Two intellectual giants are marshalling their arguments for a knock-down fight at Sydney’s University of Technology this Easter.
UTS will become a battleground for religious belief this Wednesday as the Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth and UTS Faculty of Law lecturer, Ian Ellis-Jones debate the central claim of the Christian faith " "Jesus' resurrection: fact or fiction?'
The debate is being held as part of week long Easter mission at UTS by on-campus Christian group, Credo. Entitled "Easter: Declared, Debated, Celebrated' the week aims to raise awareness of the Christian message amongst tertiary students.
Bishop Forsyth believes Christians should promote debate on the resurrection in the public forum.
"Christians should welcome critical discussion and debate on the resurrection. The claim of the resurrection is what makes the Christian faith. It is our great claim that the crucified Jesus has been raised," he says.
Mr Ellis-Jones, who is also the vice-president of the Humanist Society of NSW, looks forward to engaging with the topic of the resurrection.
"As I see it, the physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ requires proof of three things " the existence of God; the historicity of Christ; and the occurrence of a miracle which presupposes the existence of some supernatural order. I'll be focussing on those three issues."
While the bishop and the lecturer will argue opposing views on the resurrection, they both share similar views on the importance of discussing this issue.
"There is probably no more important issue than whether there is a God and how we should relate to other people," Mr Ellis-Jones says.
"Hopefully this debate will awaken some people to the importance of these issues."
Bishop Forsyth agrees.
"The one thing Ian and I do agree on is that this is an important matter to be discussed. University kids ought to think about something more important than getting a job," Bishop Forsyth says.
"They need to figure out what life is all about, and the resurrection is the crucial answer to that question."
