computers in our pockets and we can 3-D print a house. But as our technology advances, are we better off? At a Veritas Forum from Caltech, Alana Ackerson, finance leader and entrepreneur, and Christopher Hitchcock, professor of philosophy at Caltech, explore the relationship between human progress, our technological capacity, and the role of religion in shaping conversations about the future. • 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 lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

For the religious believer and atheist alike, the problem of evil is troubling. If there is a God, why does he allow evil? And if there isn’t a God, how we can say that anything is evil? At a Veritas Forum from Harvard Medical School, Oxford Mathematician John Lennox addresses one of the most challenging human questions: Why do we suffer? • 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 lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

The Bible is the bestselling book of all time, but is it true? During a Veritas Forum at Harvard, New Testament scholar and theologian N.T. Wright and Harvard philosophy professor Sean Kelly, discuss history's most influential book. • 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 lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

Through the Veritas Forum at Harvard, we were fortunate enough to host Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Larry Nasser of sexual abuse. Her story is one of immense courage, guided by an unwavering pursuit of justice and a hope in a God that will one day make all things right. • 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 lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

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 a Veritas Forum from Berkeley last week, Guinness offers a vision of truth that leads to real freedom. • 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 lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

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, Volf explores the relationship between God, religion, and violence. • 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 lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

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 down with Christian to discuss his latest book, "The Character Gap," and what we can do to become better people. • 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 lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!