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Andy Welfle
neuralgourmet
Is IPFW student org Reality 101 misleading?
Posted by Andy Welfle on November 3, 2008
I recently took a Continuing Studies class at IPFW, Fort Wayne’s local university. I graduated in 2006, but it seems like so much has changed since then. As I was walking to my class, I found an over-Photoshopped flyer from a group called “Reality 101″, advertising a gathering to watch a televised debate of Richard Dawkins debating John Lennox (check that out here). The flyer features a large-print “THE GOD DELUSION” in front of a strange typographical design, with the word “Truth” repeated multiple times. Here’s a scan of the flyer.
Flyer advertising the Reality 101 event, found at IPFW
The flyer mentions that an open discussion will follow. They give a web address, and, intrigued, I visited it. All the while, I was thinking, “Wow, there wasn’t any atheist or skeptics group at IPFW when I went there…”
So I followed the web address, reality101.ning.com. What was the first thing I found? The also-over-Photoshopped page says “Reality 101 is a campus ministry of Calvary Chapel of Fort Wayne, IN. Our goal is to discover logical answers to life’s deepest questions.*”
I feel like Reality 101 might be misleading to interested parties. I can only imagine attending this event, and then in the “open discussion” after, gatting ambushed with Calvary Temple Rapture nuts.
Any readers attend this event or other Reality 101 events? I’m interested to see how it went. Let me know in the comments below.
*If they really are looking for “logical answers to life’s deepest questions,” I fear they would soon realize that faith, by definition, would stand in their way.
November 3, 2008 at 10:04 pm
I find it ironic but typical that a group of people whose religion supposedly teaches them to deal with people honestly and to be open about their beliefs will mislead and deceive people to try to get them to attend an event where, as you suggest, they may try to “ambush” and/or convert anyone who disagrees with them. Now maybe I’m wrong and they will actually have a balanced, fair debate, but given their deceptive flier, I’d guess the chances of that are slim. Contrast their ad with the ones our own group has produced for our events: no attempt to mislead, no hiding the name of the organization, no scheming to attract people from the other side. They are welcome to attend, but we want them to know exactly who’s sponsoring the event and what it’s really about.
November 3, 2008 at 10:57 pm
8-( *Feeling ambushed*
November 3, 2008 at 11:22 pm
I’m a student at IPFW and I saw another flyer a couple of weeks ago from ‘reality 101′ advertising an open discussion of god’s existence. After discovering that the group was actually campus ministy, I decided not to go. I was considering going to the god delusion ‘debate’ out of curiousity to see what they would do and to support Dawkins but i overslept that day.. :/ If they have another event I might check it out.
November 4, 2008 at 9:45 am
I would be happy to go…
Although, I have a feeling that some feelings might get hurt.
November 7, 2008 at 7:44 pm
This might make a very interesting “field trip” for us to take sometime.
November 7, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Looks like reality 101 is putting on another discussion on 11/11 called ‘Can the bible be trusted?’ There’s free pizza! That must be how they hook people in.
November 21, 2008 at 10:21 am
I think it’d be fun to get a group of atheist/agnostic rationalists together and crash their party… who knows, we might win a few people over who may be there on the fence
If we’re really lucky, they ask us to never come back