From politics to school classrooms and in the daily news, one question continues to rise to the top …

Does science point to a Creator?

The Church Communication Network and Motive Entertainment have

extended an invitation to “Atheism vs. Theism & The Scientific

Evidence for Intelligent Design,” to be broadcast live via satellite

from Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

Valley Fellowship will be hosting this event on

Sunday from 6 p.m.. to 7:45 in the conference room at the church.

Everyone is welcome and the event is free. Some materials will be

provided.

Seekers, skeptics and believers will wrestle with the topic

from both sides, as they consider one of today’s most hotly contested

issues. Featuring a world renowned line up of talent, the debate will

be hosted by actor and writer Ben Stein and moderated by Michael

Cromartie.

Presenting the position that the natural world contains

evidence for a supernatural creator is Jay Richards, noted theologian

and senior fellow with the Discovery Institute. In his book, “The

Privileged Planet,” Richards reveals “astounding findings [that] should

lead any individual to re-evaluate entrenched assumptions about the

universe – and even to reconsider our very purpose on what so many have

dismissed as nothing more than an accident of cosmic evolution.”

Supporting the position of the atheist is Christopher

Hitchens, award-winning writer and author of the book “God is Not

Great” in which he asserts, “There still remain four irreducible

objections to the religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the

origins of man and the cosmos…”

This historic debate offers all an unprecedented opportunity to engage in lively and thoughtful dialogue about issues of faith.

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 a foreign correspondent and travel writer, he

has written from more than 60 countries on all five continents.

Jay W. Richards is research fellow and director of Acton Media

at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Mich. 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.

Debate moderator Michael Cromartie is vice president at the

Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he directs both the Evangelicals

in Civic Life and Religion & the Media programs. He is a senior

adviser to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and a senior

fellow with The Trinity Forum.

Host Ben Stein is a multi-talented journalist,

economist, author, actor and lawyer. Well known for his 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.

Stein 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, Calif.