In the News

Dinesh D'Souza writes in TownHall.com...If you haven't yet seen my Cal Tech debate with atheist Michael Shermer - a debate held December 9 before an audience of more than a thousand - you can watch it at

michaelshermer.com

One point I did make was that the new atheists - people like Richard Dawkins - who use science to promote atheism are in fact an embarrassment to science. They are abusing science for ideological ends.

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Who: Christopher Hitchens (author, God is Not Great) vs. Jay Wesley Richards (author, The Privileged Planet)
Hosted by Ben Stein and Moderated by Michael Cromartie

What: Atheism vs. Theism and the Scientific Evidence of Intelligent Design
When: SUNDAY January 27th - Doors open 2:45 PM -- SHUT @ 3:30 PM -- LIVE Broadcast on CCN Commences 3:55 PM
Where: Dinkelspiel Auditorium
How: Get FREE tickets w/ SUID at White Plaza 12-1 PM Tuesday-Friday or at the Ticket Office

This debate is sponsored by the IDEA Club, The Stanford Review, and Vox Clara: A Journal of Christian Thought at Stanford.

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Christopher Hitchens is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a visiting professor of liberal studies at the New School. He regularly writes for the Atlantic Monthly and Slate, and is the author of numerous books, including Letters to a Young Contrarian and Why Orwell Matters. He was named one of the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" by Foreign Policy and Britain's Prospect. As foreign correspondent and travel writer, he has written from more than sixty countries on all five continents. From 1982-2002, he wrote a column called the "Minority Report" for The Nation. Since 1992, he has been columnist and contributing editor at Vanity Fair and, at different times, Washington editor and columnist for Harper's magazine, American columnist and correspondent for the Spectator, the New Statesman, the Times Literary Supplement, Sunday Today, and the Sunday Correspondent. .

Jay W. Richards is Research Fellow and Director of Acton Media at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy and theology with honors from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was formerly a Teaching Fellow. He also has a Th.M. from Calvin Theological Seminary, and an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. He is the author of many scholarly and popular articles in publications such as the Washington Post, National Review Online, and Washington Times, as well as several books, including The Untamed God and The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery, with astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez. He is executive producer of the documentary, The Call of the Entrepreneur (Acton Media, 2007), and is currently writing The Christian Case for Capitalism (HarperCollins/HarperOne, 2009).

Michael Cromartie (Moderator) is Vice President at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and he directs both the Evangelicals in Civic Life and Religion & the Media programs. On September 20, 2004, Mr. Cromertie was appointed by President George W. Bush to a two-year term on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and elected chairman the following year. He is a senior advisor to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and a senior fellow with The Trinity Forum. He is the host of Radio America's weekly show "Faith and Life"; an adjunct professor at the Reformed Theological Seminary; and an advisory editor of Christianity Today. He is also on the Board of Directors of Mars Hill Audio, and served as an advisor to the PBS documentary series With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Christian Right in America. He is the co-editor, with Richard John Neuhaus, of Piety and Politics.

Ben Stein (Host) is a multi-talented journalist, economist, author, actor and lawyer. Well known for his acting career and signature role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the highly talented Stein graduated with honors from Columbia University and was elected as valedictorian of his Yale Law School graduating class. He has worked as a poverty lawyer in New Haven and Washington, D.C., a trial lawyer in the field of trade regulation at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., and a university adjunct at American University in Washington, D.C., the University of California at Santa Cruz, and Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. In 1973 and 1974, he served as a speech writer to Presidents Nixon and Ford. He has been a columnist and editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal and a syndicated columnist for numerous papers and magazines. He has written and published sixteen books, seven novels and nine nonfiction books.