Atheist, evangelist to debate God’s existence
By Kelly Ettenborough
The Arizona Republic
Bob Siegel, a Jewish convert to Christianity and an evangelist, won’t prove that God exists. Dan Barker, an evangelical minister and faith healer turned atheist, won’t prove that God does not exist. But in the Easter week debate “Does God Exist?” at Arizona State University in Tempe, the two sides will offer evidence for their points of view, answer questions and let the audience decide.
“In our heart of hearts, we know something is wrong. God can’t be all-knowing and all-powerful and all-good at the same time,” said Barker, also a spokesman for the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wis. “All you have to do is walk into a children’s hospital and you know there isn’t a good God. Parents are praying desperately and the children are in pain and they die.” Countered Siegel: “God doesn’t promise to be a genie in a bottle. God sometimes has his reasons for not answering our prayers. The idea that God could not possibly exist if he doesn’t explain every little thing to us is somewhat arrogant.”
Christian and secular humanist groups are co-sponsoring Wednesday’s debate Siegel and Barker debated once before, in 1986 at the University of California-San Diego, on whether Christianity is true. Neither changed the other person’s mind, but the debate was lively, they said.
“All I ever hope to accomplish in a debate is to let the students hear the facts on both sides and let them believe what is true,” Siegel said. “I think people will find there is much better evidence than they thought.” Siegel lives in San Diego but spends much of his time on the road as a traveling evangelist. From 1977 to 1979, he was the leader of Campus Ambassadors at Arizona State University. He’s started churches and written two books and 14 plays. He has his master’s degree from Denver Conservative Seminary.
Barker renounced his religious beliefs in 1983. He had graduated from Azusa Pacific University with a degree in religion. He was a teenage evangelist and was ordained a minister in 1975. He served as associate pastor at a Quaker church, an Assembly of God church and a charismatic church. According to polls, about 10 percent of Americans say they don’t believe in God. Events like this introduce people to non-believers, said Barker who is embarrassed about his past as a “faith healer.” “The real winner of these debates is the audience, no matter what,” Barker said. “It helps to put a face on atheists. People talk about them, but do they actually meet them? Do they have horns?”
The campus secular humanist society worked with the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix and the Christian groups to plan the debate in a rare collaboration. “People have a lot of misconceptions on both sides,” said Andy Beck, a freshman philosophy major and a member of the Christian group, Campus Ambassadors. “It’s important to get the issue out there, and the debate is a good way to do that.” Susan Sackett, a Scottsdale resident and president of the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix, agrees: “It has given us a chance, especially the students, to have a dialogue going, which is important; and they can each at least see where the other side is coming from.”