CfP: SCP Eastern Regional Meeting

Eastern Regional Conference of the Society of Christian Philosophers 

Thursday, September 24th through Saturday, September 26th, 2015, Messiah College

Featuring a debate about the existence of God

Paul Draper (Purdue University)

Robin Collins (Messiah College)

Robin Collins will offer a new argument based on the fine-tuning of the cosmos. He will argue that the universe has been finely tuned to optimize the discoverability of physical laws and entities, which neither random chance, nor the multiverse can explain. Paul Draper will construct a pro tanto case against orthodox theism based on its immodesty and on its poor fit with a variety of known facts about pleasure and pain, love and hate, autonomy and heteronomy, achievement and failure, and virtue and vice. Collins and Draper will each respond to the other’s presentations.

Conference Theme: The Existence of God 

The theme should be interpreted broadly. It includes not only arguments for or against the existence of God, but a variety of other issues including, for example, questions about the nature of existence as it relates to God and the epistemology of theism.

Call for Papers

Submissions exploring any topic of interest to Christian philosophers are welcome, particularly those that relate to the conference theme. Christian and non-Christian philosophers are encouraged to submit papers. Submissions should be 3,000 words or less and prepared for blind review (please send a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file with no identifying ‘marks’). Include a cover letter with your name, institutional affiliation, email address, paper title, and an abstract of 150 words or less. Submissions are due by July 15, 2015. Please send your paper toPhilosophyconference@yahoo.com. If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgement within one week of your submission please re-submit. 

The SCP offers a $500 prize for the best graduate student paper. For a paper to be eligible, it must be submitted by July 15, 2015. The $500 award will be presented publicly at the conference. If you are a graduate student and would like your paper to be considered for the prize, please indicate that you are a graduate student in your submission email.

Thanks to Justin Schieber for the pointer.